Free Speech And Why It Matters Quotes

“The First Amendment codifies a ‘negative liberty’; that is to say, it affords citizens the right to freedom from government interference. While this is essential, it means that it is ill-equipped to tackle many of the free speech battles of the digital age. Historically, censorship has been enacted by the state, but with the rise of social media as the de facto public square, big tech corporations now have dominion over the acceptable limits of popular discourse. We are rapidly moving into an age in which unelected plutocrats hold more collective power and influence than any national government, only without any of the democratic accountability. This is why the argument that private companies should be free to discriminate at will is no longer persuasive or viable. They claim to be platforms committed to the principle of free speech, and yet at the same time behave like publishers who seek to enforce limitations on the opinions that may be expressed.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“There will always be those whose instinct inclines towards submission to authority, who are happy to shift beliefs in accordance with the fashion or decrees from above. Orwell called this the 'gramophone mind', content to play the record of the moment whether or not one is in agreement”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“Opposition to free speech never goes away, which is why it must be defended anew in each successive generation. It is a privilege that has been denied to the overwhelming majority of societies in human history.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“If our fear of free speech is that it facilitates the dissemination of bad ideas, then we have pre-emptively decided which ideas are beyond the pale. By doing so, we limit our own capacity to be challenged, and inadvertently reveal our existing prejudices.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“In part, this is the inevitable corollary of years of risk-averse parenting and teaching strategies, as well as the implementation of anti-bullying measures that have a tendency to catastrophise. As Greg Lukianoff argues, ‘People all over the globe are coming to expect emotional and intellectual comfort as though it were a right. This is precisely what you would expect when you train a generation to believe that they have a right not to be offended. Eventually, they stop demanding freedom of speech and start demanding freedom from speech’. An overdiagnostic culture has reframed distress and emotional pain as forms of mental illness, rather than aspects of a healthy human existence. To feel upset is not an aberration; it is a sign that we are alive.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“Yet taking offence is a matter of choice. Marcus Aurelius said it this way: ‘Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“From the late medieval period, students at Oxford and Cambridge were first taught the trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“less than 12 per cent of academic staff are right-leaning, as compared to roughly half of the national population.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“When it comes to calls for censorship, we must always return to the same question: who are to be the censors, and how might they be expected to reach objective decisions on the basis of fundamentally subjective standards? Moreover, if speech has the power to corrupt, how can we be sure that exposure to toxic material will not corrupt the censors?”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“Lived experience’ is what we used to call ‘anecdotal evidence’, a fallacious form of reasoning that has misled many into believing that ours is an essentially oppressive society, overrun by fascists and undergirded by white supremacy. Needless to say, those whose ‘lived experience’ tells them that this worldview bears little resemblance to reality are quickly discounted. It would seem that ‘lived experience’ only matters if it is of the approved kind.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“We should be wary of short-term remedies which may provide the ready-made tools for state-imposed censorship.”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters

“We are left facing that confusing and rare phenomenon: the well-intentioned authoritarian. When those who long for a fairer society are also calling for censorship, we find ourselves stranded on unfamiliar terrain. How are we meant to respond when the people who wish to deprive us of our rights sincerely believe that they are doing so for our own good?”
― Andrew Doyle, Free Speech And Why It Matters