What are the limits of free speech? | Big Think

What are the limits of free speech?
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The free speech debate typically happens at either end of a spectrum — people believe they should be able to say whatever they want, or they believe that certain things (e.g. hate speech) should be censored. Who is right, and who gets to decide?

While they acknowledge that speech is a powerful weapon that can cause infinite good and infinite harm, former ACLU president Nadine Strossen, sociologist Nicholas Christakis, author and skeptic Michael Shermer, and others agree that the principle should be defended for everyone, not just for those who share our views. "I'm not defending the Nazis," says Strossen, "I'm defending a principle that is especially important for those of us who want to have the freedom to raise our voices, to protest the Nazis and everything they stand for."

However, as Strossen and attorney Floyd Abrams point out, there have always been boundaries when it comes to free speech and the First Amendment. There are rules, established by the Supreme Court, meant to ensure that speech is not used to inflict "imminent, specific harm" on others.
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TRANSCRIPT:

NADINE STROSSEN: There is absolutely no doubt that speech can do an infinite amount of harm as well as an infinite amount of good. The reason why censorship is bad is precisely because speech is so powerful. And with that power, we, human beings can exert it, either to great good or to great ill. Now, the question is, what does more harm: Trusting our fellow citizens on the whole to minimize the adverse impact, adverse potential impact of speech or trusting government to pick and choose which potentially dangerous harmful speech should be censored? What we've seen throughout history and around the world, not surprisingly, is whoever exercises censorship power does it in a way to perpetuate their own power and to disproportionately silence the voice of their critics. Freedom of speech really is the bedrock of every other right and really, almost everything positive in our society could not be achieved without that essential bedrock.

NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS: There's a difference between defending an important principle and advocating for the implications of that principle. Let me give you a couple of examples. One example is defending the freedom of expression, even though you disagree with what someone might say when they exercise that freedom. So for example, I might defend your right to speak. I might defend your right to express yourself without fear of losing your job, for example. But I might still not agree with whatever it is that you're going to say. So, you say something I don't like. I don't like it, I respond to it. That's the proper way to handle it. That is to say, we defend the right of people to express themselves even though we acknowledge that the outcome of that might not be what we agree with. So the famous saying of course, is I don't agree with what it is that you want to say but I will defend your right to say it to the death. You test your ideas by arguing with people who disagree with you. And actually, if you're good at it, you even learn to enjoy it.

JOSH LIEB: I think legally, you should be able to say anything you want. Then again, and I think if you're seeing that someone is booked on a TV show that you don't agree with, I think it's not against free speech. You're not violating anyone's free speech to say, I don't wanna be in a program with that person. Or if you're a publishing house that's publishing a book by someone you don't like. There's no violation of free speech, you're not impinging on anyone to say, I don't care to be associated with that person. That's fine. I don't like hate speech laws, I'm vehemently against them. I think they are as anti-American and anti-Democratic as anything can be. And I don't like the idea of criminalizing thought no matter how hateful or stupid the thought is. It sounds like something from 1984. I don't think we make the hate go away by not saying it. You know, I'm basically I'm Lenny Bruce in "Harry Potter," I will say Voldemort's name. It doesn't make Voldemort go away to not say that fucking word. I always curse too much on these things, I'm sorry. You know, the road to hell is paved with great intentions. Like I get it, but it's a bad path for us. And the problem is things are so chaotic now. Things are at such a high tenor. People are so filled with vitriol that it's very possible that, just to get everyone to cool down, this is when this kind of stuff can get through, but that would not be American.

FLOYD ABRAMS: There've...

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