Nerd Analysis: "Shut up and play nice: How the Western world is limiting free speech"

Jonathan Turley, professor of public interest law at George Washington University, has a lengthy editorial on the subject that is more pressing than ever.  Here's a bit of his analysis:

The very right that laid the foundation for Western civilization is increasingly viewed as a nuisance, if not a threat. Whether speech is deemed inflammatory or hateful or discriminatory or simply false, society is denying speech rights in the name of tolerance, enforcing mutual respect through categorical censorship.

Whither Voltaire? As Turley notes elsewhere in his article, part of the whole point of free speech is the right to be offensive: "Of course, free speech is often precisely about pissing off other people — challenging social taboos or political values."  (You may recall that a while back I profiled a history professor who argued that renegades challenging social mores often resulted in more freedoms for everybody. You can read his new-ish book too.)