Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Everyone says they support free speech. Then someone says something they hate — and the principle bends.
A 2024 study found 75% of college students call campus free speech "very important." But 64% would police the same words differently depending on which group is speaking. We say we're universalists; we act like particularists — and the sharpest reasoners are just the best at justifying it.
It isn't one side's problem. FIRE's data show the censorship came mostly from the left (2020–2022), then flipped to the right after October 2023. Same target, opposite side. As FIRE's Greg Lukianoff put it: political actors preach free speech, then reach for the censor's muzzle when it helps their side.
So how do you protect open inquiry when no one can be trusted to judge their own cause? You don't rely on good intentions — you build neutral institutions: rules set before the fight, that hold no matter who's in power. It's an ancient idea (nemo iudex in causa sua — no one should judge their own cause), and Madison built it into Federalist No. 10.
📖 Read the full essay by Joseph Jake Klein on Free the Inquiry: freetheinquiry.com/p/even-free-speech-proponents-violate?r=srn0g
Everyone says they support free speech. Then someone says something they hate — and the principle bends.
A 2024 study found 75% of college students call campus free speech "very important." But 64% would police the same words differently depending on which group is speaking. We say we're universalists; we act like particularists — and the sharpest reasoners are just the best at justifying it.
It isn't one side's problem. FIRE's data show the censorship came mostly from the left (2020–2022), then flipped to the right after October 2023. Same target, opposite side. As FIRE's Greg Lukianoff put it: political actors preach free speech, then reach for the censor's muzzle when it helps their side.
So how do you protect open inquiry when no one can be trusted to judge their own cause? You don't rely on good intentions — you build neutral institutions: rules set before the fight, that hold no matter who's in power. It's an ancient idea (nemo iudex in causa sua — no one should judge their own cause), and Madison built it into Federalist No. 10.
📖 Read the full essay by Joseph Jake Klein on Free the Inquiry: freetheinquiry.com/p/even-free-speech-proponents-violate?r=srn0g
