> There was a time period when the left was for free speech and the right was wanting to constrain it.
When was this - and can you give examples of left and right acting the way you described in the past?
When was this - and can you give examples of left and right acting the way you described in the past?
Other leftist advocates for free speech include Obama, Elenor Roosevelt, and Aryeh Neier are brilliant examples.
My initial point wasn't that it never happened, only to show there were never deliberate, strategic positions on free speech by the left or right- only messy tactical circumstances. Not long before McCarthyism was Japanese internment by a giant of the left: FDR.
Obama famously called someone a "jack-ass" after they exercised their free speech on-stage. He also railed against the Citizens United ruling. Having a binary "for/against free speech" is reductive.
I thought that a strange comment. Disapproving of what one says is clearly not the same as condemning free speech.
Mario's "Operation of the Machine" speech is pretty good.
Also worth noting, often these groups were not quite as egalitarian as they're thought to be. SDS for instance had quite a bit of sexism in its operations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Soci...
I have no position on this debate, I just thought you'd want a little context.