Video: Why Free Speech Matters

The story of America is, in many ways, the story of The First Amendment. And when it comes to free speech, our standards are different than almost anywhere else in the world.

With a few exceptions — fraud, defamation, incitement, etc. — the First Amendment allows Americans to say pretty much whatever they want. And that makes the U.S. an outlier, even among other liberal democracies, whose freedoms of speech often come with lots of restrictions.

One of the reasons we did this? Good ideas don’t always start out as popular ideas. From abolition to women’s suffrage to the civil rights movement, campaigns for freedom succeeded because people had the right to try to persuade their fellow Americans — even though plenty of politicians tried to stop them.

At first blush, it seems like Americans appreciate this. Polling has shown that 91% of us say free speech is a “very or extremely important” right and another 7% say it’s at least moderately important. Read Full Article »