Washington Monthly By
Red-state legislatures clamping down on free speech are horrifying. It’s time for liberals to finally take campus censorship seriously.
Russia recently enacted a law mandating up to 15 years in prison for anyone spreading “false information” about its invasion of Ukraine. It has also prohibited using the term invasion—or war—to describe the conflict, which authorities prefer to call a “special military operation.”
Closer to home, dozens of GOP-led state legislatures are considering or have passed measures limiting school and university instruction about race and sexuality. Most notoriously, Florida’s recently enacted “Don’t Say Gay” law bars classroom discussions of sexuality and gender identity in public primary schools. Several other states have restricted discussions of the 1619 Project and critical race theory, which have become touchstones for Republican censors. Laws increasing penalties for public protestors are proliferating, too.
You would think that these authoritarian impulses would make my fellow liberals cringe. And you would also think that American universities would be more solicitous of dissenting or offensive speech than your average Tallahassee legislator. But you would be wrong. With one infelicitous phrase, a professor’s career can spiral toward destruction. This is not new, but it often feels like it’s getting worse.
