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How free speech is under attack in the U.S.
CBS News ^ | February 20, 2022

Posted on 02/20/2022 11:07:07 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

When someone says something we disagree with, should we shut them up? In 1927, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis had an answer: "The remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."

Well, in that case, the internet should have solved everything, notes correspondent David Pogue – it's nothing but more speech. And yet lately, the news is full of stories about people trying to limit other people's expression.

The free-speech erosion is even happening in schools. Since January last year, according to PEN America, Republican lawmakers have introduced more than 150 state laws that would restrict how teachers can discuss race, sexual orientation, and gender identity in the classroom.

Jennifer Given, who teaches high-school history in Hollis, New Hampshire, said of the laws, "It's about making up false narratives to further a political goal of your own.

"It's a really scary time to be a teacher," she told Pogue. "We're self-censoring, We are absolutely avoiding certain things and ideas in an effort to stay within the lines."

In New Hampshire, a new law limits what teachers can say about racism and sexism – and a conservative group is offering a $500 bounty to anyone who turns in a teacher who violates it.

Given said, "The ghost of Senator McCarthy is alive and well in some of our state house hallways."

Pogue asked, "What would happen to you if you did step afoul of this law?"

"That can result in the loss of your license," she replied. "And so, I would not only be unemployable at my school, but I would be unemployable anywhere."

"But what I don't understand is, this is New Hampshire, whose motto is, 'Live Free or Die'!"

"Yeah, yeah," Given laughed. "There's a lot of emphasis on the 'or die' part of late!"

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; civilliberties; civilrights; crt; crtcultureraceschool; culture; dissent; education; firstamendment; freespeech; ismellbs; penamerica; race; schools; teachers; viktoryavilk
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1 posted on 02/20/2022 11:07:08 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Utterly false logic, of course.

Teachers have a captive audience.


2 posted on 02/20/2022 11:08:57 AM PST by TheConservator (Beware the tyranny of the woke mob. There has never been a greater threat to liberty.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Coming from See BS of all places.

The MSM knows all about stifiling free speech.


3 posted on 02/20/2022 11:11:20 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith….)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
How free speech is under attack in the U.S.

Rhetorical question? /s

4 posted on 02/20/2022 11:11:52 AM PST by Don Corleone (leave the gun, take the canolis)
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To: TheConservator

> Teachers have a captive audience.

And their audience is underage.


5 posted on 02/20/2022 11:12:53 AM PST by Westbrook
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

How did civilization make it this far..and quite successfully..in free countries..without tranny appreciation lectures and allowing he/shes to shower with little girls?


6 posted on 02/20/2022 11:16:30 AM PST by Leep (Freedom: "What's the big deal" -joe biden)
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To: metmom

Yeah, this is a pantload of an article.


7 posted on 02/20/2022 11:17:10 AM PST by sauropod (Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. Life is risk, your highness.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Typical of CBS. Use selective parts of laws to advance an agenda. It’s not that race, etc., can’t be taught, it’s when there’s a political bent to what is being taught. CRT, the main focus of the laws written, are very one sided that leaves no room for rebuttal. Plus, Students don’t know enough history to even begin to question the BS. It therefore leaves it to the outraged parents to push the state to require balance.


8 posted on 02/20/2022 11:17:54 AM PST by Howindependent (A Liberal has no concept of reality.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

They are only concerned with speech they think should be allowed, not free speech. I thought it was weird that CBS would be taking up this topic, so I knew there had to be a catch.


9 posted on 02/20/2022 11:19:39 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
For the preservation of free speech we have:

BULLETS


10 posted on 02/20/2022 11:21:49 AM PST by progunner (no compromise)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
What a joke. Teachers are not acting as private citizens in the classroom -- they are acting as employees and agents of the state. The idea that free speech encompasses them being able to say whatever they want to students at taxpayer expense is a complete joke. Would the left feel the same if a teacher was singing the praises of the KKK in classrooms??

Or to put it in a way the left may understand, teachers should be no more free to say whatever they want in the classroom to students than cops should be to say whatever they want to members of the public when they are on duty.

11 posted on 02/20/2022 11:22:48 AM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin ( .)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
After years of cancelling and censoring speech, the left is now claiming that censorship is mainly coming from the right, but exercising control over school curricula has never been considered "censorship." It is nothing new for state legislatures to lay down basic requirement for public education.

Establishing school curricula always involves choices of what to include and what to exclude. In recent years, the left has been eliminating many traditional materials from school curricula, but this was never considered "censorship." It's only "censorship" when conservatives push back.
12 posted on 02/20/2022 11:23:48 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s time for Americans to stomp out the Bill of Rights haters. Sick bastards.


13 posted on 02/20/2022 11:24:36 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer ("You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas." - Col. David Crockett to the U.S. Congress.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s outrageous these public employees would equate CRT IN SCHOOLS with protected free speech.

NOBODY is entitled to exercise their protected speech and expect protected employment.

That’s how much the commies in the schools know about civil rights, law and the constitution.

Parents are the employers.


14 posted on 02/20/2022 11:26:15 AM PST by Mariner (War criminal #18)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The free-speech erosion is even happening in schools. Since January last year, according to PEN America, Republican lawmakers have introduced more than 150 state laws that would restrict how teachers can discuss race, sexual orientation, and gender identity in the classroom.

This isn't about free speech. It is limiting perversion. Parents pay taxes. They are the bosses. Teachers can live by the rules of their employers. The government needs to simply shut up and do the work the people want of them. If perverted teachers don't like that, then find a different employer.

15 posted on 02/20/2022 11:30:25 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (Scratch a leftist and you'll find a fascist )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Classrooms aren’t a free speech zone. Schools serve the kids and their tax paying parents who together determine what is taught.


16 posted on 02/20/2022 11:32:21 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

This article start out with such promise. I thought they were going to talk about the massive amount of censorship on Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and the like, employers firing people for donating to causes that are not politically correct, or the obsession on the Left to snuff out Fox News or any alternative media encouraging Incorrect Thoughts.

Instead, they focus on the material presented by schoolteachers, who are paid to perform a particular service, but choose instead to advocate a point of view that was unasked for and unwanted by the taxpayers who pay them.

The right to free speech endowed by our Creator is meant to help liberate from coercion and deception people who are seeking the truth. Propagandizing children who are a captive audience, and particularly susceptible to suggestion and coercion, does the opposite.


17 posted on 02/20/2022 11:36:22 AM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: All

Teachers are paid by tax payers and work for the city. They teach what they are told and not their goofball conspiracy theories. They can spout their nonsense on their free time.


18 posted on 02/20/2022 11:39:56 AM PST by escapefromboston (Free Chauvin)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“a new law limits what teachers can say about racism and sexism”


Ah, see the Devil is in the details. The new law doesn’t restrict teachers and students discussing either race or sex, but rather racism (currently defined as exclusive to white right-wing bigots) and sexism (currently defined as those who disagree with the new-found ‘truth’ that boys can be girls (and vice-versa) if they really believe it enough).


19 posted on 02/20/2022 11:41:34 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

But if they read a verse from the Bible, watch out. That would be hate speech.


20 posted on 02/20/2022 11:49:54 AM PST by grumpygresh (Civil disobedience by non-compliance; jury and state nullification. )
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