On Saturday, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley shared on X:
Congratulations Mrs. Haley, you’ve just taken a harsh anti-free speech position.
Haley did this in the midst of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict that has inspired not only pro-Palestinian rallies for those suffering there, but also explicit anti-Jew hatred, particularly on American college campuses, in protests that go beyond that longstanding issue.
I find the levels of legitimate anti-Semitism we’re seeing right now to be horrible too, but it’s still part of having free speech.
Imagine the post, ‘“No more federal money for colleges and universities that allow Covid misinformation on campus.” That would be anti-free speech, yet I could envision many supporting such an action.
Imagine sharing “No more federal money for colleges and universities that allow election misinformation on campus.” I bet more than a few Democratic voters would be okay with such a move, and we know from the Twitter Files and other reports that social media giants did censor much of that material regarding former President Donald Trump’s claims about supposed election fraud.
Or how about, “No more federal money for colleges and universities that allow misinformation about Hunter Biden’s laptop on campus.” Twitter explicitly censored that original New York Post story about the first son’s questionable emails and overseas business dealings—but then it turned out after many had dismissed the laptop story as “Russian disinformation,” it was true.
In fact with these three examples, we have watched the Left actually say that the supposed “misinformation” coming from some on the Right was so dangerous, that the government should make social media sites to censor speech the government didn’t like. And they did. And it looks like that’s going to be a major Supreme Court case eventually, so buckle up.
Haley is essentially saying the same thing: that the federal government should have great power to decide what speech is and isn’t allowed. That the state should have increased power over determining the parameters of speech in America.
Wrong.
Free speech means allowing all points of view, even the most horrid.
I would argue especially the most horrid—because I want to know upfront who these people are. In fact, the ACLU’s landmark free speech victory in the late 1970s included defending the speech rights of Nazis, the most anti-Semitic views imaginable.
Not to mention, in wanting to defund public colleges, those schools are bound by the First Amendment. She’s calling to defund such colleges for doing something they must constitutionally do!
With her Saturday post on X, in trying to flex, Haley instead rejected the First Amendment and embraced the Left’s logic for monitoring and censoring Americans’ speech.
Fail.
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