The freedom of speech is today threatened in the West to a degree not seen since the nineteenth-century classical liberals battled the censorious police states of the old conservative regimes.
The free-market liberals largely won that battle, yet everywhere that a ruling class knows it is both unpopular and outnumbered it will attempt to silence free speech.
A common argument used by those who cling to illegitimate power is the claim that free speech will encourage radicalism and fanaticism. By this thinking free speech can not be tolerated because it would encourage violence and contempt for the supposed rule of law. Speech that counters the approved narrative is dismissed as misinformation or as an outright incitement.
This was true during the absolutist regimes of the seventeenth century, under Napoleon’s police state, and in the Austrian Empire prior to 1848. The ruling class insisted that free speech could not be tolerated because, it was claimed, if people were allowed to come to their own conclusions, they will turn against the state.
Thus, censorship is always an indicator of a lack of regime legitimacy, and it’s why the current federal regime in the United States is now expending so much energy accusing dissidents and detractors of spreading “misinformation.” […]
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Author: Mises
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