When I began following free speech controversies, I was a First Amendment absolutist. Now I’m something less comfortable. I still think free speech is a good idea, certainly better than alternatives I’ve come across, but I’ve learned that everyone has a line that can’t be crossed, a word that sticks in the craw, an image that feels like a kick to the gut. The First Amendment, bless its little heart, always eventually lets us down (self-protection is innate, tolerance an acquired taste), so how can I not be bothered by its limitations?

This is a running log of arguments over free speech – some silly, some funny, some hard -- because free speech is all about argument. Being able to speak our mind makes us feel good and it's essential to real democracy and fairness. Yet, in the end, one of the best reasons to keep our speech rights intact is that we miss them when they’re gone.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

According to a synopsis of a behavioral study in the Boston Globe (1/2/11), researchers found that private punishment for selfishness in a game bred more selfishness among other players than publicly announced punishment. (Xiao, E. & House, D., “Punish in Public,” Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming) In other words, shaming works. Of course, lots of cultures know and practice this, while others rely more on internalized guilt, but it's relevant to our culture's response to speech we don't like. Instead of trying to censor or criminalize bad speech, why not publicly shame people who speak shamefully? I mean, if we believe that words are powerful enough to hurt us, aren't they powerful enough to hurt a malign speaker back? And little speech is more effective than smart, perfectly pointed mockery that exposes jerks.
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