Some claim that “wokeness” (formerly “political correctness) has gone too far so that “you can’t say anything anymore.” As evidence people often offer examples of celebrities who faced some consequences for saying things that seem racist, homophobic or sexist. They also point to trigger warnings, safe spaces and when right wing speakers have been harassed or silenced.
While the moral right of free expression and the legal right of the First Amendment should be protected vigorously, there is the question of whether it is true that one can’t say anything anymore. By this people do not mean that they cannot say what they want; their worry is there could be consequences for what they say.
My view on free expression is unoriginal as it is based on Mill’s principle of harm: a person is free to say what they wish and the only thing that warrants limiting this liberty is to protect others from harm. As I have argued in past essays, merely offensive speech is not harmful in a way that warrants restricting it. But there is a large grey area between expression that should obviously be restricted (such as the infamous yelling of “fire”) and expressions that should not. I am happy to debate about what should be moved one direction or the other, but I adopt a principle of erring on the side of freedom and place the burden of proof on those who would restrict freedom of expression. We should assume that a person has a right to say what they wish unless there is a logically compelling reason why they do not. In fact, I encourage people to express whatever hateful views they might have, that way we know what sort of person they are. That said, I am aware of an obvious problem with my view.
The problem is sorting out whether the harm generated by expression warrants restricting it. As noted above, I hold to a high bar. What is merely offensive, insulting, enraging and so on should not be restricted. My view here is analogous to my view on same sex marriage: some people claim it is deeply offensive to their beliefs but allowing it does them no meaningful harm. It is ironic that the principle I use to defend same sex marriage I also use to defend the expression of people who oppose it on the grounds they find it offensive.
While people should be free to say almost anything, I also agree with another of Mill’s views: he made it clear that while people should be free to do as they wished if they did no harm to others, people should not expect their free expression to be free of all consequences. While racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry are popular in the United States, expressing these views can come with a social cost and consequences. People have been fired for such expressions, which is sometimes a disproportionate punishment. The consequences should be proportional to the offense, which is a basic principle of punishment I stole from John Locke.
While it is just and right to be upset in cases in which the punishment exceeds the misdeed, there is far too much hand wringing and complaining that people face any consequences for expressing racist, sexist, xenophobic or other bigoted views. Expression has always come with consequences; the current anger seems to be mostly because members of advantaged groups sometimes pay a price for saying what they previously were able to get away with. I do agree that the consequences should be proportional. For example, someone who made one racist tweet years ago should not be punished today if they have done nothing similar recently. But for someone to be outraged they cannot say racist, sexist, or other bigoted things with no consequences is unreasonable. It is like being angry they “can’t say anything” because they are not free to shout obscenities in school, church or at work without suffering some consequences. So, one is free to say anything, but not free of the possible consequences. Just as it has always been.