Thomas Berg, James L. Oberstar professor of law and public policy, recently spoke on MPR News about the state of free speech in the current political environment. Berg talks about government pressure, the concept of hate speech and social media’s impact on speech.
From the interview:
Host: So speech and what shape it takes has been a point of tension before probably the nation’s founding, but is there anything in particular about this moment that has your attention?
Berg: One thing that’s particularly relevant today is you see such polarization going on, and the question is whether free speech is a thing that divides us or a thing that can actually bring us together because, you did hear for example, Ted Cruz defending Jimmy Kimmel’s right to say something even though he disagreed with it.
So maybe free speech even though speech divides us, the content of the speech, freedom of speech can actually be a thing that might unite us, as least around the principle that “I disagree with what the other person says, but I defend to the death their right to say it.”
