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October 31, 2024 - 4:15pm
Four-fifths of Americans believe that speech can be a form of violence, according to a new poll.
As part of its quarterly Free Speech Index, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) — in collaboration with YouGov — surveyed 1,000 Americans about their views on free speech. Only 20% completely disagreed with the statement “words can be violence”, and a combined 80% of respondents said the statement at least “slightly” represented their thoughts on the matter. That figure includes 22% who said the statement reflects their thoughts “completely”.
Respondents were pessimistic about the current state of free speech in the US. Slightly more than half at least slightly believed the First Amendment goes too far in protecting free speech, and 64% believe the country is headed in the wrong direction on the issue. Fewer than half said they were not worried at all about losing their jobs as a result of something they’d said, and only 24% believed the right to freedom of speech was very or completely secure.
The survey also found low levels of support for several types of constitutionally protected speech. Only 37% said Americans definitely or probably should have the right to use profanity when speaking with elected officials, and only 55% said Americans should have a right to mock candidates for public office in parody videos. The latter question was inspired by a California law, which was recently blocked in court, banning political “deepfakes”.
These results track with prior polls’ findings that, while Americans strongly support free speech in the abstract, they’re sceptical about the specifics, particularly when it comes to controversial speech. For example, Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz said in a vice-presidential debate at the start of this month that the First Amendment does not protect hate speech or disinformation — a statement US legal precedent does not support.
The idea that speech can constitute violence has flourished at universities in the past decade, and has been received positively in some corners of the media. Since 7 October last year, this has played out in the form of pushback against anti-Israel protesters in the name of combatting antisemitism. For instance, in March, Texas Governor Greg Abbot ordered universities to “update free speech policies to address the sharp rise in antisemitic speech”.
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SubscribeCurious about the demographics of the 1000 polled.
Having been raised in NYC in the 60s and 70s, I can expound for these folks on what violence looks like, a little show and tell maybe?
Very discouraging.
“Words are violence” – A perfect example of a left-wing totalitarian slogan. It’s simple, stupid, self evidently untrue and can be rhythmically chanted over and over again by the placard waving brain-dead.
I’m curious to know the sampling demographic of this poll. 1000 people is really very small and if it was conducted, say, in the environs of Berkeley or Portland then I’m not remotely surprised by the results.