FREE SPEECH BATTLES

Free speech really can be harmful, and its defenders should be willing to say so. Free speech really can be harmful, and its defenders should be willing to say so. CREDIT ILLUSTRATION BY POST TYPOGRAPHY Fitzgerald’s is an Irish pub in Chapel Hill, near the campus of the University of North Carolina, that counts among its attractions cheap burgers, flip-cup tournaments, and jolly music. One night last year, the soundtrack included “Blurred Lines,” the 2013 Robin Thicke hit, in which a night-club Lothario delivers a breathy proposition to a “good girl”: I hate these blurred lines I know you want it I know you want it I know you want it A patron stepped into the d.j. booth to ask that the song be cut short—she later explained that she wanted to “create a safe space,” and that Thicke’s lyrics evoked threats of sexual violence. The d.j. rebuffed her, and in the days that followed she and her allies took to social media to voice their dissatisfaction, suggesting that the pub was promoting “rape culture.” Before long, Fitzgerald’s conceded defeat, apologizing to the patron on Facebook and promising that “Blurred Lines” would not be played there again and that the offending d.j. would never be invited back.

 “Is this the type of country we want to live in?” That is the question posed by Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson, a pair of waggish conservative commentators, as they ponder the fate of the d.j. who got fired for playing “Blurred Lines.” They are the authors of a new book titled “End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun).”

 Half a century ago, the defense of free speech was closely identified with groups like the Free Speech Movement, a confederation of activists who came together at the University of California, Berkeley, after a student was arrested for setting up a table of civil-rights literature, in defiance of anti-solicitation rules. Defending free speech meant defending Lenny Bruce and Abbie Hoffman, and, later, Larry Flynt, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the 2 Live Crew. In a 1990 public-service announcement, Madonna, wearing red lingerie and an American flag, delivered a civics lesson, in verse: “Dr. King, Malcolm X / Freedom of speech is as good as sex.” She was urging young people to vote, in partnership with Rock the Vote, whose slogan was “Censorship is Un-American.”

 THE NEW YORKER 
The Hell You Say 
The new battles over free speech are fierce, but who is censoring whom? 
 BY KELEFA SANNEH