Today, in 2023, free speech is under attack from all sides. By this I mean that the “left” has made it clear that “insults” (especially against Jews, homosexuals, transgenders, blacks, women, any “minorities”, Muslims, etc.) will not be tolerated. Unfortunately, these people believe that every group or individual gets to decide what is or is not an “insult”, with the result being that free speech no longer exists in the West because of this extreme “political correctness”, as I call it.
During the recent covid-19 pandemic and surrounding debates, an older white American, who was simply trying to participate in the debate about how to avoid being infected with covid, threw out the idea that perhaps black Americans had higher rates of covid because they didn’t wash their hands as often as white Americans.
This was just an idea, and democracies work when people are allowed to express their ideas, and debate them. Science works when scientists form a hypothesis around an idea and then test it. Unfortunately, the response from society to this man’s idea was to so demonize him that he was fired from his job and could not find another, was branded the worst sort of racist, and was ostracized and harshly “punished” by society at large. Anyone defending him was also punished and made to appear to be a racist of the worst kind. This man should never have been punished for trying to participate in the debate. Mere words should never cause one to lose one's job.
This is such a good example of what is wrong with America and the world today – censorship rules and freedom of speech, opinion and association is being abridged more and more each year. A “litmus test” of “political correctness” is being applied to anyone who participates in societal and political debates, and American society is becoming increasingly polarized – namely because absolute freedom of speech is no longer allowed.
When people criminalize criticism, as certain groups of people have been doing in America for a half-century or more now, then polarization increases and society moves towards battle and civil war, rather than towards the peaceful co-existence of the democratic debate, in which people can say whatever they like, can feel free to toss out an idea without fear of losing their jobs, that absolute freedom of speech allows.