Liberals tend to be more protective of free speech

[lopri]

According to prof. Volokh. In case you're not familiar with him, he is a conservative-leaning 1st amendment scholar and his blog was the mecca of Obamacare opponents during the litigation.

http://www.volokh.com/2012/11/19/li...uals-and-supporters-of-military-dictatorship/

The pattern is the same: Liberals are somewhat more likely than conservatives to support protection for the speech, though the gulf isn’t very wide, and there are divides within each group. And this is so even though there’s no reason to think the liberals are likely to sympathize more with the pro-military-dictatorship message, or even view as “my extremists, who should be free to speak even if I don’t agree with them.” I don’t think that either conservatives or liberals would view these people as their sort of extremists; though conservatives seem to have a higher opinion of the military than liberals do (also judging by a GSS question), I don’t sense any affinity either on the Left or on the Right for military dictatorship.

Moreover, this phenomenon extends to the justices at the high court;

http://www.volokh.com/2012/11/19/ar...-justices-more-likely-to-protect-hate-speech/

The bottom line result seems to be much the same as what I described for the public at large — liberals are somewhat more likely than conservatives to support protection for what is sometimes labeled “hate speech,” though the gulf isn’t vast, and there’s a substantial split of opinion on both sides. The same also remains even if we exclude Hudnut (which had to do with sex, and which might be hard to categorize for reasons I mention below) and even if we exclude both Hudnut and Collin (perhaps in trying to limit ourselves to post-1990 cases, to reflect the possibility that both conservative and liberal views on free speech have shifted in recent decades). Indeed, even excluding Hudnut and Collin, the result in terms of total votes shows 75% pro-hate-speech-protection for the liberals, 50% for the moderates, and 67% for the conservatives. If you rearrange some of the categories, the results might change slightly; but on balance, I think this probably captures the situation pretty well.

It's one reason why I am at unease to call myself conservative and have reservations on Citizens United.

 

[chucky2]

Liberals support hate speech more than Conservatives? Wait, I thought Conservatives were the racist ones?

 

[Anarchist420]

"Protective" indicates they think govt give rights... that's not good.

 

[Moonbeam]

Free speech in America today means that money does all the talking. The result is that Americans are brainwashed by product loyalty, party loyalty, and any other kind of loyalty that makes somebody money. I believe it would be better that everybody have equal access to the public airwaves, that individuals should be able to speak as corporations. If corporations are people than people should be able to talk like they do. When people are infected with a desire for a product they do not need, they are being used. Speech should function to educate our brains, not cripple them.

 

[Juror No. 8]

Free speech in America today means that money does all the talking. The result is that Americans are brainwashed by product loyalty, party loyalty, and any other kind of loyalty that makes somebody money.

You say this now, but in some other thread five minutes from now, you'll be carrying the partisan water for Obama like a good little stooge.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

The material you post seems highly qualified, the difference not all that great, and much depends on what's being discussed.

There's a tendency to divide between liberal and conservative, but I wonder if we'd learn more if the degree of authoritarianism was the metric.

 

[rudder]

they are protective of the 1st amendment.... that is until a CEO of a company gives a personal opinion on gay marriage.