
A Survey Finds Speech Restrictions Are Pretty Popular - pseudolus
https://reason.com/2019/10/25/a-survey-finds-speech-restrictions-are-pretty-popular-thats-why-we-need-the-first-amendment/
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eesmith
Key point:

> We have no data for prior years from this poll, which was conducted by
> CARAVAN Surveys in early September with a sample of about 1,000 adults. It
> is therefore hard to say, based on these results, whether Americans are
> actually "rethinking" their support for freedom of speech or simply
> expressing the qualms they've always had.

We know, without shadow of a doubt, that some speech was prohibited 100 years
ago, even with the First Amendment.

These include the Comstock Act, which prohibited the use of the U.S. postal
system to send items which were obscene, contraceptives, abortifacients, sex
toys, as well as information about those items.

While these were overturned, they express a widespread belief that speech
restrictions were needed.

Ditto for the horrid Espionage Act of 1917, including rulings like Schenck v.
United States.

I imagine that large parts of the population in the 1950s would be for speech
prohibitions on communism and socialism.

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raxxorrax
Some forms of wisdom seem to have a half-life. Those relating to freedom are
especially under threat.

That said, this was a poll and hopefully not representative.

