> 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.
You don't know if it's better or worse than, say, 50 years ago. It doesn't show any trend.
A lot of people believe that flag burning should be prohibited. My guess is that fewer people believe so now than in the 1960s. But it seems to still be a majority view, from last time I looked at the numbers.
What if people instead read the history of modern Germany, with its prohibitions on Holocaust denialism? Will they get the same lesson?
> 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.