However, one startling change that has been obvious since Election Day is the collapse of government and corporate censorship of speech and ideas. The stunning speed with which blunt and open honesty has come back into fashion across America is a marvel, and President Trump’s forceful declaration on Inauguration Day that the government was getting out of the business of suppressing free speech was a relief after so many years of official lies and obvious propaganda.

Leftists love to throw around the word “intolerance” in order to suppress ideas and values they don’t like, but this tactic—and its support from government, mass media, and academia—has produced a dangerous intellectual and moral gridlock: viewpoint intolerance. 

By labeling some beliefs as worthy (and others worthy of only scorn) free speech in America has shriveled to a dry husk. Topics such as climate change, gender and sexuality, illegal immigration, government debt, the Ukraine war, the veracity of the information on Hunter Biden’s computer, the actual origins of the Covid-19 virus, the Covid-19 shutdown policies, and the safety of the experimental Covid-19 vaccines that were forced on many were deemed “settled” and beyond further debate—and those who asked questions were denigrated and deplatformed. 

It should not, therefore, be much of surprise that much of what were at one time labeled conspiracy theories regarding the aforementioned issues (and many others besides) have now been proven to be true in whole or part. The ferocity of partisans and pundits, many of whom were later found to be motivated by political of financial considerations, directly led to a great many catastrophic mistakes. Whenever free and unfettered debate is stifled, common sense becomes captive to considerations that have little to do with a search for truth, justice, or safety.

Our unparalleled diversity has always been the superpower of America, and the originality of thought that is a natural outgrowth of our multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic society is the lifeblood of our democracy and institutions. The deliberate—and, frankly, rather Orwellian—efforts of determined ideologues to label reasoned (and perhaps impassioned) discussion as bigotry incarnate in order to create a stale set of approved ideas and values has endangered our great country for many years. Although a thaw is now in the air, due in large part to the wholesale rejection of extremist and exclusionary ideologies in our last election, there is no doubt whatsoever that the battle for free speech in America is far from won.

A marketplace of ideas that is allowed to function without the heavy hand of official and unofficial censorship will produce a mix of stupid ideas and brilliant ones. By tolerating the natural and necessary sifting of these ideas, we allow idiots to expose themselves and smart leaders to emerge from the fray. I am old enough to remember fervent dorm room and workplace discussions that were once allowed to run their course without anyone worrying about a tap on the shoulder from a College Dean or Human Resources scold. The result, which sometimes played out over days or even months, was synthesis, enlightenment—and understanding—that would not be possible with a glowering monitor threatening punishment for having both a strongly held opinion and the temerity to express it.

I am constantly dismayed hearing stories from the students that I still tutor about the thought police patrolling their schools or acquaintances discussing the difficulty of having open discussion at their jobs—or even within their own families at times. We have a long way to go before we even come close to the ideal of freedom of speech enshrined in the 1st Amendment of our Constitution, which is to this day, despite its many critics, the greatest design for self-government ever conceived for our imperfect and opinionated species. 

Now that our federal government and many private businesses are abandoning the conversation-stopping tenets of the so-called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agenda, we might be seeing the dawning of a new day for free speech and free inquiry across our great nation. This process of continuing to remove the fetters on debate and empowering voices that have been bullied and silenced for too long should give us hope that the tide of censorship that has for too long harmed our nation and our people is finally (finally!) beginning to recede.

Have hope, America—and speak out.