The Right Must Avoid the Left’s Free Speech Pitfalls

Years ago, after the Bush administration initiated the Deep State’s surveillance regime via the Patriot Act, I observed that the left and right in this country seemed to be competing to see who could censor the most speech. 

Since then, the left has forged far ahead in the censorship race, with the rise of cancel culture, deplatforming of campus speakers, and—more recently—spurious charges of “misinformation” leveled at conservatives. 

Under Joe Biden, the government has even pressured private companies to remove social media posts contrary to the regime’s preferred narratives on COVID-19, climate change, and election fraud. That is censorship on a large scale. 

Indeed, we’ve gotten to the point where simply expressing support for the First Amendment automatically marks one as “rightwing”—can you say Elon Musk? This, of course, tells us all we need to know about the authoritarian tendencies of the left. 

The dynamic has shifted somewhat, however, since the brutal terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023. The right’s collective response to that atrocity appears to reveal some cracks in our free speech armor. 

While most conservatives are openly pro-Israel—I don’t know any who are pro-Hamas—some do question the Israeli government’s motives and tactics. Others wonder whether the U.S. should be expending its resources in what amounts to, in their view, a regional conflict. 

Although I disagree, such opinions are not beyond the pale.  

People must be allowed to express them, both because they have a right to and because, in any debate, contrarians serve the useful purpose of forcing the majority to reexamine its own arguments, shore them up as necessary, and perhaps make course corrections. 

Yet prominent conservatives have been shouted down, deplatformed, and even fired by other conservatives for the offense of appearing insufficiently pro-Israel.     

Then there are those, almost exclusively on the left, who are openly pro-Hamas—which is to say, pro-terrorism, pro-barbarism, and literally anti-Semitic. We’ve seen them protesting practically non-stop on college campuses and elsewhere for the past several months. They are extremely vocal, often disruptive, and occasionally violent. 

How should we respond to them? 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott believes he has the answer. He recently issued an executive order condemning Hamas and anti-Semitic rhetoric on campus and declared that “Texas will continue to stand with Israel.” He also reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to free speech. 

So far, so good. 

He then directed all Texas colleges and universities to “review and update free speech policies to address the sharp rise in antisemitic speech and acts on university campuses and establish appropriate punishments.” 

Do you see the problem?  

Abbott puts “speech” and “acts” in the same category, essentially equating them and thereby coopting a longstanding leftist talking point: “Words are violence.” But as conservatives understand, words are not violence. So what is Abbott decrying here—speech or actions? 

If the latter, his executive order is unnecessary. Every action he describes—protests escalating into violence, physical intimidation of Jewish students, disruption of classes and campus activities—is already covered by existing laws and campus policies. As Governor, Abbott could simply direct college presidents to enforce those. 

On the other hand, if the order is really about speech, then it’s clearly unconstitutional. However offensive we may find it, “anti-Semitic speech” is protected by the First Amendment—exceptions to which are, rightly, very limited—and therefore cannot be “punished” by state actors. 

This should go without saying: if the government can punish speech, it isn’t free. 

Speech that directly incites a riot or calls for violence against specific individuals or groups is, like violent actions, already illegal. But merely chanting “Free Palestine” or even “From the river to the sea” does not meet that high bar. 

When conservatives take pages out of the left’s playbook, we essentially accept their premises: in this case, thatwords are inherently violent, and thus, one side has no right to express views the other finds abhorrent. This is not to our advantage. We will be on the losing end of that transaction almost every time. 

More importantly, our commitment to free speech is both morally and ethically right. Today’s campus anti-Semitism is a test of that commitment, one Abbott’s executive orders fails miserably. Whether this represents a broader failure on the right remains to be seen.

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