Self-censorship on the Left Is Bad, but the GOP Is Attempting the Real Thing, by Daily Editorials – Creators Syndicate

Cancel-culture on the political Left, generally defined as the shouting-down of dissenting voices, is real, and it's disturbing. But some of the conservatives who most loudly decry this phenomenon are themselves promoting even more disturbing versions of it.

The latest example is an unprecedented attempt by a Missouri legislator to outlaw any kind of speech that informs Missouri women about out-of-state abortion services. Taken together with conservative attempts to ban certain books and classroom discussion from schools, it's clear it isn't just the Left that's trying to stifle free speech. The Right is doing it, too, in ways that are demonstrably worse.

That's not to minimize the damage to free speech that occurs when dissenting voices are "canceled" by liberals on college campuses. The disturbing trend was explored in a recent New York Times op-ed by a University of Virginia senior, a self-described liberal, who has nonetheless felt pressured to self-censor on any issue that strays from liberal orthodoxy, even such questionable violations as defending Thomas Jefferson.

But one can recognize the dangers of socially coerced self-censorship while also understanding how much more dangerous it is when elected officials seek to impose the real thing by law on others.

That's what Missouri Republican state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman seeks to do in a measure moving through the Legislature that has received national attention for its bizarre attempt to enforce Missouri's abortion restrictions even when Missourians go to other states, a clear violation of the Constitution.

A little-discussed aspect of the measure is an even clearer constitutional violation: It would criminalize "giving instructions over the telephone, the internet, or any other medium of communication regarding self-administered abortion or means of obtaining elective abortions; Hosting or maintaining a website, or providing internet service that allows Missouri residents to access any website, that encourages or facilitates efforts to obtain elective abortions." Coleman herself has said the measure would outlaw even the posting of billboards in Missouri providing information about out-of-state abortion services.

An elected official with a law degree is promoting a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Scarier still is that it's not significantly worse than some of the censorship her fellow elected Republicans are attempting around the country.

From the since-abandoned attempt to pull classic literature off the school shelves in Wentzville, to Florida's "Don't say 'gay' " bill, to growing restrictions around the country on teachers' ability to discuss race in any way, today's GOP has sought to cancel the free-speech cornerstone of the Constitution, using the hammer of law to do it. Voters should remember that the next time some conservative snowflake cries "censorship" because someone said something mean to them on Twitter.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Photo credit: stevepb at Pixabay

Read more:
Self-censorship on the Left Is Bad, but the GOP Is Attempting the Real Thing, by Daily Editorials - Creators Syndicate