Opinion/Owens: The end of free speech and the coming dystopia – The Providence Journal

By Mackubin Owens| The Providence Journal

Before last years election, I posted something on Facebook in support of an action by President Trump for which a complete stranger berated me. While I had no problem with his disagreement, I was appalled by something that he wrote in conclusion: that my Facebook posts had revealed my true colors and that I would be held accountable for them in the future.

I didnt serve in the Trump administration, although I supported Trump when I thought he was right. But according to this individuals barely concealed threat, I should expect my views to be scrutinized in the future to determine ... what?

Since the election, we are beginning to understand what such a threat entails: the possibility that those of us who hold certain views may be denied certain benefits of citizenship. Do I exaggerate? Ask those who have served in the Trump administration and are now being advised that their prospects for future employment are in jeopardy. Ask those whose Twitter and Facebook accounts have been suspended. Ask those whose online fundraising sites have been closed.

Free speech has long been understood to be a cornerstone of free government. Freedom of speech is not a right granted by the Constitution. It is a natural right that the Constitution protects, transcending the First Amendment, which only prohibits Congress from passing laws that limit free speech.

But what about truth? Did not Trump and many of those who worked for him lie to the American people? Are we not obligated to suppress falsehood? In hisAreopagitica, John Milton provided the best rejoinder to this argument:Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.

Of course, the very concept of free speech has been under assault for some time. It began in the universities but has spread to corporate America and popular culture. The concept of political correctness, the very negation of free speech, which has long infected academia, can be traced to the late Marxist philosopher,Herbert Marcuse, who among other things advocated something called repressive tolerance.

In classic Orwellian double-speak, Marcuse, a German migr who is seen as the godfather of the 1960s counterculture, argued that tolerating all ideas the essence of reasonable discourse that traditionally has defined the mission of the university was in fact repressive, since it did not privilege the correct ideas. True tolerance, Marcuse argued, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left.

When Marcuse penned these words, most Americans, even those who had actually heard of him, would have dismissed them as the work of a crank. But thanks to what the 1960s German radicalRudi Dutschke called the long march through the institutions, Marcuses vision has come to pass in America. We see it in everything from university speech codes to calls for truth and reconciliation commissions to deal with those who served in the Trump administration or even citizens who may have committed the crime of supporting his policies.

As Michael Walsh, a prolific writer on culture and politics, has explained: Dissenters from the new orthodoxy will not only be kicked off social media, theyll be branded as ideological lepers and denied further employment. Anyone so much as associated with or supportive of the Trump administration will henceforth be deemed an outcast, and headed for the re-education camps or worse.

If anyone wants a sense of the dystopia that such actions portend, they should watch the great film, "The Lives of Others." Or they might examine Chinas emerging social credit system, which grades the behavior of Chinese citizens or more properly subjects. Imagine what its like to have ones very ability to earn a living, open a bank account, or travel, depend on whether one behaves in the approved manner or in accordance with accepted ideas. You may believe that those who supported Trump deserve this sort of treatment, but someday the powers that be will be coming for you.

Mackubin Owens of Newport, a monthly contributor, is a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

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