Failure to defend free speech erodes Western freedoms irreversibly

Evidence

Our question is whether we still value the freedoms which our forebears won and bequeathed to us, and whether we are prepared to defend them. If we are not—and the silence or mumbling of large parts of the political, commercial, literary, academic and ecclesiastical establishments in var­ ious Western countries is not encouraging—then the further erosion of our free­ dom at home will certainly be rapid and probably irreversible. And that would also be a terrible loss for the world of Islam. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1693

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the communication-as-culture material on how free-press institutions decay when elites stop defending them. — connects to: WWI repression of dissent pushed Progressive jurists toward stronger speech protections — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 168