Two-thirds of Americans believe US is on wrong track when it comes to free speech: poll

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Friday, March 01, 2024

A woman signs a giant banner printed with the Preamble to the United States Constitution during a demonstration against the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall October 20, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The rally at the memorial was organized by brothers Laird and Robin Monahan, who spent the last five months walking from San Francisco, California, to Washington to protest the court decision, which overturned the provision of the McCain-Feingold law barring corporations and unions from paying for political ads made independently of candidate campaigns. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A majority of Americans believe the United States is headed "in the wrong direction" on the issue of free speech even as a sizable portion would be in favor of censoring viewpoints they find offensive, a new study suggests.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, published a study Tuesday examining Americans' views on the issue of free speech.

The survey, a partnership between FIRE and the Polarization Research Lab at Dartmouth College, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania, is based on responses collected from 1,000 Americans between Jan. 12 and 19. It has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.

Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed believe that the U.S. is heading "in the wrong direction" regarding "whether people are able to freely express their views." Meanwhile, 31% believe the free speech climate is heading "in the right direction." At the same time, 47% described the "right to freedom of speech in America" today as "somewhat secure."

An additional 29% viewed freedom of speech in the U.S. as "not at all secure," while 18% characterized it as "very secure," and 7% maintained that free speech was "completely secure."

Polarization Research Lab Director Sean Westwood noted that views on free speech differed slightly based on partisan affiliation.

"Nearly half of Democrats think free speech rights are headed in the right direction, compared to only 26 percent of Republicans," he stated. "And more than a third of Republicans think the right to free speech is not secure, compared to only 17 percent of Democrats."

The research also suggests that nearly a third (31%) of Americans believe that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right to free speech "goes too far." This view is held by about a third of both Democrats and Republicans.

When asked "how worried" they were about losing their jobs because someone complained about something they have said, a plurality (36%) insisted that they were "not at all worried" about losing their jobs, while 24% were "not too worried" and 16% were "slightly worried."

Fourteen percent of those surveyed reported being "somewhat worried" about losing their jobs because of something they say, while the remaining 10% were "very worried."

The survey also asked respondents to reflect on how frequently they engaged in self-censorship over the past month.

A plurality of those surveyed (31%) told pollsters that they had censored their views "occasionally, a handful of times." Twenty-four percent claimed to have self-censored "rarely once or twice," followed by 19% who had "never" censored their views, 17% who censored themselves "fairly often, a couple times a week" and 8% who insisted that they do so "very often, nearly every day."

The survey included a series of statements deemed offensive and asked respondents to identify which one offended them the most. It then instructed respondents to share their views on whether the local community should allow a person espousing such a belief to give a public speech or teach at a local college.

Pluralities of respondents agreed that a person who had views they considered the most offensive should definitely not have the ability to "give a public speech" in the local community (29%) or "teach at the local college" (38%). An additional 23% said their local community "probably should not allow this person to give a public speech," while 31% said the same about teaching at the local college.

Just 19% of those surveyed stated that a person with offensive views "probably should" be able to teach at the local college, while 26% felt the person "probably should" be able to give a speech. Only 12% of respondents thought the local college should "definitely allow" a person with the disfavored view to teach there, while 22% thought the person should "definitely" be allowed to give a speech.

"Those results were disappointing, but not exactly surprising," FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens said in a statement. "Here at FIRE, we've long observed that many people who say they're concerned about free speech waver when it comes to beliefs they personally find offensive. But the best way to protect your speech in the future is to defend the right to controversial and offensive speech today."

However, a majority (59%) of respondents thought the public library should either "probably" or "definitely" keep a book written by a person with an offensive viewpoint on the shelves. In comparison, 71% agreed that the person should "probably" or "definitely" not lose their job for holding the position.

The poll conducted by FIRE and the Polarization Research Lab is the first installment of the National Speech Index, a component of a new quarterly series titled "America's Political Pulse" that seeks to "allow researchers to track shifting free speech sentiment in America over time."

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com