@2 Girls 1 Midfield
I'd really recommend reading that article I posted:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/01/why-do-those-college-students-hate-free-speech-so-much
@crappycraperson for you too. Nathan Robinson is always fun to read anyway. There is also this one, but I haven't started it myself:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/02/what-does-free-speech-require
About my defence that "the right is bad too": you may think that the left should make a case that it is better, but I don't it can right now. I think the left needs to make a more basic defence first. Maybe I have been poisoned by reading a lot of right-wing stuff online but I think they have successfully portrayed the left as dangerous censorship-fascists. Countering that type of image means we should explain how un/common incidents are, how it is not that the left alone indulges in censorship or needs safe spaces*, and censorship in the (much bigger) world beyond campuses.
Briefly(!):
I think the issue of some talks being shut down on college campuses is a very small part of free speech in general (in the US/UK context).
There are many govt violations of free speech even in the US, in fact, the current liberal understanding of the 1st amendment evolved only as the genuine leftist threat was destroyed in the US (with many things including laws criminalising speech). There are still major govt-issued threats to free speech (which I will list sometime later).
More than the govt is the complete power the pvt sector has over speech in the workplace - and outside it.
This is a brilliant brilliant article on employer power in general, including speech. If you don't read the other 2, do read this one!
On to campuses and other places where there have been fights - I think it is important assert that both sides have indulged in this, and more importantly, only the right has killed for this (during the past year, 2 shooting happened outside some speaking events, both by right-wingers). Outside campuses, there is a huge demand for censorship by conservatives (the NFL protests for example). I think the issue of talks on college campuses is not equivalent to a university inviting a faculty for a talk - often these are political student groups inviting people with no academic value (Milo). Sometimes it is a political group that books a university hall and the 1st amendment compels the univ to accept this (Richard Spencer in florida). The ability to invite these speakers or book these halls is based not on academic merit or interest but money.
Which brings me to another issue with "free" speech. The US SC has accepted that money is a form of speech. In that case, what is the meaning of free speech of someone who has no money? What matters then is the platform and reach, but this is not constitutionally protected.
I think people worried about freedoms being curtailed, etc would be looking much more at these issues if their worries were genuine. I do not think the campus cases, which have galvanised the entire right-wing from Tucker Carlson to Milo to Dave Rubin to Jordan Peterson to Sargon and all their lesser clones, have much impact on society.
These are all disorganised thoughts right now, I'm going to make a *long* post sometime later. (And then quit this thread forever).
*anecdote: I am a TA this semester, and we had to give kind-of a trigger warning for our students. It is a class about evolution and we were having a skype session with someone who isn't just atheist but anti-religion. Apparently religious people are known to get very upset with him. So we have to emphasise that we aren't attacking their beliefs/faith, etc.
And another anecdote, this one will irritate Jordan Peterson, TAs were requested to put this in their intro emails - "Ahead of tomorrow/first lab/next meeting, please let me know if you have prefered gender pronouns that you'd like me to use"