We are facing a “historic disaster”, argues Leigh Phillips writing in Jacobin. Today’s so-called progressives “have become indifferent to free speech, or, worse, come to view the defense of free speech as something foreign to the Left and a weapon of oppression”.
One might expect the liberal-left to be among the strongest defenders of free speech at work, and of the right of workers to say what they wish, but too many have enthusiastically called upon employers to fire workers for alleged reactionary speech outside of the workplace, in effect cheering on at-will termination of employment, and embraced the multibillion-dollar human resources department–organized and employer-supervised “sensitivity training” industry, imposing top-down workshops, where workers are petrified they might say the wrong thing.