Do we have a 'Free Speech Problem'?

Does America have a “Free Speech Problem”?

It probably depends on who you ask. If you ask the New York Times’ editorial board, it certainly does. In a March 18, 2022 column (“America Has a Free Speech Problem”), the editorial board wrote Americans are “losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned”.

In the words of the great swordsman Inigo Montoya, “I do not think it means what you think it means”.

I’m no historian, but I doubt that anyone in the...