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I think this article treated the campus free speech debate very fairly, but isn't there a pretty important difference between government suppression and social

I think this article treated the campus free speech debate very fairly, but isn't there a pretty important difference between government suppression and social suppression? As an extreme example, it would be wrong for the government to prosecute the Westboro Baptist Church for their speech, but it's not wrong for the rest of the country to ostracize them. As long as students aren't advocating for actual laws curbing speech, it seems like a fundamentally different category. I'm not saying it's not a problem, I just think it's a different problem. And I think it's important to acknowledge that free speech doesn't mean all speech must be equally respected, it just has to be allowed.

djrogers 10y ago
> isn't there a pretty important difference between government suppression and social suppression? Yes, and when government funded public universities suppress and openly support the suppression of free speech, it's very clearly a government problem.
- burkaman 10y ago
  Yeah that would clearly cross the line. Most of the complaints I've heard are about private universities, or just student movements that don't get much support from the institution. Edit: Actually "clearly" might be a little too strong. Public schools shouldn't be restricted to only reacting to illegal behavior. But in most realistic cases I agree with your comment.