In 1919 in the United States we put people in prison for handing out anti war pamphlets. They equated it to “yelling fire in a crowded theater” thus dangerous a

In 1919 in the United States we put people in prison for handing out anti war pamphlets. They equated it to “yelling fire in a crowded theater” thus dangerous and illegal. Then in the 60s we revised our “understanding” of the 1st amendment. Today it would be pretty extraordinary to have antiwar proponents thrown in prison. The point is, in the US we forget that our speech didn’t used to be so unrestricted. What some countries call a security risk, in America we would call essential political speech. Of course there remains the question of the extent to which we should support countries which do not share our values.