Poll: 71% of Americans Say Political Correctness Has Silenced Discussions Society Needs to Have, 58% Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share
Posted: November 1, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Think Tank | Tags: CATO, Conservative, Free speech, Freedom of Expression, Intolerance, Liberal, Opinions, Politically Correct, Tolerance 1 CommentEmily Ekins reports: The Cato 2017 Free Speech and Tolerance Survey, a new national poll of 2,300 U.S. adults, finds that 71% Americans believe that political correctness has silenced important discussions our society needs to have. The consequences are personal—58%
of Americans believe the political climate prevents them from sharing their own political beliefs.
Democrats are unique, however, in that a slim majority (53%) do not feel the need to self-censor. Conversely, strong majorities of Republicans (73%) and independents (58%) say they keep some political beliefs to themselves.
[Full survey results and report found here.]
It follows that a solid majority (59%) of Americans think people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions in public, even those deeply offensive to others.
[Also see – Free Speech in the Good War]
On the other hand, 40% think government should prevent hate speech. Despite this, the survey also found Americans willing to censor, regulate, or punish a wide variety of speech and expression they personally find offensive:
- 51% of staunch liberals say it’s “morally acceptable” to punch Nazis.
- 53% of Republicans favor stripping U.S. citizenship from people who burn the American flag.
- 51% of Democrats support a law that requires Americans use transgender people’s preferred gender pronouns.
- 65% of Republicans say NFL players should be fired if they refuse to stand for the anthem.
- 58% of Democrats say employers should punish employees for offensive Facebook posts.
- 47% of Republicans favor bans on building new mosques.
Americans also can’t agree what speech is hateful, offensive, or simply a political opinion:
- 59% of liberals say it’s hate speech to say transgender people have a mental disorder; only 17% of conservatives agree.
- 39% of conservatives believe it’s hate speech to say the police are racist; only 17% of liberals agree.
- 80% of liberals say it’s hateful or offensive to say illegal immigrants should be deported; only 36% of conservatives agree.
- 87% of liberals say it’s hateful or offensive to say women shouldn’t fight in military combat roles, while 47% of conservatives agree.
- 90% of liberals say it’s hateful or offensive to say homosexuality is a sin, while 47% of conservatives agree.
Americans Oppose Hate Speech Bans, But Say Hate Speech is Morally Unacceptable
Although Americans oppose (59%) outright bans on public hate speech, that doesn’t mean they think hate speech is acceptable. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Roger Scruton: Offensive Jokes
Posted: February 26, 2017 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: 1st Amendment, Free speech, Freedom of Expression, Jokes, Offensive Jokes, Roger Scruton, Speech Codes, Tolerance, video Leave a commentPizza, Tolerance, GOP Dirty Tricks, The Koch Brothers, Left-Wing Paranoia, & Math
Posted: April 4, 2015 Filed under: Education, Mediasphere, Politics, Religion | Tags: #RFRA, Bigotry, FoFundMe, GOP, Koch Brothers, Left Wing, Math, news, Paranoia, Progressive, propaganda, Tolerance, Twitter 1 CommentWho Celebrated the Sept. 11 Attacks?
Posted: September 11, 2014 Filed under: Global, History, Religion, War Room | Tags: Beirut, Christian, German, Germany, Islamists, Jihadists, Kreuzberg, Lebanon, Michelle Malkin, Muslim, Neukölln, Religion of peace, Rue Verdun, September 11, September 11 attacks, Tolerance 1 Comment#neverforget who celebrated 9/11 attacks around the world ==> http://t.co/TBO4OC7zwS
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) September 11, 2014
The politically correct version of the September 11 attacks holds that the Muslim world rejected such violence as un-Islamic and condemned the attacks. This is not true. The Muslim world celebrated the attacks.

Palestinians dance in the street at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, Sept. 11, 2001. Palestinians in Lebanon’s refugee camps celebrated the attacks in the United States by firing into the air. (AP Photo/Mohamed Zatari) Copyright 2001 The Herald-Dispatch
I took a trip to Egypt a few years ago to do the usual tourist lap around the pyramids and up the Nile. Our guide was a Coptic Christian. During a quiet moment in Cairo, I asked him what the Egyptian reaction was to Sep 11. He said they celebrated. They marvelled at the cleverness of the attackers and considered it quite a victory. After a month, the government decided that such public celebrations of American deaths were not in its best interests and prohibited them. That stopped them cold, though they continued behind closed doors.
Here are some anecdotes of those celebrations, anecdotes that never seemed to have been picked up by the liberal media.
In Germany, Muslims celebrated with rockets…
Whooping It Up: In Beirut, even Christians celebrated the atrocity
Wall Street Journal; Saturday, September 22, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDTBEIRUT–Where were you on Sept. 11, when terrorists changed the world? I was at the National Museum here, enjoying the wonders of the ancient Phoenicians with my husband. This tour of past splendor only magnified the shock I received later when I heard the news and saw the reactions all around me. Read the rest of this entry »