In recent years, liberals, the Left, and the Right have all waffled on defending free speech when it doesn’t suit them. But not Jacobin. For 15 years, we have insisted that free speech is a basic democratic principle that must be defended.

Ever since Donald Trump launched a wide-ranging assault on free speech and the First Amendment last week, the Internet and airwaves have lit up with charges that one or another side are being hypocrites. Trump loyalists point to Democratic officials’ and high-profile liberals’ earlier support for restricting speech in various arenas, while those same left-leaning figures dig up tweets and other statements by the Trump crew condemning censorship and lauding the principle of free speech.

The thing is, they’re both right. Many of the establishment liberal

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