Statistics on Free Speech: Tolerance Increasing, Led by College Educated

[Shiranu]

Edit: Okay, now how many times I go back and try to erase some of the formating issues, it just creates 3 more. If you want it more cleanly presented, the links are available for both articles. This is too much work for too little pay off.

http://jmrphy.net/blog/2018/02/16/who-is-afraid-of-free-speech/


Article 1 tl;dr - Statistics done by the U.S. General Social Survey indicate that Americans today are more tolerant to the idea of allowing radical ideological figures (also, homosexuals) to be allowed to speak in their community than they were over the last 40 years. Only radically racist ideology has gone down in tolerance, and only amongst left-leaning populations.


Interestingly, the group most supportive of free speech? The actual far left, not the boogiemen peddled here.

The topic of free speech is highly salient at the moment, but if you look at the public opinion data, you find some patterns quite incongruous with many of the popular talking points circulating right now. It seems that perhaps in the pushback against political correctness, many have been too quick to make generalizations about how “the far left” and/or “radical liberals” think about free speech.

The now popular view that “the left” has turned against free speech is not totally wrong, but it’s complicated. The important wrinkle is that “extreme liberals” and the “far left” have always been, and generally remain, themost supportiveof free speech. Curiously, it is the “slightly left” that have in recent years turned against free speech (and only for racists, not for other groups, including military fascists!).For most of its surveys between 1972 and 2016, the General Social Survey asked a U.S. sample to consider the following types of potential public speakers. (They asked about a few others but the following are the ones they asked most consistently.)[size=78%][[/size]“…a person who believes that Blacks are genetically inferior.” (Henceforth “racist.”)

   
• “Somebody who is against all churches and religion…” (Henceforth “antitheist.”)

   
• “…a man who admits he is a Communist.” (Henceforth “communist.”)

   
• “…a person who advocates doing away with elections and letting the military run the country.” (Henceforth “militarist.”)

   
• “…a man who admits that he is a homosexual?” (Henceforth, “homosexual.”)

   
• For each type of person, they also asked, “If such a person wanted to make a speech in your community, should he be allowed to speak, or not?"         
  
  Exploring this data, I found a few striking insights. Figure 1 presents the basic trends. The graph shows the proportion of respondents who said the speaker should be allowed, for each speaker type. Figure 2 presents the trends, broken down by ideological self-identification (“liberal” vs. “conservative” on a 5-category Likert scale). The term “liberal” is a notoriously loaded term in American politics, but among all the ideological self-placement questions asked by the GSS this one has the most data. Later, we check our findings against one 2014 question that asks respondents how they place themselves on a “left” to “right” scale.[/l][/l][/l][/l][/l][/l]

Article 2 tl;dr: College educated populations have the highest rates of tolerance for free speech. Infact, college students are the group least likely to support restriction of free speech on campus.

[size=78%]https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/12/17100496/political-correctness-data[/size]

It is so accepted that there is a growing climate of authoritarianism that whether or not individual examples are true is fundamentally irrelevant.

Except robust data suggests that maybe it isn’t. Overall public support for free speech is rising over time, not falling. People on the political right are less supportive of free speech than people on the left. College graduates are more supportive than non-graduates. Indeed, a 2016 Knight Foundation survey showed that college students are less likely than the overall population to support restrictions on speech on campus. Among the public at large, meanwhile, the group whose speech the public is most likely to favor stifling is Muslims.

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• [size=78%][/l][/size][/l][/l]

[size=78%]


I only quote the racist graph, but the other graphs are the same; when polled, college graduates and students are the most likely to believe they should be allowed to speak.

This really doesn't come as any surprise, but when certain posters talk about the "universities out to destroy our civilization" (while they themselves admit they have never even set foot on a campus and are just talking out their ass)... just realise they are talking out of their ass.[/size]
   
[/list][/list]

[Baruch]

The bottom curve is ordinary folks.  Using college graduates as examples is cherry picking.  The rate on the "racist speaker" example is 50-50.  Which is what you would expect from flipping a coin (how people respond is random).

No, people don't support the Bill of Rights, or Free Speech (as defined by the its strongest advocates).  They support their political faction, and damn their opponents.

[Cavebear]

Edit: Okay, now how many times I go back and try to erase some of the formating issues, it just creates 3 more. If you want it more cleanly presented, the links are available for both articles. This is too much work for too little pay off.

http://jmrphy.net/blog/2018/02/16/who-is-afraid-of-free-speech/


Article 1 tl;dr - Statistics done by the U.S. General Social Survey indicate that Americans today are more tolerant to the idea of allowing radical ideological figures (also, homosexuals) to be allowed to speak in their community than they were over the last 40 years. Only radically racist ideology has gone down in tolerance, and only amongst left-leaning populations.


Interestingly, the group most supportive of free speech? The actual far left, not the boogiemen peddled here.




Article 2 tl;dr: College educated populations have the highest rates of tolerance for free speech. Infact, college students are the group least likely to support restriction of free speech on campus.

[size=78%]https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/12/17100496/political-correctness-data[/size]
[size=78%]


I only quote the racist graph, but the other graphs are the same; when polled, college graduates and students are the most likely to believe they should be allowed to speak.

This really doesn't come as any surprise, but when certain posters talk about the "universities out to destroy our civilization" (while they themselves admit they have never even set foot on a campus and are just talking out their ass)... just realise they are talking out of their ass.[/size]
   
[/list][/list]

I agree that US society is generally becoming more torlerant to social and sexual views than in decades past, in spite of the Trump administration attacks and regulations.  After Trump, however soon that is, things will get "back to normal".  Which means things will become more tolerant again.  I suspect the Trump administration is the last gasp of the intolerant ones.

[aitm]

I suspect the Trump administration is the last gasp of the intolerant ones.

Lord I hope so.

[Cavebear]

Lord I hope so.

"Lord"?  LOL!  I understand the casual reference.  But I've taught myself to avoid that  (as much as possible).   Yeah, I can be really annoying sometimes...  ;)

Agree competely with your post otherwise, OK?  ("I hope so")