In this episode, I talk about the subtle but dangerous shift that happens when concern for someone’s well-being turns into pressure to stay silent. There’s a difference between checking in on a veteran’s mental health—a good and necessary act—and warning someone not to speak because it “might get you in trouble.” That second impulse is compliance in advance, and as Timothy Snyder reminds us in On Tyranny, that’s exactly how authoritarianism gains ground.
With the First Amendment under assault, now is the time to use it—not retreat from it. Say the things they tell you not to say. Associate with the people they tell you to avoid. Debate the ideas they try to ban. Rights only remain sacred if we refuse to surrender them voluntarily.
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