The premium that Hungarians place on free speech reflects an American posture of centuries past.
It was the abolition of censorship that Hungarians demanded first during the famous 1848 revolution against the Habsburgs, and it was free speech that they demanded when the 1956 revolution broke out.
Indeed, America, whose inaugural constitutional amendment enshrines the right to free speech, in large part has adopted a totalitarian mindset against which it once revolted.
Not to generalize, since millions of Americans still value free speech in broad terms. Thankfully, the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court agrees, too, given the justices’ 2023 ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis.
But although this Supreme Court precedent will exist for decades, its existence is a race against the morally declining court of public opinion—the very citizenry that elects the U.S….
