You Cant Always Say What You Want, Dennis Baron
You Cant Always Say What You Want, Dennis Baron
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You Can't Always Say What You Want
The Paradox of Free Speech

Author: Dennis Baron

Narrator: Tom Perkins

Unabridged: 9 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/09/2024

Synopsis

The freedom to think what you want and to say what you think has always generated a pushback of regulation and censorship. This raises the thorny question: to what extent does free speech actually endanger speech protection? This book examines today's calls for speech legislation and places it into historical perspective, using fascinating examples from the past 200 years, to explain the historical context of laws regulating speech. Over time, the freedom to speak has grown, the ways in which we communicate have evolved due to technology, and our ideas about speech protection have been challenged as a result. Now more than ever, we are living in a free speech paradox: powerful speakers weaponize their rights in order to silence those less-powerful speakers who oppose them. By understanding how this situation has developed, we can stand up to these threats to the freedom of speech.

About Dennis Baron

Dennis Baron is professor emeritus of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, and has long been a national commentator on language issues, from the Washington Post to NPR and CNN. A recent Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in Champaign, Illinois.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Meike on May 25, 2025

I'm currently waiting for my final thesis in law to be graded - I wrote about freedom of speech and European platform regulation in the Digital Services Act, and this might strongly influence my opinion on this book. Baron is a professor of linguistics, and his approach to law is not systematic, but......more

Goodreads review by Kara on March 12, 2023

The idea of free speech sounds great on paper, and it’s one of those nebulous concepts that most people, if you asked them if it sounded like a good idea, would generally affirm. But that hasn’t always been the case until very recently—more recently, in fact, than one might think. Dennis Baron explo......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on May 16, 2023

I saw You Can't Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech by Dennis Baron in the new material section of my local library and I figured I would give it a chance. And I was pleasantly surprised, Baron breaks down how the American Supreme Court has considered several types of speech (such a......more

Goodreads review by Judith on October 16, 2023

A wonderfully readable summary of the Supreme Court decisions that define protected and unprotected speech under the 1st Amendment. Interesting. Both broader and more limited than one would imagine. I highly recommend.......more

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