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Are Americans more afraid to express their political views than in the past?
A lot of people debated that question in the past weeks. A new article @JoinPersuasion has the answer: Americans are three times as likely to self-censor now than in the 1950s.https://www.persuasion.community/p/americans-are-self-censoring-at-record …
In the 1950s, social scientists worried that McCarthyism was creating a “silent generation.” But when they asked people whether they “feel as free to speak your mind as you used to?” the answer was reassuring: Only 13% said that they were afraid of expressing their views.
Since then, answers to the same question have become more worrying. By 2015, nearly half of all Americans reported that they do not feel free to express their opinions.
If those who hold views that are racist or otherwise “deplorable” are feeling less free to hold forth than in the past, that might not be so bad. But that assumes that people with "bad" views are more likely to self-censor. And the evidence does not point in that direction.
People on the left are as likely to self-censor as those on the right. People with moderate views are as likely to self-censor as those with extreme views. So the premise of those who defend the current culture—that it makes "the right people" shut up—doesn't seem to hold.
So what does predict who self-censors? * The highly educated are way more likely to self-censor than those who only have a high school degree. * People in cities are way more likely to self-censor than those who live in rural areas.
"Americans who go to college appear to learn that they should shut up if they disagree with their peers. As a result, it is not people in the hinterland who learn to hide their 'aberrant' views; rather, it is those who live in the most urban and educated parts of the country."
Please do read the whole article by James L. Gibson and @J0eSutherland.
Please spread the word about this important finding.
And please @JoinPersuasion (and follow us on Twitter).
[The End.]
And ever since the sixties they've been telling us to shut the hell up?
Never bring up politics or religion. Now that religion has waned, politics is often our new religion.
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