Ask New York Law School professor Nadine Strossen why free speech is now more threatened than ever and she’ll compare today’s issues with the anti-communist zeal of the McCarthy era.
Conceding that “particular ideologies differ but the methodology is the same”, she says the effect is also similar, “in terms of people looking over their shoulders ‒ feeling that they cannot express certain views or even discuss certain topics for fear of having an adverse impact, socially”.
Back in 2015, she gave examples during a speech at Harvard University of how sexual harassment law had been used to discipline academics for talking in class about sexual topics, prostitution, pornography and adult films. In one case, a professor of early childhood education
