Anne Applebaum Quotes

What we have is two important values in conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy. You can't have both.

I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.

Healthy debate has been replaced by automatic sensors that eliminate the need for actual talking during a filibuster - a la 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' Robust debate is necessary in a democratic society. Instead, our discourse has been relegated to media spin by expert entertainers.

... in these elections of 1970, something has gone wrong. There has been name-calling and deception of almost unprecedented volume. Honorable men have been slandered. Faithful servants of the country have had their motives questioned and their patriotism doubted.... The danger from this assault is not that a few more Democrats might be defeated—the country can survive that. The true danger is that the American people will have been deprived of that public debate, that opportunity for fair judgment, which is the heartbeat of the democratic process. And that is something the country cannot afford.

All people have the duty and the right to participate in public debate.

If you have an open society that what happens—people say things and they criticize you.

Town meetings are not bean bag. I've had hundreds of them, and sometimes folks get upset. And that's part of America, part of our process.

Free speech is the foundation of an open and liberal democracy from college campuses to the White House.

Part of what's great about America, and Canada as well, is that we can talk about our political leaders in public.

I want to shine a spotlight on showing how dangerous Trump and his Twitter button can be.

The country would be a lot better off if we stopped having comment sections. And if we got rid of Twitter.

While people can differ on the issues, no one should seek to discourage freedom of speech.

To try to preemptively shut down debate with name-calling is profoundly un-American and will harm this country.

The price of liberty is, in addition to eternal vigilance, eternal patience with the vacuous blather occasionally expressed from behind the shield of free speech.

The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together. Let me, then, speak in truth and earnestness while time remains.

In the most civilized and progressive countries freedom of discussion is recognized as a fundamental principle.

I am sorry they began their deliberations by so abominable a precedent as that of tying up the tongues of their members. Nothing can justify this example but the innocence of their intentions and ignorance of the value of public discussions. I have no doubt that all their other measures will be good and wise. It is really an assembly of demigods.

Satire is used for political purposes all the time, but obviously there's a time and a place. I think in the current climate, it can be very difficult to speak your mind, but sometimes, I believe, we're all in danger and I think this discussion needs to be widened.

I prefer a little free speech to no free speech at all; but how many have free speech or the chance or the mind for it; and is not free speech here as elsewhere clamped down on in ratio of its freedom and danger?

If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.

When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.

I've always enjoyed Twitter. I enjoy it a lot less now that I'm in WWE, I'll be honest. Because the number of idiots that have access to you is exponentially more. I feel like people shouldn't be able to tweet whatever they want without consequences.

I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn't help us when it silences us.

The media has created this environment that is okay to say almost anything about somebody who is, you know, right of Jane Fonda. You know, if you are slightly conservative or even libertarian points of view, especially if you are persuasive and charismatic and funny and effective, you will get called the most appalling things.

Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.