A concern about national character runs through the Supreme Court's free-expression cases. In 1927, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that free speech could rarely be a threat to "courageous, self-reliant men, with confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning." In a 1989 decision striking down laws against flag-burning, Justice William Brennan quoted that comment and explained that the court was striking a blow for the country's "resilience."
An important reason that we celebrate free speech, then, is that — to put the point negatively — we don't want to be fearful and brittle people, or a fearful and brittle people.
That's exactly what Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson think we're in danger of becoming. Their new book, "End of Discussion," is about the culture rather than the law of free speech. They take aim at what they call the "outrage industry," which uses exaggerated claims of offense to shut down debate.