[whatyoucantsay]

What you can't say is even more relevant today than it was when the essay was written. In the past decade, we've seen free speech in retreat, both in local and global terms.

College campuses that were once bastions of free speech have become so hostile to hearing differing opinions that it's common for people to pull fire alarms or even wear masks and commit violence upon attendees. Canada and European countries have increasingly turned to punishing various stigmatized political speech. China has greatly tightened the screws in enforcement of speech in private chat groups and use of VPNs.

Even more chilling is that speech codes are now being enforced globally. Not long ago, a Swedish author whose books strongly criticized the CCP was kidnapped from Thailand and detained in China. On a grander scale, China punished the entire country of Norway both diplomatically and economically for 6 years for a rights activist being granted the Nobel Peace Prize.

Perhaps the most extreme issue is the attempt to enforce anti-blasphemy laws on a global scale. Artists, authors, clergy and even comedians are increasingly at risk of being murdered by jihadists, regardless of what country they live in. Compounding the problem, western academic institutions are coming under increasing pressure not to offend any powerful group. Rational criticism of religious doctrine is often mistaken as racism and criticism of non-western states is mistaken as imperialism.

In times like this, it's extremely valuable to have both a good sense of what is okay to say publicly and how far that may diverge from what is true. That's exactly what the essay was about.