THANK YOU! Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to FIRE after reading my most recent post. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

DEFENDING OUR ‘TERRIBLE BUSINESS MODEL’: As we come to the end of a challenging year, supporting FIRE’s nonpartisan defense of free speech is more important than ever.

SPEAKING AT THE SITE OF A MURDER: My speech at Utah Valley University — and why America must not become like everybody else

PRINCETON PRESIDENT MISUNDERSTANDS FIRE DATA—AND CAMPUS FREE SPEECH: “In his new book Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber reports on FIRE’s data on free speech and First Amendment norms on campus while making no effort to understand it and misusing the data of others.”

HOW TARGETING SCHOLARS FOR SPEECH LEAVES LASTING SCARS: Almost a third of all the scholars we surveyed said they are now less likely to express views like the ones for which they were targeted, and many say they now speak more cautiously with faculty, administrators, and even students.

AAUP: VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY IS A MAGA PLOT: Adam Goldstein, Sam Abrams, & I dismantle this out of touch and wrongheaded idea.

IS HIGHER ED EVEN INTERESTED IN REFORM: A new featured article by the AAUP calls viewpoint diversity anathema to academic freedom. Where to even begin?

I JUST DISCOVERED PROFESSOR-IN-EXILE JASON STANLEY RESPONDED TO THIS ARTICLE CLAIMING IT’S “BOTH-SIDES-ING FASCISM”: No, it calls him out for not giving a damn about academic freedom, just his and his own side’s self-interest.

10 YEARS AFTER ‘THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND’: WHAT WE WARNED, WHAT HAPPENED, AND WHAT’S STILL AT STAKE: Guess how teaching kids the habits of anxious and depressed people turned out?

FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM FIRE’S 2026 COLLEGE FREE SPEECH RANKINGS—RELEASED TODAY! Claremont McKenna reclaims the top spot, Barnard and Columbia bring up the rear, and a troubling trend regarding violence continues.

WHEN IT COMES TO FREE SPEECH, THE U.S. LIVES IN CONSTANT FEAR OF BECOMING THE U.K.: Adam Goldstein’s & my latest piece puts the Graham Linehan arrest in perspective w/ the full-blown free speech crisis in the U.K.

EXACT NUMBERS ARE HARD TO COME BY, BUT THE U.S. PROBABLY ARRESTS ENOUGH PEOPLE FOR SPEECH EVERY YEAR TO FILL THREE OR FOUR SOCCER—SORRY…FOOTBALL—TEAM ROSTERS: Meanwhile, at a fraction of our size, the U.K. arrested enough people last year to fill a small premier league stadium.

YES, THE U.K. REALLY IS THAT BAD FOR FREE SPEECH: Graham Linehan’s arrest shines a light on a shameful British problem.

THE NYT AND RE-LITIGATING THE CHRISTAKIS-YALE AFFAIR: It was never about halloween costumes, but rather about admin overreach and the infantilizing of adult college students.

SO… THE FREE SPEECH CRISIS ON CAMPUS IS A “MORAL PANIC”… AND ALSO IT’S MY FAULT? My response to Jason Stanley’s criticisms in the NYT profile on FIRE from last weekend.

FOOTNOTES TO THE RECENT NEW YORK TIMES PIECE ON FIRE: And a response to Jason Stanley’s claim that the crisis on campus for the last 10 years has been a “moral panic.”

NEW BOOK ALERT: FIRE Senior Scholar of Global Expression Sarah McLaughlin’s “Authoritarians in the Academy” hit shelves this week.

WHAT DOES BRAIN SCIENCE HAVE TO DO WITH FREE SPEECH? My appearance on David Eagleman’s ‘Inner Cosmos’ podcast.

CELEBRATING TWO YEARS OF THE ETERNALLY RADICAL IDEA ON SUBSTACK: Featuring a new — and very shareable — introduction to what ERI is all about.

“DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS.” A new survey from FIRE shines a light on the declining prevalence of once-common idioms that encourage tolerance, resilience, and humility.

THESE FREE SPEECH SAYINGS ARE FALLING OUT OF FAVOR. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR OUR CULTURE? A world where “Words are violence” is more common than “Sticks and stones…” is a world oriented against free speech principles. But we can turn that around.

JOIN NICO PERRINO, LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS, & ME MONDAY AT 4PM EASTERN. For a special FIRE webinar (in collaboration w/ ERI & So To Speak) on the latest developments in the Trump admin’s war against Harvard.

FREE SPEECH CURES VIOLENCE: In my recent TED Talk, I explain how the false equivalency between words and violence is an insult to the victims of actual, bloody violence.

THE WAR ON ‘WOKE AI’ JUST BECAME FEDERAL POLICY: Ideological bias in Trump’s new executive order bans DEI-linked ideology from government-funded models. But trading one orthodoxy for another still threatens the truth.

FREE SPEECH PROTECTS THE POWERLESS: Discover why free speech has served as the best check on power ever invented.