Does free speech work?

Everyone says that freedom keeps the gov’t honest and “holds it accountable”. Free speech is necessary to prevent dictators.

Well, does free speech improve the govt’s behavior?

Not much correlation. I can think of one good positive and three negatives without trying.

The positive is, of course, the only REAL positive in the last century. FDR was elected at a time when the secret police weren’t strongly active. Lady Edgar was creating and arresting subversives as always, but there wasn’t any pressure on newspapers or radio, and there weren’t any big show trials.

Negative 1: Harding made a sizable improvement. He promised normalcy and delivered. He stayed out of wars, helped unions, and dismantled most of Wilson’s dictatorial agencies. Harding was elected at a time of MAXIMUM repression. Wilson was arresting antiwar activists all the time and rigidly controlling all media. Wilson’s repression had the opposite effect.

Negative 2: Ike made a large improvement in Deepstate’s foreign imperialism but didn’t do much domestically. He promised peace and kept his promise. He pulled out of Korea and didn’t let Deepstate start any new foreign messes. He was elected in the middle of the HUAC show trials, directed by Nixon and JFK, which were suppressing every hint of pacifism or heresy everywhere. The HUAC trials led to peace, not to more war.

Negative 3, the other way around: Nixon was elected at a time of strong free speech and constant protests. Freedom was everywhere. He continued all of LBJ’s dirty tricks and escalated the war. The protesters got the opposite of what they wanted.