Carter suggests that free speech is necessary for students to explore, challenge, and refine ideas. Without it, higher education cannot foster the intellectual curiosity or independent thinking that is central to its purpose. Additionally, without free speech most systems cannot properly function

Carter suggests that all ideas, even controversial ideas, need to be allowed to be heard in educational facilities, as academic freedom supports the exploration of all ideas, and development of students may be damaged if they cannot engage in the topics they are interested in, regardless of how controversial they are

Carter discusses his experience as a college student, when physicist William Shockley, who was known for making racist remarks, visited his college

Shockley was met with a lot of protests by students who did not want him on campus as a result of his remarks

Carter argues that  a better approach would have been to engage with his ideas directly and challenge them through debate instead of trying to censor him

Carter personally participated in a discussion with Shockley, showing an example of how academic institutions should encourage open dialogue

Carter emphasizes that the primary goal of higher education should be to nurture intellectual curiosity, encouraging students to question, explore, and seek out knowledge, even when it challenges their preconceived beliefs.

The free speech issue, specifically on college campuses, is shown by the dilemma over the Israel/Palestine war at Harvard University

The controversy started with criticisms of universities, including Harvard, for their soft responses to the Hamas attack on Israel and the inflammatory rhetoric from pro-Palestinian protesters, creating tension on campuses.

The fear that communists had infiltrated the government

Forced people to take loyalty oaths or lose their job, title, etc.

A form of cancel culture, used to censor people, as William Shockley was censored

External parties can control a speakers speech, what and how they say things, who they say it to, etc.

Carter portrays it also as a modern day form of cancel culture that hinders individuality

A speaker has the right to uptake, meaning they should be able to speak with the listener allowing them to speak and not interrupting, etc.

Not allowing a speaker the right to uptake interferes with free speech, and interferes with academic freedom

Surveys show that the main reason that students do not share their ideas or opinions is mainly to avoid being looked down upon by their peers for their opinions. As a result, students self censor themselves and do not exercise curiosity

Carter connects his ideas, by showing self censorship by students through surveys, as well as showing how speech regulations made administrators in college not as open to sharing their stance

The crisis at Harvard and other universities escalated into a larger cultural battle, highlighting how universities’ vague and inconsistent speech regulations have led to confusion and made campus administrators reluctant to clarify their stance on free speech.

Carter questions if these speech regulations may be interfering with the ability of people to exercise curiosity, and thereby preventing from reaching higher areas in their education

Confirmation bias is a type of bias where people only accept certain facts as being true if the facts benefits their preexisting stance/opinion

Confirmation bias leads to close mindedness and blocking out other ideas, which hinders academic freedom of speech and a speaker's right to uptake, by blocking out/not listening to people's ideas and voices

Global events have a large effect on how people perceive what one can say or not say (freedom of speech)

Current events cause division, but that division does not necessarily have to be a negative thing as long as all sides get to share their view while being listened to, and it is done in a civil way

When a person or group of people is silenced or tried to be silenced for speaking about an idea or ideas that are unpopular/controversial

William Shockley and the students who felt a need to self censor were both subject to cancel culture, as Carter uses these examples to show why censorship is destructive