Poll Shows 85% of Americans Value Free Speech more than Political Correctness, and 73% are Willing to Die for their Rights

According to new research from Rasmussen Reports the vast majority of Americans still believe in free speech, and are willing to die to defend it—despite what you hear from major media outlets like CNN, American’s aren’t in favor of adopting “hate speech” punishments of the sort common in Canada or Europe.

The polling was conducted by telephone and online, and found that 85% of American adults think the right to free speech is more important than protecting people from hateful remarks.

In fact, only 8% of those surveyed thought that ensuring people aren’t offended was more important that unadulterated free speech—the number of “progressives” is far lower than the media leads us to believe.

When it comes to fighting for the right for free speech, some 73% of Americans agreed with Voltaire’s famous maxim: “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Perhaps most importantly, most Americans ranked free speech as the most important Constitutional right—free speech is seen as foundational, and more important than the other predicate rights, like the right to bear arms.

While these poll numbers are promising, the report also illuminates more troubling trends.

For example, just 28% of Americans believe they still have free speech today—most think the Constitutional protections are often skirted in favor of political correctness.

Sadly, they may be right. The fact that people are losing their jobs over expressing conservative opinion—even at big, powerful companies like Google—is dangerous.

Also see: majority of Americans are against removing Confederate monuments, think doing so will hurt race relations.