Silencing speech: New American free speech debates

Abstract

This article investigates the discursive production of “the silent majority” as a collective subject of Right-wing politics in the context of free speech controversies on U.S. college campuses. The discussion that follows examines the way the populist rhetoric, reified in the speech/silence dichotomy, focalizes partisan dissent and resentment and seeks to restore the nation's past glory that was allegedly lost to political correctness and identity politics.