Lecturer Josh Green: First Amendment Means Something Else to Millennials

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- Josh Green teaches American politics at San Francisco State University. He wrote this op-ed about millennials’ attitudes toward the First Amendment and people expressing dissenting viewpoints.

“Over the last few years a chilling fact has become clear to me as a teacher of American politics.

“Our high school students, who are taught to be tolerant of their fellow students regardless of skin color or class, do not understand a basic tenet of the First Amendment: Mean people get to speak.

“By teaching our children tolerance when they are in school, we might also teach them not to be tolerant of hateful people. But there’s the rub: tolerance of speech applies to everyone, not the ones who we decide deserve it.”