I think it the natural human condition to censor speech which it makes one uncomfortable to hear. That impulse knows no boundaries, be it of class, wealth or erudition. It's just too powerful a human impulse. That is why the uniquely robust application of the Free Speech right in the US, is truly its most gleaming jewel in its crown. Thank heavens that the quads within the Ivory Tower are not co-extensive with the public square. Were it, the Fruited Plain would be something nearer to a wasteland, and farther away from any sort of Shining City on the Hill, than it is - at least to me.
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I've always thought of the Anglosphere as having a sort of Sonderweg on the issue of free speech and authority: we aren't dictatorships like China or Venezuela but we aren't habitual revolutionaries/anarchists like the French and the Somalis.
