I grew up with this idea in the 70s and 80s, but it seems like it is now dead. I remember when free speech was huge. Remember "Banned in the USA" by 2LiveCrew? Censorship was a huge issue growing up, and as a northeastern liberal we were very against censorship. Bruce Springsteen let 2LiveCrew use a sample of Born in the USA in a song about the right to make raunchy music, because free speech was that important.

Was Gen X the last generation to hold this value? Because I see people arguing in favor of censorship left and right now, it is sad. Even many Gen Xers I know now support censorship of the worst kind.

Edit: Here is a great pamphlet from the ACLU explaining why they would defend Nazis and KKK, even if they disagree with them.

Edit 2: I see a lot of people invoking race and minority status as reasons to limit speech in some ways, it is my experience as a black person in America that makes me sensitive to censorship. Black history has tons of examples of both the government and private companies trying to stop the speech of black people who speak out. Because of this history, I support free speech, even of racist bigots. Of course there are limits, like calling for violence on specific people. But those limits should be very high.