Training that frames protected expression as something government agencies should suppress risks encouraging the use of public office to silence lawful speech. As Jonathan Rauch has written, “The big problem for proponents of hate-speech laws and codes is that they can never explain where to draw a stable and consistent line between hate speech and vigorous criticism, or who exactly can be trusted to draw it. The reason is that there is no such line.”

We have seen these ideas tried on campuses, and we have seen them fail time and time again. We should not be exporting them to workplaces at large or into the offices of elected officials.

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DT: authoritarians on the left and right often start with policing the mind, and when they find that impossible they seek to discourage anything that goes against the status quo they desire. If ethical principles don’t matter then minimally recognizing that this is ridiculously short sighted is important. Once a law like this is passed then what happens when those in charge are not aligned ideologically with you? The proverbial shoe will always eventually be on the other foot.