Why do free speech debates make us so angry?

We try to pin down definitions and enforce rules – but often what we’re really arguing about is character In January 2015, two members of al-Qaida gunned down cartoonists at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in retaliation for their publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. In the following weeks, my Facebook page split in two. Many of my childhood friends (I grew up in France and went to school near Paris) expressed their sadness at the death of artists they had been familia...

By Matei Candea