Actually, I think it starts earlier than that.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sort of related: How a Progressive became an unperson.
Over on Twitter, I’ve been noting the irony that being a racist was one of the less objectionable things about our first fascist dictator (and arguable worst president, at least until 2009). But they Left was happy with all of the other things Wilson did, including trampling on that pesky, hateful Constitution.
[Update a couple minutes later]
How to spot and critique leftist free-speech tropes in the media. It’s worth noting that Oliver Wendell Holmes’s comment occurred during the Wilson administration.
Murray Rothbard had a valid dissection of Holmes’ “fire/crowded theater” argument in (as I recall) his book POWER AND MARKET.. He states that if someone falsely yelled “Fire!” in a crowded theater, it would be either someone in the audience, who would be guilty of disrupting a performance the rest of the audience had paid money to attend; or the theater owner, who would be guilty of luring people into his theater and paying for a performance of some kind, but then violating the tacit agreement between audience and management by yelling “Fire!” Either way it’s not a free-speech problem but one of someone violating other people’s rights to view a performance they paid for..