u/Ahaus667 is right in part, but it's important Woodrow Wilson was also a Progressive, and as such the ACLU has always been a Leftist at it's core.
The only reason it supported Free Speech is because Communists were being censored. As Leftists are more in control of cultural institutions, limiting speech in order to stifle dissent against Leftism is completely acceptable.
The John Birch Society has a video where they go over "Communist Techniques" and they brought up how high ranking members of the ACLU had actually created fake propaganda material, associated it with JBS, disseminated it, denounced it, and used that as justification to have political action taken against JBS. I think another member called up random people in the area who had expressed interest in JBS, and started ranting about "niggers and jews" while pretending to be members, in order to dissuade people from being affiliating with the organization. This was in the 50's and 60's.
I wouldn't say there were as bad as the National Lawyer's Guild (which have basically given legal cover to Leftist Terrorism for decades), but they're not anywhere near as clean or good as they want people to think.
u/Ahaus667 is right in part, but it's important Woodrow Wilson was also a Progressive, and as such the ACLU has always been a Leftist at it's core.
The only reason it supported Free Speech is because Communists were being censored. As Leftists are more in control of cultural institutions, limiting speech in order to stifle dissent against Leftism is completely acceptable.
The John Birch Society has a video where they go over "Communist Techniques" and they brought up how high ranking members of the ACLU had actually created fake propaganda material, associated it with JBS, disseminated it, denounced it, and used that as justification to have political action taken against JBS. I think another member called up random people in the area who had expressed interest in JBS, and started ranting about "niggers and jews" while pretending to be members, in order to dissuade people from being affiliating with the organization. This was in the 50's and 60's.
I wouldn't say there were as bad as the National Lawyer's Guild (which have basically given legal cover to Leftist Terrorism for decades), but they're not anywhere near as clean or good as they want people to think.