Free Speech
On X
2010
'Free markets', 'tolerance', 'pacifism', 'free speech' etc.. are what physicists call 'effective theories' and require warning labels.
Obscenity charges against Gonzo pioneer John Stagliano are dropped! Miller v California remains a menace to free speech http://bit.ly/aVTowv
2011
The "Free speech zone" = X was invented & named in the USA = Y in 1988. Q: Name its even more important set-theoretic complement Y \ X.
2016
Confused by people promoting free speech by being deliberately offensive when you can offend many more people by simply thinking clearly.
If you don't define free speech movement goals carefully, you end up complaining about the free speech of others that inhibits yours.
I'm not as focused on free speech as I am around the "Don't worry, contrarian intellectuals. You'll still have a job on Monday."-movement.
2017
While often tempted, I'm not a free speech absolutist. I'm an anti-utopian w a commitment to keep our world safe from well meaning utopians.
Most of my friends who are free speech absolutists have never run the simulator forward to see the dystopia total free speech would create.
I like free speech but not absolute free speech. The US is the finer but not the latter.
Conclusion: my engagement patterns changed. Some of it is likely algorithmic. We should have a free speech option: time ordered, no filters.
We're standing up to mob rule to fight for universal civil rights, academic freedom, science & free speech. Safety NOT guaranteed.
Want in?
Many have urged me to follow @jordanbpeterson's lead these last 2 weeks--friends, students, strangers. I'm listening
VOICE OVER: We've secretly replaced Free-Speech America w new improved Sharia-compliant blasphemy-free America. Let's watch folks' reaction!
Berkeley used to be Free Speech Center! Now KPFA Cancels Richard Dawkins talk because he criticizes Islam? Shame!
Clay, you weren't in a comedy club & your right to free speech wasn't infringed. You just put a colleague in a no win situation...& she won!
Here's @cnn video of me saying I love the first amendment and boobs that nearly shut down the network. So great:
1/ You bet I do: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mn5crhTusSA
Let's analyze why a sports guy like Crash Davis got to be pro-pornography & talk about body parts. https://x.com/EuroPork/status/908809213165604871
2/ Sarandon's character was host to two men. But it was she who turned the conversation sexy. Costner was offended (not outraged) & strong.
3/ Sarandon wouldn't let him stay private crossing into his space. He responded to her as a sexual woman and an equal not a delicate flower.
4/ He also was leaving her space and not remaining on her couch. This gave her choice without having to have her shut him down. A key issue.
5/ My point's simple. These issues are tricky & we've all screwed them up. But we don't just get to say any old thing. There are rules here.
End/ This isn't the crime of the century. But it's also not fair. There are implicit rules about jokes & flirting that aren't "free speech."
On the death of @hughhefner, I had to remind myself of how a lost thinking US-Left playfully championed free speech:
I believe @facebook, @Twitter, @Google are now deploying effective new measures & standards for securing US democracy against a repeat of unwanted involvement by unacceptable outsiders.
What I just canât shake is fear that those outsiders are our own dissenting fellow citizens.
I should point out that unlike many friends, Iâm *not* a free speech absolutist. Not a Trump voter. Not opposed to *some* discretion by the private sector as to whom it can deny service. But these are now utility like companies and something feels too...coordinated?...something.
2018
How is it that from a vast number of public speakers in the extended @SamHarrisOrg family you @EricRWeinstein seem to be the the first one to bring up the marvelous Marshall Rosenberg and #nonviolentcommunication #nvc ???
I don't know that I am. But it seems weird to me that I haven't heard it from anyone else given the amount of attention to "hate speech" and "speech as violence". If I have this wrong, point me to others discussing this in the context of free speech/hate speech. Thx!
âSo, quick summary: There is no campus free speech crisis, the kids are all right, those that say otherwise have lost all perspectiveâ -@JeffreyASachs
But we do have some lovely parting gifts for our contestant Jeffrey here on âLetâs-Build-a-Strawman!â
1/2 The free speech community is itself divided as to whether the case for free speech is better made focusing on speech specifically intended to offend, or necessary speech deemed outrageous & attacked by authoritarians wishing to control & stigmatize reasonable civil discourse.
2/2 While I understand and can make *both* cases, I'm solidly in with the latter. It's now so easy to be attacked by a vengeful mob by simply saying true, reasonable things, that I can't find any advantage in confusing the story with being mean or teasing the weak & vulnerable.
Oh this is good: "Free Speech Grifters"! Let me save you time Mari. Everyone needs to be very very afraid of: @BretWeinstein, @clairlemon , @DouglasKMurray, @CHSommers, @jordanbpeterson, @RubinReport, @joerogan, @SamHarrisOrg, @benshapiro, me etc..
Why? We're not MSM compliant. https://x.com/mariuyehara/status/975754244904161281
There is not one single word or phrase in any language ever spoken that is without potential wholesome legitimate use by anyone living anywhere.
No language-level bans can withstand scrutiny. Not one.
And, for the record, Iâm not even a free speech absolutist...
Advertisers vs Riskvertisers:
An advertiser is a company commandeering attention to promote a product. A riskvertiser, by contrast, would be a courageous firm that underwrites important speech others wish to ban, and asks the public to consider its product in return for courage.
We the public and the creators need to stop supporting advertisers who buckle to sanctimonious mobs out of cowardice when the charges are frivolous.
More importantly, WE need to lead and build the Riskvertising industry. Letâs reward those companies that treat us as adults.
The following is an (unauthorized) RISKVERTISMENT for @DrBronner.
I love DR BRONNER soap! Their luxurious Castille soaps are no less amazing than their corporate bravery in support of Psychedelic Research on substances which are currently illegal!
#RewardCourage #Riskvertise. If you know of other firms that donât buckle under pressure and who are interested in underwriting free speech, psychedelic research, and other unpopular worthy causes, please let me know! Letâs experiment with paying it forward until we find underwriters who donât cut &run.
And note: this isnât about Tucker. Itâs about general ambient pressure that seems more about sanctimony than ethics.
1/ The Christmas Thread.
First off, Merry Xmas to all.
Iâm asking for your help. I want to know whether any of you know about any quiet working groups or meetings involving but not limited to Visa/MC/PayPal/etc working on the issues of âpopulismâ/âradicalizationâ as euphemisms.
2/ This would be organized by by some group like CFR, NAS or some other blue chip institution. It would be looking to figure out how to handle the âproblemsâ of popular nullification of institutional objectives. In short it would view Brexit, Trump and restrictionism as âhateâ.
3/ This quiet meeting would bring together the major âstakeholdersâ(?) which would not include the public. The twin problems the meeting would actually be trying to solve are âfree speechâ and âdemocratic choiceâ which the public generally doesnât want solved at all.
4/ The meeting would explore the question of how to use the existing anti-terror programs & platform level controls to handle garden variety dissent contributing to popular nullification as if it were âhate speechâ, which it would claim was akin to, or a gateway for, terror.
5/ Iâm not asking b/c I have any information that such a meeting occurred. I, in fact, have NO such information. However, I am well aware of how coordinated action has been made to look more âemergentâ, in the past & I now think weâre at a very dangerous juncture between 2018-20.
6/ This all now looks way off to me. Patreon is just the window through which we are glimpsing it. Why? Because theyâre clumsy. I fear weâre seeing some plan to reestablish the former power of the Gated Institutional Narrative well above Patreonâs paygrade using payment networks.
7/ I hope this is wrong. But if itâs correct, âimproperâ bitcoin transactions will start to carry serious criminal penalties. Further @jordanbpeterson will not deliver a technological fix as indicated.
Watch @datasociety, @nytimes coverage & payment channels.
Happy Holidays.
Free speech isnât a fascinating topic.
At least to me, itâs more like âair hungerâ: when youâre being choked, itâs always super important to you above everything else, even if simple breathing isnât really something upon which you ever expected to focus your intellectual energy.
2019
1/ Iâve been noticing a ubiquitous technique recently upon which I have seen little commented. âPunchable faceâ, #killallmen, âOpen Bordersâ, âTax is Theftâ, âBelieve Womenâ, âFree marketsâ, âFree Speechâ and uptalking are examples. I want to explain here what I see linking them.
Things important to me in a true progressive agenda:
Free Speech
Normalization of Intersex
Median Family Formation/Security
Economic Recognition of Kin Work
Neuro Diversity/Inclusion in Schools
Ending Labor Subsidy for Employers
Ending Race Based Incarceration
Stakeholder Value
No. đ.
Gay Marriage & rights. Workplace safety. Breaking Appalachian slavery of the coal Barons. Interracial marriage. Civil rights issues. Free speech movement. Cannabis acceptance. Vietnam War protests. Etc...
The history of the Left has no shortage of high points @prageru.
I am not a free speech absolutist.
I also introduced the IDW term. Get it right.
Well this is cool. @CIGS_INET is starting off a YouTube channel with a bang: @SamHarrisOrg interviews @NAChristakis on the evolutionary pressure on free speech after the digital revolution. Subscribe on YT to get them to continue making more great content! https://youtu.be/2oNLoPAf1hg
[My audience isnât exactly clamoring for me to interview Billy Bragg. It was supposed to be a reciprocal show of solidarity in the face of four more years of Trump on the horizon if we donât come together. Youâre not wrong whoever you are. Nothing to do w/ âgladiatorial combatâ.]
[And thank you for trying @BluesClown. After hearing about being a âfree speech warriorâ (false), trying for gladiatorial confrontation (false) and having heard that Iâm an âinvestment bankerâ (false), the public mischaracterization feels infinite. He can always find me in DM.]
Stop whispering Eric, we can all hear you. If the âchallengeâ of debating me on your podcast is withdrawn, then maybe you should change the name of your club to the Intentionally Dark Web, and stop getting upset when people say you wonât debate them.
Cut it out. I wasnât looking to debate you on your stage. Just play two songs that came out of two adjacent counties in Appalachian Kentucky we lost to Trump in 2016 in solidarity w workers & boost your book tour on a podcast after your show. Then you said âno thank youâ. So Ok!
It was about solidarity w decent people getting screwed over by both political parties & the Left not eating itself, but actually doing something to come together. But you werenât interested and I accepted that. Okay. Move on. But Pete Seeger would have shaken my hand. As he did.
Iâm happy to shake your hand. I just donât understand why youâve withdrawn your initial invite to debate the issue on your podcast? Was it conditional?
Yes and no. I wasnât looking to debate you. You wanted that. Iâm not a free speech warrior. You said that, not me. Iâm not an investment banker. I heard you think I am.
That sounded fishy. But you have been a person of integrity for a long time. 1/2.
Music to me is like breaking bread. I wonât have a man to my house who wonât have me to his. I wouldnât invite a man playing the Saul Alinksy ridicule game. My audience isnât going to like the Internationale. But I would have stood up for you. DM if you like for a call. Peace 2/2
And it would be an honor to shake yours. Thanks for standing up for the voiceless during the dark times. Even if we disagree.
Thereâs a sizable number of white supremacists who latch onto legitimate free speech, meritocracy, islamofascism & immigration issues like free-riding remoras. If these are issues you discuss you *must* piss these folks off regularly as if rubbing against a reef to dislodge them.
2020
2021
2022
2023
Because our institutions decided that they outgrew the free society they serve.
What is a âFree Speech Zoneâ to a free people? [Since 1988]
What is a âreputation scoreâ and why am I still throttled?
NEWS: The Twitter team continue to find shadowbans buried deep in the Twitter code.
Just last week they found a measure that stopped accounts assigned a low 'Reputation score' from trending.
This shadowban even applied to Elon's account and prevented his tweets from trending.
What is ESG and how does it work exactly?
NEW: From S&P Global to the London Stock Exchange, tobacco companies are crushing Tesla in the ESG ratings. How could cigarettes, which kill over 8 million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars?
One answer: Tobaccoâs gone woke.𧾠https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/how-tobacco-companies-are-crushing-esg-ratings/
What is âControlled Sponteneityâ?
Is there a more Orwellian oxymoron among oxymorons?
What was Project DEFUSE? Seriously.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21066966-defuse-proposal/
Why is this so anti-interesting?
Just search on âFurinâ, âSARS-CoVâ âSpike Proteinâ, âWuhanâ and âDTRAâ for @doddtra. Wouldnât you **want** deep public hearings if this was all a super unfortunate coincidence? Right??
Coincidence theory puts conspiracy theory to shame.
If you want to understand Trump & RFK, make it very simple. Ignore the errors and issues for a moment. ALL of them. Theyâre the only 2 major candidates working at the scope of âMaybe almost EVERYTHING important/weird that weâre told by institutions is potentially totally wrong.â
2024
For me, this has little to do w/ Kamala. It's:
Democracy vs TheDemocracyâ˘
Science vs TheScienceâ˘
Privacy vs TheTermsOfServicePrivacyPolicyâ˘
Free Speech vs OurFreeSpeechâ˘
Academic Freedom vs USAcademicFreedomâ˘
Diversity vs DEIâ˘
Professional Agreement vs TheExpertConsensusâ˘
I was recommended to join this space on X last night during a drive to meet friends.
I was told that Iâd find it âinteresting.â
I found it interesting. We are here, after all.
Still processing.
An interesting waste of time? Not being a smartass, what's the point.
Maybe just listen to 5 minutes at random? Itâs as much about X and the state of free speech as it is about the topic.
2025
This Kimmel thing is really disturbing to me.
I have no idea how our late night hosts became soâŚuhâŚumâŚclosely coordinated.
But FCC pressuring ABC is chilling. Yet no one seems to see free speech non-politically.
Iâm for free speech. Even though I see the coordination here:
And please spare me the idea that this is just all so simple. There are laws, and then there are norms. And the norms have culture around them. There are also understandings.
Those who follow me know, I believe the easy part of free speech is the law.
The rest is the hard part.
They have a broadcast license and thus are subject to regulation. This isn't complicated.
A free country, a free press, free markets, free and fair elections, and a free people arenât so easy to pull off or everyone would have done it.
We never had all of those things. Ever.
But we got closer than I ever could have imagined. And it wasnât because it was all simple.
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