DeepSummary
Sam Harris welcomes Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), to discuss freedom of speech and cancel culture. They explore the origins of political correctness, the boundaries of free speech, the bedrock principle of the First Amendment, and the role of technology and social media in the marketplace of ideas.
Lukianoff explains his expansive view of free speech, including protecting offensive speech as a necessary condition for a multicultural society. He argues that conspiracy theories and offensive ideas should be aired to understand people's mindsets and challenge falsities, citing John Stuart Mill's principles. They delve into the differences between the US and European approaches to regulating speech.
The conversation touches on the epistemic anarchy caused by social media and the breakdown of trust in experts and institutions. Lukianoff advocates bottom-up solutions to restore credibility and identify reliable sources of truth. They also discuss cancel culture on campuses, justified cancellations like Alex Jones, and navigating complex issues like the Hunter Biden laptop story and dealing with Trump in the media.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Free speech, including the protection of offensive speech, is crucial for a multicultural society and understanding different perspectives.
- Social media and cancel culture have contributed to epistemic anarchy and a breakdown of trust in experts and institutions.
- Bottom-up solutions are needed to restore credibility and identify reliable sources of truth amidst the proliferation of misinformation.
- The US and Europe have differing approaches to regulating speech, with the US upholding the bedrock principle of not banning offensive speech.
- While some cancellations may be justified, cancel culture on campuses has undermined the credibility of academics and the expert class.
- Conspiracy theories and offensive ideas should be aired to understand people's mindsets and challenge falsities through open debate.
- Laws against conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial can paradoxically contribute to the persistence of such beliefs and ideologies.
- Navigating complex issues like the Hunter Biden laptop story and dealing with Trump in the media requires careful consideration of the principles of free speech and the role of platforms in amplifying misinformation.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I think that cancel culture. I think what the calamities were seeing on campus has been a well deserved disaster for the credibility of the academic class and for the expert class overall, because nobody really, after a professor loses their job, for example, for saying biological sex is real, which really happened, nobody's going to listen to you again when you try to claim actually it exists on a spectrum, because they realize you can't be objective in an environment where your job would depend on giving the quote unquote right answer on that.“ by Greg Lukianoff
- “But the bedrock principle of the First Amendment is that you cannot in the United States ban speech simply because it's offensive. And I always make the point that this is a great rule for a genuinely multicultural society because what people find offensive, and my dad's Russian, my mother's british, I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of kids from Vietnam and Puerto Rico and Korea and from Peru, all people who had very different ideas of what offensive speech looked like.“ by Greg Lukianoff
- “If you create a situation in which people aren't too terrified to say what they actually think for fear of punishment, you are depriving yourself of really important knowledge about the world.“ by Greg Lukianoff
- “I think that a lot of these anti conspiracy laws backfire in multiple ways. And one thing that is, I think, interesting is when you look at the prevalence of holocaust denial, but also of things like anti semitism in Europe versus the United States.“ by Greg Lukianoff
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Episode Information
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris
5/21/24
Sam Harris speaks with Greg Lukianoff about free speech and cancel culture. They discuss the origins of political correctness, free speech and its boundaries, the bedrock principle of the First Amendment, technology and the marketplace of ideas, epistemic anarchy, social media and cancellation, comparisons to McCarthyism, self-censorship by professors, cancellation from the Left and Right, justified cancellations, the Hunter Biden laptop story, how to deal with Trump in the media, the state of higher education in America, and other topics.
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