After the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the lethal shootings at a free speech event in Copenhagen, some Western intellectuals are now raising the question whether we, in the West, are guilty of abusing our free speech.

Is it really necessary, they ask, to offend one billion Muslims, just to make a point? How many more will have to pay with their very lives, they ask, before irresponsible provocateurs and troublemakers like Flemming Rose, Lars Vilks and the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, realize that they have gone too far? The very fact that such questions are raised at all only underscores the severity of the threat to our freedom of speech.

In this talk, which was delivered as a part of ARI’s
Road to a Free Society Tour, ARI’s executive director, Yaron Brook explains why free speech is being attacked today and argues that it’s imperative to defend this most precious freedom.

Recorded January 21, 2015.

Previous talks in this series:

• Onkar Ghate — Religion vs. Freedom [Video]
• Steve Simpson — Cronyism, Corruption and Government Power [Video]
• Don Watkins — End the Debt Draft: How the Welfare State Is Exploiting Millennials [Video]
• Keith Lockitch — The Sacred Self: Ayn Rand On Abortion, Foreign Policy and Environmentalism [Video]

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