On The Yaron Brook Show this past weekend, Don Watkins and I discussed freedom of speech and the many campus protests and controversies that have broken out over the past few weeks. It’s a really good discussion (if I do say so myself) of a lot of issues that bear on the campus protests, including racism, inequality and even helicopter parenting. During the show, Don and I mentioned a number of essays by Ayn Rand that bear on the campus protests that are worth elaborating on a bit more.
Ten years ago last week, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons related to Islam. The aim was to gauge a seemingly growing climate of self-censorship in Europe. The ensuing crisis went global.
In this talk, Onkar Ghate, Senior Fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, argues that the assassination of the journalists at Charlie Hebdo is an ominous event. It revealed the price of the West’s ongoing appeasement of religion. This appeasement takes many forms, but all serve to embolden religionists and encourage further demands and attacks. Onkar argues that we need to talk with our fellow Americans about the right to deliberately ridicule religion, and offers some advice on how to do that in the face of religious attacks.
Today The Undercurrent published an extensive interview with ARI's Onkar Ghate on the tension between religion and free speech, today’s atmosphere of self-censorship and the meaning of free speech.
Don’t miss an all new episode of The Yaron Brook Show this Monday, May 11, in which Yaron will discuss Israel’s fight to defend itself from its aggressors.
Peter Bergen argues in a piece for CNN, that it was inevitable that one day actual violence over speech that Muslims find offensive would reach our shores. Now it’s happened. On Sunday, two gunmen opened fire at the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” in Garland, Texas. Police shot and killed the two gunmen. One security guard was injured, but it appears the injuries were not serious. We can be thankful for that. Must Americans now become accustomed to this sort of violence?
Don’t miss an all new episode of The Yaron Brook Show this Monday, May 4, in which ARI’s Onkar Ghate will guest host. Onkar will discuss America’s current immigration policies and analyze what is proper in a free society. He’ll also talk about the comments made by Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau on free speech and radical Islam.
Each year, high school debaters go head-to-head to qualify for a chance to compete in the National Speech & Debate Tournament. This year, debaters qualified by making persuasive arguments on topics ranging from whether employers should be required to provide employees with “living wages” to whether or not the United States should commit ground troops to combatting ISIL. In June, top competitors from 110 districts across the country will gather in Dallas, Texas to showcase their skills for the chance to win college scholarships.
I’ve recently given a couple talks called “Free Speech Under Siege” in which I argue that the primary threat to free speech today comes not from terrorist attacks, such as those in Paris in January, but from an unwillingness to defend free speech as a right. That’s not to say terrorist attacks aren’t significant — ask Flemming Rose or cartoonist Molly Norris how free they feel to speak after being threatened with death for daring to publish drawings of Muhammad. My point is that the threats and killings can only succeed in chilling our speech if we let them. One way we do that is by appeasing those who resort to threats and violence.
