Steven Pinker – Free Speech is Fundamental

23 thoughts on “Steven Pinker – Free Speech is Fundamental”

1. First

2. Yet Pinker, Saad, Weinstein’s and Peterson all support violating the 1st amendment by asking Gov to pass speech legislation against social media owning individuals, which harms us all as equal individuals. Yaron Brook outsmarts them all…

3. Second…

4. This was actually very interesting, especially the “common knowledge” piece.

5. Wait a few days and watch this again.

6. He voted for Biden so I hope he personally suffers the consequences first.

7. Free Speech is Fundamental
   ⚠️This claim is disputed.

8. I would like to see the speech in totality. This guy is one of the few geniuses who is not also consumed with complete narcissism or skepticism.

9. In the UK we have people going to jail for offensive tweets…

10. I definitely like this speech, would be interested in the whole thing. He did use a strawman argument however, namely that conservatives don't like a welfare state because they can turn totalitarian, like the Nazis, Stalin, and Mao Zedong. And then he said the only problem with this is that it's never happened. That's correct, that's why that's not the argument. The argument is as you grow government, government becomes more powerful, and more able to exact a totalitarian future. It's not that a welfare state will necessarily lead to totalitarianism, but it sure can lead to the idea that socialism and communism is a good idea, such as has happened in America and the rest of the Western democracies in the recent decades. The argument was let's stop this now before people think a total government takeover is a good idea. Oh that will never happen!
    Enter Bernie Sanders. I now talk with people, supposedly educated people, in their late twenties who are openly calling for communism and socialism, and have no idea who Stalin or Mao Zedong are, or the fact that there is nothing new under the sun and communism and socialism is going on strong in the world, destroying lives by the millions even today. But I have always been impressed with Pinker, even though he has some extremely far-reaching left political ideologies, he still has the foundation of rationality there, which can be seen clearly in this speech. It does speak volumes of him that he is friends with, and a fan, of Thomas Sowell. Would that he would read more of his writing.

11. Unfortunately Steve pinker is no longer sane. Constantly spewing out anti Trump rhetoric as of late.

12. When I went to university in the 60’s, the radicals demanded free speech and told us to question authority. Now, the same radicals are telling us to shut up and do what we’re told. I didn’t buy their act in the 60’s, and I sure don’t now.

13. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. (Psalm 14:1, ESV)

14. "Capitalism is the exploitation of Man by Man, and Communism is the exact opposite." – I will need to use that sometime.

15. Glad he advocates free speech.
    He's dead wrong, however, asserting that somehow compulsory welfare and extensive govt regulation is different than coercion backed by the threat of violence.

    I think he's confused welfare with charity and govt regulations with contracts between individuals. Ironically, most of which come from faith-based organizations and capitalist principles, respectively, both of which he snubbed.

    I donate to charity every month because I think it's a good thing to do. I have my money stolen from me every paycheck because people I've never met agreed that it was a good thing for me to do. If I don't pay them what happens? In one instance, there will be disappointment. In the other, they will send the folks with guns and a uniform to take it from me.

16. Hmm, we live in a welfare state with a fraudulent election system, censorship, threats of being cancelled, threats of violence for voting for the wrong candidate, but of course we are not sliding toward totalitarianism, no not at all. And when those of us who refuse to shut up, what then? Oh it can only happen in a system overthrown in a revolution, so nothing to worry about…right comrade! No need to be concerned, comrade! Calm down and hand in your weapon comrade!

17. one-thousandth three hundredth and twenty-first!

18. F4WP

19. Lipsmacking snake

20. Free Speech is a lie. It always has been. As often as I've ragged the Founders on a lot of things, even they didn't believe in Free Speech. After all, Ben Franklin never published any rebuttals of the Declaration of Independence or the Declaration of the Rights of Man in any of his newspapers (here's one if you'd like to read it: 1776: Hutchinson, Strictures upon the Declaration of Independence | Online Library of Liberty (libertyfund.org) )

    We only care about "Free Speech" when we don't care what's being talked about. Every society has restrictions on things that shouldn't be said. Ours is stupid, because America is a shopping mall, not a nation.

    Here's a few articles to consider: Free Speech: Neither Real, Nor Your Right – Forge and Anvil (forge-and-anvil.com)
    Free Speech: A Weaponized Myth Used Successfully By The Left – Forge and Anvil (forge-and-anvil.com)
    Free Speech: Democracy’s Tool – Forge and Anvil (forge-and-anvil.com)

21. When was this talk given? I wonder if he would agree with his final assertion after all that has transpired over the last year.

22. ironically the people who don't deserve free speech are the ones taking it away from others

23. I wish he'd drink some water and stop smacking. Tsk. Tschk.

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