The Enablers of Free Speech

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i wanted to have you expand on this little bit, because inequality is such subject in the national conversation now. You make a distinction between formal equality and substantive equality. How do you think about that in the context of free speech? And i so in our work at pen america, we devote a lot of attention to trying to enable lesser heard voices. We've an emerging voices program devoted to aspiring writers from non traditional backgrounds who would otherwise be locked out of the literary community.

Online trolls and fascist chat groups. Controversies over campus lectures. Cancel culture versus censorship. The daily hazards and debates surrounding free speech dominate headlines and fuel social media storms. In an era where one tweet can launch — or end — your career, and where free speech is often invoked as a principle but rarely understood, learning to maneuver the fast-changing, treacherous landscape of public discourse has never been more urgent. In Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All, Suzanne Nossel, a leading voice in support of free expression, delivers a vital, necessary guide to maintaining democratic debate that is open, free-wheeling but at the same time respectful of the rich diversity of backgrounds and opinions in a changing country.

Shermer and Nossel discuss: private vs. government restrictions on speech; hate speech, libel, slander, compelled speech; incitement to violence and insurrection; cancel culture; social media censorship; the euphemism treadmill, and more…