Free Speech Archives

Double Standards for Nadia Murad and Shamima Begum

Nadia Murad, who won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, was only 19 in 2014, when Islamic State (ISIS) militants invaded her Yazidi village, Kocho, in northern Iraq. They killed all the…

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6 min

A Multicultural Psychologist’s Take on Free Speech

What is important in life? I think freedom of thought and expression must be among the top contenders. I’d like to share with you how two things contributed to this…

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7 min

Against the New Irish Hate Speech Bill

To the Irish Justice Ministry George Orwell once wrote that, “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”…

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10 min

Science & Tech

The Promotion of Ivermectin: A Free Speech Edge Case

Several recent exchanges about Covid-19 vaccination and a medication called Ivermectin—for example in a recent podcast hosted by Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying—have raised an important question: What responsibility, if…

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11 min

The Neuroscience of Intellectual Openness

How is it that some people feel energised by the thought of fierce debate and keen to have their beliefs challenged and their minds potentially changed, while others appear unwilling…

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4 min

Politics

The Golden Age of Slogans

Free speech suffocates when a requirement to parrot slogans constricts the free exchange of ideas and thoughts in the public square.

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13 min

Science & Tech

What Multilevel Selection Theory Tells Us About Free Speech

I’m guessing that most readers of this essay are unfamiliar with the theory its title refers to. That’s a pity, because multilevel selection (MLS) theory, which was developed to explain…

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12 min

The Right to Remain Silent

But the danger [here] of words in their theoretical insignificance is perhaps that they claim to evoke the annihilation where all sinks always, without hearing the “be silent” addressed to…

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10 min

The Lab Leak and Other Conspiracy Theories, Some Of Which Turned Out to Be True

Conspiracy theories are the new evil of our time—or so we thought. Over the past six months, there has been a unified drive from politicians and Big Tech to ban…

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10 min

Politics

The Free Speech Crisis Runs Deeper Than You Think

The question of whether freedom of speech is under threat has been a point of debate for several years now. Some have argued that the notion of a free speech…

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7 min

Free Speech, Civil Rights and the Moral Imperative of Persuasion

The guarantee of freedom of expression in the First Amendment to United States Constitution has never abridged a publisher’s right to determine what content he prints in his newspaper. Just…

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8 min

Philosophy

Free Speech and Academic Freedom in the Humanities

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13 min

Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments: Featuring That XKCD Cartoon Everyone Likes to Quote!

In a recent episode of her podcast, Iona Italia expressed frustration about bad arguments against freedom of speech that she’s had to combat over and over again. I am therefore…

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12 min

Politics

Asking Utopians How: An Alternative Strategy for Defending Freedom of Speech

I used to be woke a good fifteen years before it was called that. You could call it proto-woke, but I called myself a post-Marxist, sometimes a postmodernist. Being a…

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11 min

Politics

Students Must Stand Up for Their Professors’ Free Speech

Whatever else they may be accused of, British students are not apathetic. On social media and online petition sites, they campaign for social causes and fight for equality. Every so…

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Free Speech

Double Standards for Nadia Murad and Shamima Begum

A Multicultural Psychologist’s Take on Free Speech

Against the New Irish Hate Speech Bill

The Promotion of Ivermectin: A Free Speech Edge Case

The Neuroscience of Intellectual Openness

The Golden Age of Slogans

What Multilevel Selection Theory Tells Us About Free Speech

The Right to Remain Silent

The Lab Leak and Other Conspiracy Theories, Some Of Which Turned Out to Be True

The Free Speech Crisis Runs Deeper Than You Think

Free Speech, Civil Rights and the Moral Imperative of Persuasion

Free Speech and Academic Freedom in the Humanities

Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments: Featuring That XKCD Cartoon Everyone Likes to Quote!

Asking Utopians How: An Alternative Strategy for Defending Freedom of Speech

Students Must Stand Up for Their Professors’ Free Speech

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