Lex Fridman Podcast
#397 – Greg Lukianoff: Cancel Culture, Deplatforming, Censorship & Free Speech
25 Sep 2023
Greg Lukianoff is a free speech advocate, first-amendment attorney, president of FIRE - Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind and a new book The Canceling of the American Mind. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Policygenius: https://www.policygenius.com/ - Babbel: https://babbel.com/lexpod and use code Lexpod to get 55% off - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/greg-lukianoff-transcript EPISODE LINKS: Greg's Twitter: https://twitter.com/glukianoff Greg's Instagram: https://instagram.com/glukianoff FIRE: https://thefire.org/ FIRE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFIREorg *** Greg's Books *** The Canceling of the American Mind: https://amzn.to/464yasg The Coddling of the American Mind: https://amzn.to/3EL48hj Freedom from Speech: https://amzn.to/3rhrdVN Unlearning Liberty: https://amzn.to/3rlFnoN *** Books Mentioned *** The Closing of the American Mind: https://amzn.to/4638KuX The Origins of Political Order: https://amzn.to/464zkE8 So You've Been Publicly Shamed: https://amzn.to/48nm1Af Racial Paranoia: https://amzn.to/3RzyY3U Why Buddhism Is True: https://amzn.to/3t4R5Vk Speaking Freely: https://amzn.to/3Zr64oG PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (10:49) - Cancel culture & freedom of speech (25:21) - Left-wing vs right-wing cancel culture (34:06) - Religion (36:46) - College rankings by freedom of speech (42:54) - Deplatforming (57:29) - Whataboutism (1:02:32) - Steelmanning (1:10:08) - How the left argues (1:20:48) - Diversity, equity, and inclusion (1:32:39) - Why colleges lean left (1:40:17) - How the right argues (1:44:52) - Hate speech (1:53:39) - Platforming (2:03:10) - Social media (2:24:17) - Depression (2:35:48) - Hope
Full Episode
The following is a conversation with Greg Lukianoff, free speech advocate, First Amendment attorney, president and CEO of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and he's the author of Unleashing Liberty, co-author with Jonathan Haidt of Coddling of the American Mind, and co-author with Ricky Schlott of a new book coming out in October that you should definitely pre-order now called The Canceling of the American Mind.
which is a definitive accounting of the history, present, and future of cancel culture, a term used and overused in public discourse, but rarely studied and understood with the depth and rigor that Greg and Ricky do in this book and in part in this conversation.
Freedom of speech is important, especially on college campuses, the very place that should serve as the battleground of ideas, including weird and controversial ones, that should encourage bold risk-taking, not conformity. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast.
We've got Policy Genius for insurance, Babbel for learning new languages, BetterHelp for mental health, Insight Tracker for biological data, and ExpressVPN for security and privacy on the place we all love and sometimes hate called the internet. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to work with our amazing team, We're always hiring. Go to lexfreeman.com slash hiring.
Also, there's other ways to contact me if you go to lexfreeman.com slash contact. And now, on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle. I try to make these interesting, but if you must skip them, friends, please still check out our sponsors. They're awesome. They deserve all the love in the world. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too.
This show is brought to you by Policy Genius, a marketplace for finding and buying insurance. Boy, can I tell you some stories about life and death. I've been hard at work tolling over videos that I recorded in Ukraine, still looking to publish soon. There's just so much. It's so personal. It's so rich with feeling.
And one of the conversations, one of the soldiers has a kind of philosophical existential discussion about death. And he describes the tension of having a kind of infinite value for life because it's so visceral in a time of war, but also not having such a high value for life that functioning as a soldier becomes debilitating. I don't know. Something about that tension that really stayed with me.
About the value of life. When we look around us, how much do we value life? When we look in the mirror, how much do we value life? That's something I constantly think about when I meditate on my own mortality. And when I do think about my own death and the death of people I love, the value of life becomes so intensely clear. that life is beautiful and every single moment is precious.
So it's funny when you think about getting insurance of any kind, and especially when you think about getting life insurance, those kinds of questions come to the surface of what is the worth of life? And also just the actual fact of death comes to the surface. It's a beautifully pragmatic, metaphysical, psychological, human reality of death.
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