From Charlie Hebdo to Charlottesville

Runnymede Radio

Steve Simpson, Director of Legal Studies at the Ayn Rand Institute, discusses why free speech is the killer app for Western civilization and why the most disconcerting threats to free speech occur on the level of culture rather than law. Why is the conversation about free speech so frequently focused on college campuses? How can educators overcome the human tendency to self-censor in order to hew to the crowd? What line can be drawn from the Salman Rushdie Satanic Verses controversy to the riots following the Jylland-Posten's publication of Muhammead cartoons to the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo? How has the hyper-partisan climate in the United States affected intellectual freedom? Links: Symposium: Is Free Speech Under Threat in the United States? Steve Simpson @ ARI