Episode 45 - First Amendment Follies: What the Right Gets Wrong About Free Speech & the College Campus
b'As I wind down my summer hiatus from interviewing guests, enjoy this extended commentary on the issue of free speech, and what it means\\u2014and doesn\\u2019t mean\\u2014on campuses and in the nation at large.
Lately, amid the decision of various social media companies to ban conspiracy theorist Alex Jones or neo-Nazis from their platforms\\u2014and amid pushback against right-wing speakers invited to college campuses\\u2014many folks (conservative and liberal) have insisted that these moves amount to violations of the free speech rights of those affected. But this is neither legally nor logically accurate. Free speech does not entitle anyone to another person\\u2019s platform, online, in a newspaper, on the radio, or in a lecture hall at a University.
In this commentary I explore the fallacies surrounding the notion of free speech and the requirements of the first amendment, the legal standards currently in place on these matters and what colleges can do (and should be able to do) to uphold their missions and values, and to fulfill their core function: the dispensation of scholarship. To think that schools are obligated to provide platforms to particular outside speakers as part of the "search for truth" or as part of the \\u201cmarketplace of ideas\\u201d is philosophically ridiculous, for reasons I explain in detail on this week\\u2019s show.'