 Hello and welcome back to Davis community television. I'm your host Cedric Hughes and today. I'm joined by two special guests Hi, I'm Joseph Hendricks. I'm Zoe Popping gay and we're here to bring you another installment of teams on topic Today, we'll be discussing the question ought there be limits on freedom of speech now We bring you to members of the community to see what the people of Davis have to say Do you think that there should be any limitations on freedom of speech? I Think that's a difficult question to answer I believe the most important part when thinking about something like this is if the speech is endangering people to where you're threatening lives or like Promoting violence towards people. I think that's the time where it's questionable And whether or not we need to limit that speech because that's kind of like the fire yelling fire in like a public place Because that is illegal So I think if we kept things along that line where if you're promoting violence through your speech That should be limited Certainly in times when the safety of the public is threatened there should be limits on free speech But of course, it's really hard to determine when that's the case So I have to say from a safety point of view that there is hate speech Which is very dangerous and so I think in some cases that they're you know sort of needs to be a monitoring of safety, especially when there is negative talk about certain groups Oh That's a good question because right now. I don't know if you're familiar with this there's a game a company called Blizzard, right and there is a card game called Hearthstone and they just had their competition and Two of the players decided to speak out about one player decided to speak out about Hong Kong and in that he Got demoted he got actually left out of the play out of out of play and then the two guys who interviewed him got fired so it's a hard question to answer because right now is China Who is going to become the dominant player in the market? Are they going to start because of our companies in America want to do business with them? Are we going to see our freedom of speech curtailed? That's going to be the more interesting question. I think because It if freedom of speech goes too far, it's been argued ever since I was a child when I saw Nazis in a very Jewish community protesting On June 6 after you know the end of World War two the University of World War two right and You know, they shouldn't have to go through that They shouldn't have to be victimized by that and on Twitter owned by a separate company not government owned Where they're being told that you know, they're limiting one speech or another which is not factually correct But still the feeling is there. I don't know It's it's going to be a very difficult question to answer because there's too many factors at play So I'm not quite sure if that's going to be I'm not sure if I'm quite answering your question Because I don't think there is an easy answer to it at all I think freedom of speech that's insightful of violence Is probably needs to be monitored somehow. I wouldn't agree that all speeches Protected yelling fire in a crowded theater would I would see as problematic, but you know just Just speech in general, you know railing against the government or anybody else. I Figure that's part of our constitutional, right Well, we've heard a lot of interesting opinions They're ranging from incitement of violence to hate speech to corporate speech Zoe. What do you think? Um, I feel like I definitely agree with how everyone's talking about freedom of speech is all right until insights violence, but I Know these days we're living a lot more in a time where we're considering mental well-being and mental health and so When your freedom when when your speech is also when your speech is also like mentally harming someone I don't think that's okay But of course it's where do we draw that line because that's so subjective and in it's really any case the individual their levels of sensitivity might be a Little bit more a little bit less than other people and so that's where that's where I'm really conflicted like where you draw the line on like Mental well-being because physical well-being it's really it's really easy to say This is okay, and this is not okay, but um, yeah, that's mostly where I stand in regards to political Yeah, and I think that's a really interesting opinion to have and I think that was touched on in those interviews with people talking about hate Speech and the censorship that comes with that and maybe why that comes about Joseph. What do you think? Yeah? I also agree with her But I definitely think that we shouldn't be sheltered to an extent about like these you know violent issues that are happening in The world so I think it kind of goes it like she said there's not really like You know a certain point, but we shouldn't be sheltered, but we also shouldn't be like you know Constantly exposed to you know horrible tragedies all the time. Yeah Let's see. I feel like Hong Kong is an excellent example of What happens when freedom of speeches company is revoked to or to a significant extent? And I really feel like it's it's an excellent example of why feeling it freedom of speech should not be Restricted to the level, but yeah, I totally agree if we restrict freedom of speech Too too much. It's also just we we forget that that we forget that those viewpoints exist And then when they suddenly blow up in our faces were like whoa, where did they come from they came from they came from suppression and Just all these bottled up feelings that are suddenly exploding and with the internet things can be a lot more underground now And so I feel like with yeah with too much of that like safety censorship I worry that those kind of situations will come up not like not this time. It's not like Hong Kongers like everything that we stand for is being oppressed It's just these little viewpoints that can blow up in our faces if we're not really careful Yeah, yeah, definitely, you know I think I'd like to bring it back to one of the points that was made in those interviews And that was incitement of violence because I think that Something that's interesting is that we consider free speech to be one of our most basic rights You know the thing that's protected in the first amendment of the Constitution however as pointed out there are limits to that Right, you can't say fire in a crowded movie You can't put any put forward any free speech that could incite violence And I think we've seen that historically not just in cases Like saying a word in a movie theater, but in limiting political acts as well You know for example take the Charlottesville protests with white supremacists and neo-nazis who marched now the Facebook event that put That rallied these people and put forward this event was taken down because Facebook claimed that they were inciting violence Thus they had justification to censor these people's free speech now a whole lawsuit entailed In which they claim that this was wrong however Facebook said that they had all right because they were stopping the incitement of violence So what do you think about that? Yeah, I agree. Definitely that there should be you know repercussions to these people who are saying awful things Yeah, I definitely agree with that where Facebook was in the right in that situation I feel like when people say it's not physical violence They're kind of forgetting that violence doesn't just suddenly begin. It starts with It usually starts with microaggression. I hope not to overuse that word, but it really starts with Saying things and creating this like mob mentality mindset and then that's how it gets to violence So I understand I completely understand why Facebook would not allow that also They are they are a private they are a private social media platform if I Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So earlier you said something about hate speech and I think that was really interesting That's something definitely to touch on So on college campuses for example, we see a lot of limits to that, you know A lot of places on college campuses you can't put forward hate speech and there's a lot of designated safe spaces where any action like that would be Totally prohibited. So what do you guys think about those safe spaces on campuses? Have those gone too far and limiting free speech or are they just in protecting? People who are at the campus and protecting educational values No, I think they're at the full right to have those places and when I when I say that We can't censor for our safety too much I definitely am not referring to that just a disclaimer It's I totally believe that people have every right to deserve a safe space To to like to stay away from people that might infringe on the very existence of the very right My only concern is that the opposing side might argue that because these safe space exists They have the right to exist to excite to incite these Hate speech groups that's my that's my only thing about it Yeah, I agree too. I definitely think that There's a difference between free speech and hate speech and you know hate speech is a very dangerous thing and it damages a lot of you Know different communities So yeah, I agree. Yeah, so you say that hate speech is a very dangerous thing. What do you mean by that? well, it's just very damaging it causes a lot of Issues with mental health to you know specifically like minorities who you know face like deal with a lot of hate speech in their life Like they're definitely like there's mental health repercussions that come along with it and also just like Just fear and paranoia just in general. Yeah, no, just if I think you're absolutely right on that I mean we've seen study after study showing that students at college campuses who face continual hate speech They actually do see impacts in their learning, you know, so for those students these safe spaces are crucial for them But I think that one interesting question that's been put forward concerning that is what happens after college So, you know after college they leave and they don't have these safe spaces. So do you think that there's any impact on these kids? Well, yeah, I don't know because it's different because Like I said before we shouldn't be sheltered, but I don't know. I don't know. It's just different because You know, you're an adult and you have a limit to these things while if you're like a teenager You know, you may be more sensitive, but just then again hate speech is all around Bad and shouldn't really I don't know. I feel like it's no no I totally see your point in that, you know, we want to prepare, you know Students to go out into the world, you know prepared to face the things that they will face So, you know possibly hate speech, but I mean, you know at the same time We want to protect in these institutions of learning their ability to do so and their ability to learn You know, it's something that hate speech often gets in the way Of yeah, I feel like what's where some of these safe spaces could go wrong is that When when they go when you go to safe space, they might Exist to pretend that the problem doesn't exist And so then so then that's where the sheltering and all those issues take place We were when they go out into the real world. They're not they're not coddled like that anymore And so then they remember the significance of this issue I think safe spaces do a really good job when they Acknowledge that these issues exist and they work to form a community to stand against them I feel like there's nothing wrong with being in a community of solidarity even And I definitely don't think that being in a community is being ignorant of any opposing beliefs I just think that when safe space you're like, oh these these issues don't happen And it's possible to completely avoid them. It's unfortunately. It's not possible to completely avoid them sometimes And I think when safe spaces teach Ways to cope with them and connect with the community that can stand with you. I think that's where they are Doing a good job. Yeah. Yeah, I think just to bring it back to the interviews that we saw earlier One of the interviews touched on corporate speech And so do you guys think that corporations should just like people have the same Limitations placed on their speech and the same freedoms placed on their speech Um, yeah, and and yeah, I definitely think so like Facebook again like they had they had the thing where they had to Sort of censor someone because they're inciting violence So yeah, I do definitely think that corporations should be held to the same You know repercussions and consequences as humans. Yeah, yeah And I guess on the perspective of what they're allowed to say if every if every organization is allowed to say what they Want to say usually I guess based Statistically there will be around the same amount of corporations that might believe in one side and another side So it's not like there will necessarily be a massive imbalance on Any political or social spectrum so that I feel like With those freedoms there will still be places for people to go to if that's what their main concern is that's the main concern that I hear that if every corporation is Biased then that just makes things too complicated or something. Yeah, but yeah, I think I'm just in the last few minutes that we have today Let's go a little away from what we've been discussing and let's talk about whistleblowers and corporations so in 1989 the government passed the whistleblower whistleblower Protection Act and this made it so that people would be able to come forward within the federal government and Expose wrongdoings that were going on and this was protected as you know Their type of free speech and something that they you know, we're able to do and we're able to come forth with and say So what do you think about that? What are the implications of that moving forward? whistleblowers in the corporate workspace or in the the public workspace in the government You know their ability to come forward and talk about the issues that they see in the wrongdoings in government. I Feel like it is their free will to do so but then under that they do consent to having a lot of issues with I guess Employment and yeah jobs and all that general stuff. Yeah, unfortunately. I wish I could say more on the subject But I'm not quite sure about the inner workings of whistleblowers. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I mean, I think that that's something that you know, we still see you know unfolding today It's a question that is unanswered, you know on one hand We want to be able to expose the wrongdoings and do something about them Yeah, but you know on the other hand there's issues of national security You know what can we do to keep those secrets safe that um, you know could have impacts on American lives And I think that there's a lot of questions like that that are still out there concerning free speech There's you know this whole topic. It doesn't have an easy, you know Yes or no answer because you know in everything from inciting violence to hate speech to you know corporate whistleblowers We see that there isn't a yes or no and that there are there's validity in both sides So, you know, I think that that's something that you know It's up to us to continue having those discussions and you know to find our path through that But so that's all the time we have for today. I've been your host Cedric Hughes and this has been teens on topic