Topic: Safe Speech

The hosts discuss their experiences on Mastodon, a federated social network, highlighting a cultural rift between "safe speech" and "free speech" servers. They describe how certain server admins are creating blocklists to isolate users who prioritize open interrogation of ideas over inclusive environments.

A viral video from Mount Royal University in Calgary shows a female student confronting a peer for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, labeling it "hate speech." The hosts discuss the student's written response, which argues that university spaces must be "safe spaces" free from oppressive symbols.

President Obama told a group of millennials that college students should not be "coddled" or protected from different points of view. He argued that students should engage in arguments with speakers they disagree with rather than silencing them, a statement that reportedly met with silence from the audience.

Prankster Ami Horowitz successfully gathers over 50 signatures from Yale University students on a petition to repeal the First Amendment. The stunt highlights the "safe space" culture on elite campuses, where students appeared willing to sign away fundamental constitutional rights to avoid "hurt feelings."

Brendan O'Neill delivers a speech at the Oxford Union defending the "right to offend" as the heart of human progress. He argues that today's student leaders are "paternalistic" and "neo-colonialist" for suggesting that women and minorities need protection from "harmful ideas." O'Neill concludes that in a "choking climate" of conformism, there is a "duty to offend" the new guardians of decency.