42: Free Speech - Andrew Doyle (Titania McGrath / Jonathan Pie)

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Andrew Gold

Personal Journals, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.4 • 968 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2021

⏱️ 82 minutes

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Summary

Come to my old-fashioned chatroom on Thursday at 8pm GMT (noon in California): https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb. It's free and no need to sign up! Hello, and welcome to another episode of On the Edge with Andrew Gold. Today, I’m talking – well actually I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago – to comedian Andrew Doyle, who has just released his new book Free Speech. It’s a modern manifesto on why free speech is so important, and how even extremely offensive speech should be protected. Andrew Doyle Links: https://twitter.com/andrewdoyle_com https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath https://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Speech-Why-Matters/dp/034913538X Andrew Gold Links: http://patreon.com/andrewgold http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok It’s a really beautifully written essay, which draws on the history of free speech and how it is being eroded from all sides bit by bit. We’re all aware that history seems to go in cycles and you never know when you’re next going to be under some sort of authoritarian regime. According to Andrew, it rarely comes from the place you expect it, and he believes we’re very much at risk right now from the censors on the Left, although he is politically Left himself. In his book and on the podcast, Andrew speaks of former essays, such as John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty in 1859, and John Milton’s 1644 Areopagitica. Andrew was also a teacher and writers about all sorts of things, but you may know him as both the creator of fictional angry news reporter Jonathan Pie – although he is not the actor who plays him – and fictional twitter profile Titania McGrath. Titania is a fake creation who tweets to parody the beliefs and actions of critical race theorists or virtue signallers. Her Twitter bio reads: Activist. Healer. Radical intersectionalist poet. Nonwhite. Ecosexual. Pronouns: variable. Selfless and brave. Buy my books. Today, we are going to talk mostly about Andrew and his book. On the day I spoke to him, he had just come under a barrage of abuse from his critics, because he had blocked some of them in anticipation of the book. They believed it was ironic for an author a book on free speech to block those who opposed the book – and Andrew countered that, if they believed that, they had a poor understanding of free speech. Part of free speech is not having to listen to someone. We speak about the pressure of getting all that flack all the time on Twitter – people accusing him of absolutely every form of bigotry. I ask him what it’s like to be a gay man being accused so often of homophobia. And we talk freely about free speech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It is hard when you've been trolled for the 10th time consecutively in an hour and all of these people are
0:06.8	Card-carrying woke activists with pronouns in their bio. It's hard not to jump to the conclusion that they're all sociopaths you know it's it's hard not to really but you have to guard against it because that that too is a fallacy.
0:20.6	Hello and welcome to another episode of On the Edge with Andrew Gold. Today I'm talking, well
0:27.1	actually I spoke to him a couple weeks ago to Andrew Doyle who has just released his
0:31.7	new book Free Speech.
0:33.6	It's like a modern manifesto on why free speech is so important
0:37.5	and how even extremely offensive speech should be protected.
0:41.6	You can find a link to it in the show notes. It's a really beautifully written sort of essay, which draws on the history of free speech and how it's being eroded from all sides bit by bit. We're all aware that history seems to go in cycles
0:54.9	and you never know when you're next going to be under some sort of authoritarian
0:58.7	regime and according to Andrew it rarely comes from the place you expect it.
1:04.0	And he believes we're very much at risk right now
1:06.8	from the censors on the left,
1:08.6	although he is politically left himself.
1:11.4	That is, he sees cynicism in vandalism and sociopathy hidden under the guise of
1:17.1	seemingly unoffensive groups supporting things like inclusive language, critical race theory and the public shaming of anyone who fails to adhere
1:26.5	to increasingly strict rules on morality.
1:30.3	As it happens, a fascinating scientific paper at the University of British Columbia was just published showing that sociopaths and narcissists are far more likely to virtue signal and that virtue signlers in general were more likely to cheat and lie than control groups.
1:47.2	So perhaps it's time to stop taking them at face value.
1:51.4	In his book and on the podcast, Andrew speaks of old essays such as John
1:56.0	Stuart Mills on Liberty in 1859 and John Milton's 1644 Ariopagitica, so make sure to read up on those's homework.
2:05.6	Just kidding they're quite um they're quite intense so just maybe just get the
2:09.0	free speech run from Andrew first start with that.
	...

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