Welcome to the Council of Trend Podcast, a production of Catholic Answers.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Council of Trend Podcast.

I'm your host, Catholic Answers Apologist and Speaker, Trent Horn.

And today I want to talk about how I handle protesters.

I think this is an important subject to talk about because over the years I've noticed

public discourse getting more and more volatile, especially on college campuses.

It is difficult for people to engage different ideas that there is this attitude that has

been sewn in mainstream media that words are violence, that words you disagree with can

be acts of violence themselves.

And so it's okay to try to shout down words you disagree with because what you're doing

is you're trying to prevent an act of violence from happening, which is absolutely

absurd.

Words are not violence.

Now, there can be words that are not protected under the First Amendment because they are

imminent incitements to lawless actions.

So the words, for example, let's burn down this store and they're meant to tell a mob

that has Molotov cocktails, throw them and set this thing on fire.

That would not be protected under the First Amendment because it's an imminent incitement

to unlawful action.

But aside from that, the First Amendment gives a wide array of protection for speakers,

and especially on public university campuses that are funded by the government.

And so speakers enjoy First Amendment protection there, not as much on a private university.

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