meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
DarkHorse Podcast

Defending Free Speech, Again

DarkHorse Podcast

Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying

Natural Sciences, Society & Culture, News, Adaptation, Modernity, Culture, Politics, Science, Evolutionary Biology

4.65.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bret Weinstein on confronting the new threat to free speech. Support the show

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey folks. I'm feeling pretty out of sorts this morning, and I want to take a crack at explaining why.

0:11.9

I'm watching several different things unfold. One of them is that Jimmy Kimmel has apparently been fired by ABC,

0:20.7

and that has a lot of people who, under

0:24.1

other circumstances, would be champions of free speech cheering for his cancellation.

0:29.1

I'm not arguing that his cancellation is a violation of his free speech rights.

0:34.5

It's not perfectly clear, but obviously he's privately employed, and so the First

0:38.6

Amendment doesn't apply directly. You could argue that because he's on public airwaves,

0:43.9

that the First Amendment does apply, but there are certainly limits of what's allowed on television.

0:48.8

So let's assume that there is no constitutional issue in the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation.

0:55.1

There's still a question about whether or not we want to make certain topics

1:01.2

undiscussable in the public square.

1:04.1

And as much as X has been discussed as the public square, it is also true that things

1:09.3

like broadcast networks function as a part of the public

1:12.2

square. And we can't have sacred topics. We can't have topics that are off limits. Now, I don't like

1:20.0

him one bit, and I did not resonate with his joke. But the concern is watching people who know the importance of speech rallying on the

1:33.6

opposite side of the fence. That, however, is not the most important issue that's got me concerned.

1:41.3

I also saw a story about an AI engine, private, that is being employed.

1:50.2

The claim is by all platforms, including X, to spot anti-Semitism.

1:58.9

What it does is nominally remove anti-Semitic tweets when I ask GROC if it's active and if that's all it does, I'm told it is active, and that that's not all it does.

2:12.1

It also de-boost tweets.

2:15.0

Now, there are multiple problems with this.

2:18.9

One, while I know from my own work as a biologist going back decades that anti-Semitism

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.