"Hate Speech or Free Speech?" with Prof. Alan Davison
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Josh Szeps
4.6 • 863 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 136 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Perhaps the most dangerous idea is what to do about dangerous ideas.
A spate of anti-semitic attacks has led to new laws that will punish Australians for "hate speech". But are hate-speech laws a band-aid over deeper problems like ethnic bigotry, religious conservatism, historical ignorance, social media, migrant integration, university bias, and Islamism - problems which may have been addressed if we'd spoken more openly about them in the first place?
That's the argument of Professor Alan Davison, the incoming president of Australia's Free Speech Union. He and Josh discuss free speech, diversity, journalistic integrity, critical thinking, and who gets to speak for minority groups.
Is it time to speak more fearlessly, not less? Or is the free-speech position just an excuse for more division and hate?
Want to see this conversation at your leisure? Watch it on YouTube. And if you love all two hours of it (who doesn't?), chances are you'll enjoy the rest of the content on the Uncomfy Convos Substack page.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Goody. Humans. Welcome to the safe space, the dangerous ideas and the ultimate dangerous idea, |
| 0:08.0 | the dangerous idea to rule all dangerous ideas. The Rosetta Stone of dangerous ideas, the Magna Carta |
| 0:14.1 | of the dangerous idea is the question of what a free and open society should do about hyper-dangerous ideas. How should you |
| 0:25.2 | deal with them? Is it a little bit old-fashioned to say, well, a bad idea, especially if it's |
| 0:29.9 | full of hate, should just be combated with better ideas. And if someone is out in the street |
| 0:34.4 | saying that we should kill all the Jews, then we just have to sit them down and have a reasoned conversation and persuade them that actually neo-Nazism is not the best way forward. |
| 0:43.3 | Or is there a case to be made for a civilized society, a multicultural society, a society that wants to be a pleasant place for people to live to put some strict limits. |
| 0:53.3 | Stricter limits than many Americans would be comfortable with, |
| 0:55.5 | stricter limits than the American Supreme Court would be comfortable with, given America's |
| 0:59.3 | First Amendment, on what people can say and the kinds of hateful things and ideas that they can |
| 1:03.9 | express. This is something that's happening in Australia right now, both at a federal level and at a |
| 1:09.0 | state level in the two most populous states, |
| 1:11.2 | New South Wales and Victoria. And this conversation is an absolutely fascinating romp through |
| 1:16.7 | the intellectual ins and outs of free speech and hate speech with the new incoming president |
| 1:22.2 | of Australia's free speech union. So if you're not in Australia, don't worry, this is not |
| 1:27.4 | an Australia |
| 1:27.8 | specific conversation. This is really about the philosophical underpinnings of how we should |
| 1:31.7 | deal with notions and ideas that we detest. I just want to begin by giving you some |
| 1:38.0 | background, specifically on the latest eruption of cancel culture in Australia. |
| 1:43.3 | There has been a disinvitation of one of Australia's most promising and exciting artists |
| 1:50.4 | from the most important artistic festival in the world, the Venice Biennale. |
| 1:56.7 | This is sort of like Sundance, or Khan is to film. This is to the art world. |
... |
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