Tim Squirrell | Freedom of Speech and Right to Offend | Opposition — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:06[Music]
3. 0:08[Applause]
4. 0:17ladies and gentlemen I have two jokes
5. 0:19for you to begin this this speech the
6. 0:21first comes from a piece ironically
7. 0:24titled offense and free speech by
8. 0:26Frankie Bole and it goes like this the
9. 0:29thing about that pedophile ring at
10. 0:31Westminster said they weren't even the
11. 0:32worst MPS there were people in
12. 0:35Parliament who were to the right of MPS
13. 0:36that strangled kids and they actually
14. 0:39did more harm than pedophiles I mean the
15. 0:41nones tried to do harm in their own
16. 0:43little way but thatcher [ __ ] all the
17. 0:47kids the second joke goes like this what
18. 0:51do you say to a woman with two black
19. 0:53eyes nothing you already told her
20. 0:58twice both of these jokes are offensive
21. 1:02in the sense that they can shock they
22. 1:03can appall they can cause personal upset
23. 1:07on the level of Rights and Freedoms only
24. 1:10one of these jokes
25. 1:12matters I'm hoping to convince you of
26. 1:15over the next few minutes is that
27. 1:16framing this debate in terms of offense
28. 1:19is an error it is an error because it
29. 1:21obscures the difference between the
30. 1:23personal upset which might be caused to
31. 1:25a person in a position of privilege by a
32. 1:28joke or a comment or an insult and the
33. 1:31contribution to oppression and Prejudice
34. 1:34and structural inequalities which is
35. 1:37made by comments aimed at people from
36. 1:39groups which are marginalized in
37. 1:42society quickly like to address a few of
38. 1:45the points that brandan just made first
39. 1:48I really really enjoyed his equation of
40. 1:50promotion of gay rights in the late 19th
41. 1:52century with his duty to flippantly
42. 1:57misgender dead trans teens in uh in
43. 2:00articles on spiked it's an interesting
44. 2:04ju toos but I'd also quite like to talk
45. 2:07about this idea that he came up with
46. 2:09that any restriction on speech in the
47. 2:11name of preventing harm without speech
48. 2:14is not actively inciting violence is
49. 2:17somehow paternalistic or infantilizing
50. 2:21or
51. 2:23neocolonial students of Britain he says
52. 2:25in an article in the tab rise up against
53. 2:29your sensorial I leaders you're being
54. 2:31patronized beyond belief you're being
55. 2:33infantilized so by the sun Play Robin
56. 2:36Thick on College radio invite the edl to
57. 2:40speak talk about abortion make sexist
58. 2:43jokes indulge in banter hold debates on
59. 2:47transgenderism and do anything else you
60. 2:49can to kick against the Pricks who think
61. 2:51you are babies who must be kept away
62. 2:53from sexy or shocking or silly words
63. 3:05two responses to this one note that
64. 3:08Brendan says that people against him are
65. 3:10always white privileged
66. 3:13students I'm not the only person saying
67. 3:16this quite a lot of the people who are
68. 3:18saying this are from non-privileged
69. 3:21backgrounds are women are of color are
70. 3:24trans or homosexual or other sexual
71. 3:27orientations it's just somewhat telling
72. 3:30that I'm the one who gets invited to
73. 3:32speak at the Oxford Union and they don't
74. 3:35it's almost as if structural Prejudice
75. 3:37actually
76. 3:40exists no thanks I'm getting no platform
77. 3:43you in the same way Brendan did to
78. 3:45Kate second why is having a thick skin
79. 3:49such an important trait to you what's so
80. 3:53important about being able to take
81. 3:55insult after insult that you fetishize
82. 3:58emotional fortitude in this way why
83. 4:01can't you embrace the reality that some
84. 4:03people in society are weak they are
85. 4:06vulnerable they are hurt in ways that go
86. 4:09beyond the temporary and emotional by
87. 4:11the things that you
88. 4:13say
89. 4:15okay let's talk about how we come to be
90. 4:18in a situation where offense is the
91. 4:20operative word when speech is discussed
92. 4:22how have we got to the point where any
93. 4:24and all protests against the harmful
94. 4:26effects of a particular speech act can
95. 4:28be dismissed with a wave of a hand and
96. 4:30an apocryphal voler quote attentive
97. 4:33answer and if any of you are playing
98. 4:35student Lefty Bingo please stifle any
99. 4:37noise is from neoliberal
100. 4:40individualism yeah I knew when we've
101. 4:44been told for so long that there is no
102. 4:45such thing as Society are just
103. 4:47individuals we come to believe that
104. 4:49there is no need for social cohesion
105. 4:52there is no need for identity politics
106. 4:55or if there is such a thing as identity
107. 4:58politic politics it's something
108. 5:00pernicious it's something which
109. 5:01undermines rational discourse we've been
110. 5:04B to believe that the only kind of harm
111. 5:06that matters is individual harm the only
112. 5:08offense which has any importance is
113. 5:10individual offense there is no need for
114. 5:12a politics which encompasses the very
115. 5:14real prejudices conscious and
116. 5:16unconscious historic and present which
117. 5:19give rise to structural oppressions in
118. 5:21our society it's a fundamental mistake
119. 5:25last time I spoke to Brendan he quoted
120. 5:26Martin Luther King he said that I'd like
121. 5:28to live in Society where I'm judged by
122. 5:30the content of my where people are
123. 5:32judged by the content of their character
124. 5:33and not by the color of their skin so
125. 5:36would I but we don't live in that
126. 5:38society yet and we can only get there by
127. 5:42acknowledging the very real problems and
128. 5:45structural inequalities which already
129. 5:47exist we have to be intentionally
130. 5:50looking in the wrong direction as
131. 5:51Brendan seems to be to see the very real
132. 5:53everyday acts both small and large both
133. 5:56minor and viscerally violent which are
134. 5:58perpetrated against people from Mar
135. 5:59marized groups and which perpetuate that
136. 6:02marginalization only by recognizing that
137. 6:05oppression and harm happens on a
138. 6:07structural level is contributed to by
139. 6:09every offensive joke no matter if it's
140. 6:11ironic every throwaway remark about rape
141. 6:14or domestic violence or mental illness
142. 6:16every racist cartoon every dog whistle
143. 6:18xenophobic immigration Panic Daily Mail
144. 6:21article every uniland [ __ ] Facebook
145. 6:24post only when we recognize that can we
146. 6:27begin to understand why offense is the
147. 6:29wrong way to frame this debate what to
148. 6:32me is personally upsetting and I've been
149. 6:34called an awful lot of things in recent
150. 6:36months particularly and my favorite is
151. 6:38the smug embodiment of the cancer that's
152. 6:40spreading across University campuses
153. 6:43that was a fun
154. 6:44one is to others actively oppressive
155. 6:48instead of focusing on offense we should
156. 6:50be focusing on material harm whether
157. 6:52that be physical or psychological and
158. 6:54there really isn't that much of a
159. 6:55distinction between the two this has all
160. 6:57been said before in much more eloquent
161. 6:59terms in an article on the site uh
162. 7:01feministing by Katherine cross who says
163. 7:04being made to fear for your life is not
164. 7:06the same as feeling hurt by speech
165. 7:08losing your job as a result of
166. 7:10stereotypes or harassment contained in
167. 7:12speech is not the same as feeling
168. 7:13personally offended by that speech being
169. 7:16shot by the police because ideas about
170. 7:18your skin color transmitted through
171. 7:20discourse is not the same as being
172. 7:21merely offended by it being Ed against
173. 7:24your will is not the same as having your
174. 7:26feelings hurt by it is the Deeds that
175. 7:28flow from Words which concern us and
176. 7:31which cannot be con contained by the
177. 7:33concept of offensiveness these are the
178. 7:36kind of material harm with which we
179. 7:37should concern ourselves speaking out
180. 7:40against these acts which happen every
181. 7:42single day across the world is a radical
182. 7:44expression of free speech some people
183. 7:46will tell you as Brendan does the most
184. 7:48important thing we can do is to listen
185. 7:50to views we consider vile and toxic as
186. 7:52though inciting racial hatred or
187. 7:54transphobia misogyny is some kind of
188. 7:56victory for enlightenment values I think
189. 7:59JS Mill will be sick to his stomach if
190. 8:01you alive to see the kinds of people who
191. 8:03appropriated his ideas today and the
192. 8:05ends to which they've put them never
193. 8:07mind the fact that this ideal million
194. 8:09arena in which the bad ideas are always
195. 8:11beaten by the good just doesn't exist
196. 8:14never mind the rhetorical tricks and
197. 8:16flourishes and seductive Pros that awful
198. 8:18people use to convince ordinary people
199. 8:20to join them in hatred I'm
200. 8:22finishing instead of celebrating the
201. 8:25down punching the Prejudice the bigoted
202. 8:27acts of speech that can be summed up in
203. 8:29the the name of free inquiry we should
204. 8:31be celebrating the up punchers the
205. 8:32radicals who offend those in power the
206. 8:34same as the ones you were talking about
207. 8:36the non-conformist who refuse to be
208. 8:38cowed by bullies who wield the
209. 8:39Enlightenment and robust public debate
210. 8:41as sticks to beat them with yes we
211. 8:45should have freedom of speech we should
212. 8:46have debate we should have argument and
213. 8:48vigorous disagreement but we have to
214. 8:50recognize that not all views are created
215. 8:52equal you do not have some protected
216. 8:54right to give harm to people and the
217. 8:57word offense does not begin to cover the
218. 9:00damage which our words can cause thank
219. 9:02you
220. 9:06[Applause]
221. 9:11[Music]