(electronic music)
- The recent student
demonstrations at colleges,
campuses against Milo
Yiannopoulos, which was here,
and others, should be
understood as an attempt
to ensure the conditions of free speech
for a greater group of people,
rather than censorship.
When those views invalidate
the humanity of some people,
they restrict speech as a public good.
Do you think Milo should
have been allowed to come
to campus and speak?
- [Woman] Yes.
- You do?
And what should the school
have done with regard
to the protest against
him which broke windows
and cost the school $100,000 in damages?
You realize that the $100,000
that the school spent
essentially comes down to your pocket
because it's gonna be billed,
they're gonna increase
your cost in tuition.
So are you prepared to spend that money
so that Milo gets to speak?
- [Woman] Yes. I definitely think that
you need to protect the speaker
by maintaining the
crowd, and by making sure
it doesn't become violent.
I think that because a lot
of students on this campus,
or even not students from this campus,
are scared to hear what he had to say
and didn't want to hear
what he had to say,
and based off of past precedent,
think that by protesting,
or rioting or what not,
that they can stop him from speaking,
and I think that no
matter what he's saying,
he has the right to say it.
- If his speech, or Nazi speech,
or somebody else's speech,
makes you as an individual
feel threatened, upset, victimized,
the object of violence,
either from your neighbors
or the government,
isn't that a violation of the trust
that the university has implicitly told you
come here and we will give
you the opportunity to learn
and protect you from this kind
of (disdainfully) 'stuff.'
- [Man] Well, but that's
not the point of universities.
I mean, does that mean that you can,
that the university can censor
the types of readings that you get?
- I'm asking. That's the question.
- [Man] Well no, I
mean, it's not permissible
because in a university,
there are (feed cutting out).
There was already the other case involving
the college Republicans at SFSU.
It's like, this is university, I mean,
number one, you're
choosing to be here.
It's not like secondary education.
This is higher education.
This is not compulsory.
- [Man] I think the point of university
is to engage with an idea, like
from a critical standpoint,
and have a discussion, and
have a productive debate,
but certain views of like
an obviously racist degree like that
have no intellectual bearing and cannot
be engaged with in a college classroom,
or just to say that a Muslim
does not have any purpose here
is so ruinous to someone's
sense of self worth
that it just, it doesn't belong
in terms of just like a university.
- If I'm Milo...
I'm Milo, and I get invited to speak,
and I come up on the
stage and I'm speaking,
or I'm (Richard) Spencer and I get invited
and I get up on stage and speak,
and hundreds of students
are screaming and yelling
so that I cannot communicate,
or cursing at me, or the people who as
they have done on other campuses,
and the government sits there and says
"well, you know the speech
is speech is speech,"
you're really allowing
the hecklers veto,
and the question is, is...
I have a first amendment right to speak.
I have a first amendment
right to express an opinion.
The government doing
(mocking) 'inaction' is not
allowing me to exercise that right,
what is the right power of the government?
One could argue, and I get the argument,
that as long as it's just words,
it's a competition of words,
it's just we're not going to intervene.
I get the argument.
My question is, is that what
you want the government to do?
Or not? That's the question.
That's not the answer.
- [Man] In regards
to the first amendment,
Congress shall make no law, so I mean,
yeah (feed lagging)
just sort of hands off.
Like let the hecklers veto go.
- [Man] I think the government needs to...
They need to step in
because it's not just,
it's not just verbal speech,
it's not just like a conversation,
it's going to incite violence.
We know it's going to do that.
So...
- And then the government's
job is to stop the speech,
not stop the violence?
- [Man] Yes, because I think
the speech, and the government,
and the violence are immediately related.
- These speakers are horrible,
and what they have to say
is often times to incite,
but that doesn't mean that
they shouldn't be allowed to say it,
and also, I think that the
idea that the government
should be allowed to draw the line
on what content you can say,
cannot say, can't be made,
and because it can't be
made, you cannot side
on the side that's like overly cautious.
(bright music)
