The Left Became Free Speech Warriors OVERNIGHT

All right, ladies and gentlemen, I felt compelled to do a bonus episode this week cuz I kind of jumped the gun covering a little bit of the Ed Sheeran story uh a couple days ago, but the news cycle, it moves so quickly, so fast that so much develops over the course of such a short amount of time that you know, I kind of missed the opportunity to share some thoughts uh about what's developed since in this spectacle. Um since my last episode a couple days ago uh opening acts have pulled out of the Ed Sheeran tour. Macklemore has been canceled. It's become this real, you know, microcosm of the class warfare the left likes to frame everything through with the multi-millionaire billionaire Robert Kraft owning a stadium that bans uh Macklemore from performing and everyone's trying to manage this and Ed Sheeran's dragged into the middle of a situation where uh he's trying to navigate it in a sort of neutral posture and he's getting flak from everybody about that. Anyway, wanted to share some thoughts on the matter because I've had some time to think about it. Okay. First of all I find it hilarious and rich that suddenly the left, the censorious woke left who's all about canceling any infraction punishment for any sort of infraction, slip of the tongue, are suddenly free speech warriors. Suddenly they're all about free speech. Let's be honest for a moment. Let's be honest. You This isn't about free speech, okay? Left or right, at the end of the day you're using free speech as a principle when it suits your political stance or narrative or agenda. Left does this all the time, right? Pro-choice unless it's vaccine mandates. Pro-free free speech. Unless uh I don't know, somebody says something offensive on stage. Uh somebody says something offensive you know, Dave Chappelle says something offensive against the trans community. Somebody says something offensive against someone in your tribe, on your team. But when it suits your narrative or political stance, you're all for free speech. So you're not for free speech as a principle, you're for it when it conveniently suits you. Here's an interesting exercise to test on yourself. Try this out. And this proves the point. If somebody got up and got up on stage as an opening act for Ed Sheeran and said, "I stand proudly in support of Israel and the IDF. I support Bibi Netanyahu." And they were protested against, canceled for, kicked off the tour. If a pro-Palestinian owner of a venue said they cannot play there anymore, you'd all be celebrating it. You'd call them champions, heroes, advocates, allies. You'd love it. If they If somebody stood with Israel. So you use it when it politically suits you. The concept of free speech. Now, from my perspective, it's not a free speech issue in the sense that I apply it universally and consistently. Cuz guess what? Robert Kraft has free speech, too. The venue owners have free speech. So when they decide that they don't want this message, this ideology, and we'll get into what that is exactly that animates Macklemore's statements. When they don't want this stuff amplified on their stages, they have the right to say no. They can't be forced to put out speech or amplify ideas they don't like and disagree with. That's free speech. So I apply it universally. And yes, ultimately, it's not about who gets canceled for what and should we allow all ideas equally. It's in in the marketplace of ideas, in the culture, where everyone has the right to express themselves freely, we have to evaluate the ideas on a case-by-case basis. It's not the fact that somebody said something and then was canceled from a tour for it. It's what are they saying? What are the ideas they're putting out there? What's the message? And then people have a right to respond in kind. There are consequences for hearing messages you that offend you. And the only thing I'll say is that I can understand the argument that Greg Lukianoff puts out. He's at He's at the FIRE Institute. I've had him on the podcast. A free speech absolutist, as am I. But I can understand that when you encourage cancellation and reactions like of this sort to speech, you encourage a culture that's anti-free speech, which extends into politics. So, you have to be conscious of that, sure. I understand that, and I understand the case for that. But that doesn't mean that some the venue owners, the other people, the promoters, Ed Sheeran himself, other people don't have speech of their own, that they now have to feel compelled and forced to keep this guy on a tour if they disagree with the principle of even talking politics at all on stage. And you'd all celebrate it in the streets praising brave Ed Sheeran and all the promoters if this someone took a stand for Israel, for the IDF, >> [snorts] >> for the one and only Jewish state. If they stood for it, and then they got canceled for it, you'd love it. You'd love it. So, spare me. Spare me the inconsistent nonsense. I don't buy it. >> [music] [music]