Seems the Fail and the Sun may be our only defenders of free speech

[thisonehasalittlecar]

DH is big into Ayn Rand and follows this podcaster called Yaron Brook who is the director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He came up last night and told me that a talk of his at University College London had just been shut down by protesters, so this morning I googled it and the only UK news outlets that seem to have reported on it are the Fail and the Sun. (I'm not putting a link as I don't want to put traffic their way but if you google Yaron Brook UCL you'll see.) Are the more centre/left news organisations just not interested in reporting on free speech issues or is no-platforming at unis so common now that it it isn't even news-worthy?

It's strange how suddenly the idea of free speech/expression is being eroded and often classed as "hate speech" and the whole premise of what free speech should be is being made narrower and narrower as though free expression isn't subjective and open to interpretation.

I think there is an agenda to eventually get rid of the idea that people should have free expression, which seems to be in line with the creeping authoritarianism that has slowly appeared over the last 10 years. I have an idea why it is happening but I won't go there.

I personally believe that people should more or less be able to say anything, no matter how obscene, as long as they don't threaten physical violence against specific individuals or groups, as that is the best way to get discourse and promulgate ideas. Ironically it was the Nazis who burnt books because they were afraid of degenerate ideas but I guess those who want to see the end of free expression don't see the connection. The sad thing is that one day their ideas and opinions might be considered "hate" speech and will be silenced and then they will have nobody to defend them.

Lol I’d leave if my DP loved Ayn Rand. Anyway I can’t seem to find anything more than the 6 March when protestors came into the lecture theatre at King’s College at an event he was part of. I was aware of an incident in the past at UCL in 2016 due to the antisemitism involved. The KCL incident on the 6 March was reported by the telegraph, the mirror, the Jewish chronicle, Jewish news, evening standard, the tab (student newspaper), the independent, all describing them as Antifa I think. Across the spectrum reporting therefore. Brook also hasn’t mentioned any talk being cancelled recent’yon Twitter, despite him having retweeted other posts and tweeted about the 6 March event, meaning it’s unlikely he’d be silent now.

If you think the Sun and the Fail are defenders of free speech then you are deranged. The Sun is owned by Murdoch, who decided in his wisdom that hacking Milly Dowler's phone would be a good thing. Maybe you see that as an act of free speech too? did the Leveson investigation just pass you by?

Free speech is the freedom to protest against someone who is ultra right wing and promotes the politics of greed.

The OP appears to be 'fake news'.

Have just googled 'yaron brook ucl' as suggested and...er...nothing comes up.

Rien. Nada. Zilch. Other than an announcement saying the talk was going to happen. No protests mentioned. Oh...except for this thread, which came up about half way down the page.

No Mail articles. No Sun.

Who are you, OP, and why are you posting really easily-checkable lies on MN??

Yeah sounded like a load of bolleaux tbh.