Free Speech and Why It Matters | Andrew Doyle

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, host Douglas Vigliotti discusses the importance of free speech and its role in society. He introduces the book Free Speech and Why It Matters by Andrew Doyle, which explores the current attack on free speech and the hypocrisy surrounding it. Vigliotti emphasizes that free speech is a foundational element of a free society and that no other liberty can exist without it. He discusses the tendency to label and dismiss people based on their opinions, which hinders understanding and prevents the evaluation of ideas on their own merit. Vigliotti also touches on the state of the arts, the impact of self-censorship, and the need for artists across sectors to maintain their freedom of expression. He concludes by urging listeners to participate in public discussion with kindness, respect, and understanding, even when they disagree with others.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week marks a first for the podcast. I am featuring both a political book as well as a manifesto. So I've never featured either of the two really on the podcast before, but this book is sort of timely, and I read it last year. It only came out in 2022. It's a really short book. It's only 140 pages or so. It's by Andrew Doyle, and it's called Free Speech and Why It Matters. So I know that this book is probably going to ruffle a few feathers, but I think that that's what makes it so important to share with you and also to bring to the forefront really, because in my eyes, there's a great hypocrisy going on and an attack on this foundational element of our free society.

(01:08)

Really, in my opinion, nothing else can exist the way that it does without this bedrock foundational element to our society. So when you have one side of the equation banning books or the other side of the equation de-platforming people because they don't like what they have to say, you have both sides left and right attacking each other over free speech. And to me, there's really no more important element to, again, our free society than free speech. But I think that it becomes very hard for a lot of people to voice their opinions and not self-censor. And that's what makes it so challenging because of the risk that is associated for a lot of people, rightfully so with sharing what they truly believe. Look, self-censorship and free speech, although go hand in hand, are two different things. But one of the quotes that comes directly from this book that I really, really love is, “Good people should not abandon their beliefs when bad people claim them for their own.”

(02:25)

And I think that at its core, this is where we're at societally, where people have a hard time sharing their opinion on something because it might indicate that they are for something else when that may not necessarily be true. A perfect example would be last week's episode, right? So because I share my opinion on the JFK assassination, there's probably going to be a large cohort of people who say, oh, if he believes this, he must also believe that. And to me, that's one of the, not only the biggest challenges that we have on a societal level, but it's also one of the biggest blind spots that we walk through the world with because, in my view of the world, one thing means one thing. Just because somebody believes one thing doesn't necessarily mean that they believe another. It's like the halo effect in the cognitive bias world.

(03:27)

So the Halo effect says that just because somebody's tall doesn't mean they're trustworthy, even though we might link those two things together. So we correlate one trait with another trait, and we do this without knowing that we're actually doing it. So if somebody's good-looking, then they also must be a good leader. We know that this isn't true, but we do it. I think that this happens with ideas all the time, and it kind of goes back to the conversation that I had with Tyler Cowen on this podcast many years ago where people devalue and dismiss. And that was something that he brought to my attention. And I think about it still to this day because it happens all the time. It's easier for people to say, oh, Doug thinks that the JFK assassination was a bunch of bullshit and that the government lied to the American people.

(04:19)

So that must also mean he's a conspiracy theorist and he probably believes that the world is flat or something like that. I don't know. I think that we do this kind of stuff all the time, and sometimes we know we're doing it and sometimes we don't know we're doing it, but it prevents us from digging deeper and understanding the world and people around us because we're all individuals and even thoughts and opinions are individual and should be observed independent of each other in idea meritocracy. So if you believe in individual opinions and individual thoughts and you're trying to really evaluate everything at face value and give it an honest look, then you're willing to say The best idea wins out. Not the most political or the one that agrees with my tribe or not. It's the best idea. Its arguments are argued and have value on their own merit, but you can only do that if you are pro-free speech and you don't dismiss ideas in opinions people have that are other than your own.

(05:30)

For me, it's always funny because when I'm with my right-wing friends, they usually feel a little too progressive for them. When I'm with my left-wing family, I guess they probably think that I'm more conservative than they are. So it's like I can't win either way because if I say I'm pro-choice over here, well then you must be a Democrat. If I say that I'm for personal responsibility and working hard, well then you must be a Republican. What about social programs? It's like you can't dance between the two worlds of political thought and agree with some things and disagree with others without being labeled one thing or the other. And for the record, neither a Republican or a Democrat. I think that when you apply a label on yourself, it severely limits your ability to clearly see the world around you because you're looking at it through this lens that tends to devalue and dismiss things that are not in the tribe that you ascribe to.

(06:39)

Now, look, I don't want to pretend like I'm totally inoculated from devaluing and dismissing or not having labels for that matter. I do have labels that hinder the way that I see the world. So I call myself a writer, which is kind of a gross thing to call yourself, but I write every day. And so why not? And because I do that, there are stories in my head that are built up around that, and it clouds the way that I see the world a little bit. And one of those pretty big ways is this attack on free speech. So this is the thing that really matters to me as somebody who views himself in that way. And I think that there's probably a large amount of writers or artists in general who would agree that free speech is incredibly important. And I think that we are seeing such self-censorship in the arts because people are afraid to offend or say things the wrong way.

(07:44)

And we've introduced morality into art in such a heavy, heavy way over the last, I don't know, 10 years or so, and I'm probably not going to make a lot of friends by saying this, but identity politics has dominated the art that has come out over the last call it same time period. And I know there's a lot of people who are going to say, but we needed change. We needed this. And I get all of that. And I'm not against equality or anything of that nature. And for the record, when I make these judgments on point of view and say one side is banning books, the other side is de-platforming. I understand the reasoning behind why it's happening. Yes, it's a gunfight over free speech, but I fundamentally come at it from the perspective of people generally think they're doing the right thing and that's why they're doing what they're doing.

(08:45)

So one side is de-platforming because they think that it's necessary because there's hate speech going on. And the other side is banning books because they think it's necessary based on their religious values, and that's the way that they want their kids to grow up. And so I get those two points of view. But for me, like I said, it's a value thing. It nothing in my eyes ranks higher on that list than free speech without free speech. Every other liberty that we have does not exist. And I think it's easy to lose sight of that when we're playing these games and having these wars over such a bedrock liberty that we have in free speech. And yes, I am a free speech absolutist, which is a pretty extreme stance, meaning that I'm willing to tolerate everybody's opinion and all of the speech in all of its varying forms, which is much different by the way than saying I agree with everything that everybody says because that couldn't be farther from the truth.

(09:55)

But the thing that I'm a hundred percent sure of is that my mind has never been convinced about anything by not hearing it or reading it or watching it at all. So no matter what side of the aisle that you find yourself on, silencing people that you disagree with is only hurting your own cause to express your own values. Because if you're able to draw the line with that person who's to say they're not going to turn around at some point and draw the line with you, it's a very slippery slope. Andrew Doyle has a great quote in the book, and he says, “The price we pay for a free society is that bad. People will say bad things. We tolerate this not because we approve of the content of their speech, but because once we have compromised on the principle of free speech, we clear the pathway for future tyranny.”

(10:55)

Although I could probably end this episode on that quote, I did want to circle back on art because that is the basis of which I really believe the attack on free speech should not hinder or impede upon yet. Sadly, it has and continues to do so. Andrew Doyle has another quote in the book that really hit home for me, and it goes, “We can all agree that the censorship of artists by tyrannous regimes is an abomination. And yet there is something even more dispiriting about an artist who surrenders his or her freedom of expression voluntarily.” And so if anyone listening out there, I hope I can encourage you to write the story that needs to be written, film, the movie that needs to be filmed, sing the song that needs to be sung, and if people don't agree with it, then as I heard Alejandro Intu, I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly, say on a podcast episode, “Have the courage to be disliked.”

(12:07)

It's something that I'm working on in my own life, and I actually read it to myself every morning because it's really important to dig deep and express the things that need to be expressed. Of course, none of that is possible without free speech, but that's not to say that you still don't have the duty and responsibility that if you want to participate in a free society and public discussion, then you should do so being kind, respectful in understanding of everybody's opinions, even if you don't agree with them. All right, so for the sake of time, I'm going to wrap this up. That's not all I've got, but I don't want to keep going on and on here. This is a topic that I could talk about for hours with anybody really because it's one that I think a lot about as I already mentioned. With that being said, I wanted to thank you for listening.

(13:04)

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