Harvard Polymath Noah Feldman on The Different Definitions of Hate Speech

I rarely cover current events on this podcast, but this is a new experiment.

To avoid overwhelm, I do not track the news 24/7 with doom scrolling. Rather, I depend on conversations with my smartest friends to find the signal in the noise. The following conversation with Noah Feldman is an example of such a conversation, very similar to what we would have offline, and I wanted to share it with you. I learned a ton and changed my thinking a lot, which I always do.

Noah is the founder of Ethical Compass, which helps clients like Facebook and eBay improve ethical decision-making by creating and implementing new governance solutions. Noah conceived and designed the Facebook Oversight Board and continues to advise Facebook on ethics and governance issues.

Feldman is host of the Deep Background podcast, a policy and public affairs columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, and a former contributing writer for The New York Times. He served as senior constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and subsequently advised members of the Iraqi Governing Council on the drafting of Iraq’s interim constitution.

He earned his A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard, finishing first in his class. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a DPhil from Oxford University, writing his dissertation on Aristotle’s Ethics. He received his JD from Yale Law School and clerked for Justice David Souter of the US Supreme Court.

Please let me know what you think of this experimental format by sending me feedback on Twitter @tferriss. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Have suggestions for improvement? The usual long-form interviews with evergreen questions will still be the default and bread and butter of this podcast, but if you like this, I could see doing more of them, perhaps once a month or once every two months. It's just an easy way to get caught up without drowning in news.

Please enjoy!

NOTE: This episode was recorded on June 22nd.

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[Spintendo]

Masters take away the tongues of the slaves.

[John-Brown]

This is pure propaganda. There's no such thing as hate speech.

[RobotechII]

Based on the name alone I was able to predict his opinion, what a surprise

[paintingvalues]

When the answer is vague (which I don't believe it is) as a rule of thumb we should air on the side of freedom. I believe there is no such thing as hate speech. Legitimately calling for violence is already not protected. For instance, you can say that person deserves to get punched in the face and you're fine. Telling someone to punch that person in the face is not protected.

[highlighted_reply]

There is no such thing as hate speech. One man's hate is another man's truth.

[karlstrauss]

“Hate speech” is a euphemism for silencing dissenting opinion.

[odt]

statistics be so racist... god forbid the two certain groups start working on themselves...

[chrssummers]

It’s incredible to me how people faint over Jan 6. Unlawful entry into the Capitol? Ok except when the CP waved people in. Minor vandalism. No weapons used on anyone except the CP shooting a protester in the neck. Yet many of these same lawmakers cheered and encouraged the “Summer of Love” riots where cities were burned down. Police stations chained shut and set fire. Many wounded and killed including police. Businesses and citizens beaten and killed. The major difference and reason for hysteria is that these lawmakers who supposedly serve the people cheer violence and murder in our streets but punish severely any “peaceful protest” at their door. Except when President Trump was Chief, then many also applauded attacking the White House itself.

Hate Speech is only a tool used to silence political speech.

[jessmason]

It's wrong to ban books, control people (women especially), bottleneck information, and the use of data( almost illegal.) And promote one ideology. There are many, many different cultures and people in the world.

[fractalzoomgoggles]

"Jan 6 style extremism" 😆😆😆 this guy hasnt seen the security camera clips and bystander vids

[World_thirteen]

Had to frame him as a polymath real quick lol
come on

[MiaAnstine]

Are things as they seem or are they otherwise? What intervention has been done, since when, and to whom?

[bloochoob]

A man said he’d ‘leak my nudes’ and i said ‘go on, i don’t care, nobody cares, I look good naked though, so..’ I took his power away, pathetic little man. I honestly couldn’t care less who sees me naked 🤪

[fritzco]

Our government needs to abolish free speech, the right to peacefully protest, and all ideals that make a strong healthy constitutional republic in order to save our democracy. We need to stomp out these fascists with an IRON BOOT.