Civil Discourse and America

Joe Klesner, provost of Kenyon College, welcomed conference attendees prior to Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, Steven Pinker from Harvard University and Heather Mac Donald from the Manhattan Institute participated in a panel discussion which was moderated by Tom Karako of Kenyon College.

[lSomeRandomGuyl]

"Free speech absolutely does cover hurtful speech. You do not have the right not to be hurt." - Steven Pinker

[MrSidney]

Steven Pinker never disappoints. The man is an embodiment of reason and clear thinking.

[zarkoff]

Dean never bothered to read Damore's memo so he has remained willfully ignorant of what he is talking about.

[IanClarkeSanity]

Prof. Pinker at 40:23 is one of the most articulate explanations of James Damore's innocence and the absolute injustice that occurred to him I've yet heard. I've shared it with a lot of people who said it changed their mind on that issue.

[matthewacuren]

Three cheers for Steven Pinker and Heather MacDonald. As for Dean and the questioners... Not so great.

[lSomeRandomGuyl]

The answers given by Pinker and Mac Donald during the Q/A session were fantastic.

[scatton]

Dean is either ignorant or deliberately misrepresenting the truth about Damore. Either way i don't trust him to tell the truth

[Necrostrike]

Howard virtually misrepresented the positions of both Damore and the Yale professors. It's so obvious he was included in this panel merely because of brand rather than intellectual capacity. His intellect is beyond squalid next to Pinker and Mac Donald.

[EmperorsNewWardrobe]

Victimhood competition is much like a competition in the gym over who can pull the most convincingly strained face whilst lifting the least possible weight

[upsidedown]

These student questions are truly terrible. This is how far the termites have spread.

[pjacobsen]

55:40 Steven Pinker proclaims the Southern Poverty Law Center "A McCarthyist Organisation".

[bigjimmcbob]

New rule for question time: You have four sentences with a total of ten clauses, and your fourth sentence must end in a question mark.

[Vincere]

Listening to Howard Dean's condescending & incredibly ill-informed moaning made me long for a Hitchens-esque style of intellectual.

People like Dean need to be pressed on their problematic, & all too often practiced tactic of caricature bashing. And not in a way that merely involves a kind, soft-spoken rebuttal–this man needs to be called out on his dishonest, intellectually lazy and irresponsible attempts to assess ideas, & the nature of those aguing them. Hell, if you ask me, Howard Dean hasn't even earned the right to draw breath in the same room as Steven Pinker, let alone sit on a panel with him.

[HanikSheli]

This panel made me feel so sad I feel like throwing myself in a safe space to protect me from these students and Howard Deen.

[akeemmurdock]

That Muslim girl sounds like everything that's wrong with the climate on campuses and the state of social discourse in general.

Trying to make an argument while choking on her tears. Talking about oppression by the white people and privilege by color of their skin (Pinker had literally just said how that was a bullshit argument). Equating thoughtful discussions with threats to physical integrity and claiming it is their right as students to no-platform views they don't like.

This girl came all the way from who knows where (as she mentioned being an international student), and instead of making the most out of that PRIVILEGE by absorbing as much information as possible, she has decided it's somehow wiser to enclose herself in an echo chamber.

[ManInTheBigHat]

Heather needs to project further into the world. She's on par with Camille Paglia.

[HanikSheli]

I was watching this and couldn't get Howard Dean's positions. They just didn't make sense and he was very inaccurate on many things. BUT then I got it. He was shamelessly courting the young vote for political gain, thinking that kissing the young students ass will gain him support in the future. SO LAME!

[cirrus]

The uniformity of the views among the student body is frightening.

[joanofarc]

Some of these students from the audience are completely inarticulate. What happened to our education
system?

[Peteruspl]

This is a damn fine video, should certainly get more spotlight on YT!

Also, I liked inclusion of Howard Dean with his retrograde clinging to the Narrative. The more debate on free speech/hate speech the better. Let the nannies make their points ... and they will be quickly and handily defeated by pro-free speech side.