HackerTube

THE VIDEO SHELF · free speech

Christopher Hitchens - Free Speech

Christopher Hitchens delivers a speech defending freedom of speech, including the right of audiences to hear offensive speakers and a take on the fire-in-a-crowded-theatre line. It is framed around the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Watch & explore the libraryYouTube ↗

Why HN readers recommended it

HN invokes it in nearly every content moderation and censorship thread as the most eloquent case for free speech.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
hitch archive
Topic
free speech
Format
talk
Level
general
HN recommenders in dataset
9
HN mentions in dataset
16
Recommendation years in dataset
2018–2022

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • First, the First Amendment protects the speaker from being punished by the State for his speech. That's it. It does not protect the speaker from losing their job, or social ostracism, or anything else. Second, no one is rationally a "free speech absolutist," which is …

    0x7f800000 on Hacker News · 2018-02
    In Is America having second thoughts about free speech?

  • Back in 2007 Christopher Hitchens argued that Canada's hate speech laws are not only immoral but self-contradictory. The motion: "Be it resolved: Freedom of speech includes the freedom to hate." Hitchens was fully in favor of that statement.[1] His argument has three parts. First, freedom …

    chroma on Hacker News · 2019-06
    In YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki addresses hate speech controversy

  • Christopher Hitchens yells fire in a crowded room here: [VIDEO] More importantly, his talk is worth watching for a strong understanding of why free speech is so vital.

    Reedx on Hacker News · 2019-08
    In 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

Keep exploring