Cristopher Hitchens on free speech, pt 3 of 3

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Excerpt from a Canadian symposium. Hitchens makes a brilliant historical case for the defense of free speech and the importance of open, honest discourse.
he was invited by the University of Toronto's Hart House Debating
Club to voice his opinion on the subject of the evening's debate: Be It
Resolved: Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate.
Following a formal debate among four students, Hitchens explains why it is an intellectual duty to defend the right of people we may disgree with. Even revisionists like David Irving has a right not be imprisoned in Austria for his views about the Holocaust.

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7 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 112

@LeBigMacDaddy 14 лет назад

One of if not the best speech I've heard him make, he was in the zone on this one. The flow was almost musical; I'd love to acquire a similar mastery with words but the sad truth is I'm about 20,000 books behind him. The mans paid his dues by reading more books than I've had big macs (I eat a lot of Big Macs) and has earned all the praise that comes his way. Bravo to Chrostopher and here's hoping he has plenty more rants of this quality in him yet

@MrCoolhandLucas 12 лет назад

This is deliciously wonderful, I love you Hitch !

@turbozed 14 лет назад

This is the best defense of free speech and best attack on moral relativism I've ever heard. Hitchens is my hero.

@flashask182 11 лет назад

This is my favorite hitch speech, but not only that, my favorite speech by anyone. I have still to hear a genuinely truthful rebuttal to what he said by anyone that can claim ANY intellectual honesty.

@alolfan1 14 лет назад

Brilliant and transcendent lucidity. I wish more people spoke like this.

@MichaelBurde 14 лет назад

This is the best lecture I have heard is a very long time. Hitchens at his best!

@darwinkilledgod 13 лет назад

When he says, "Where's your piddling subsection now?" I get goosebumps. I can't explain it exactly. My guess is it's just been so long since I've seen someone both show some intense moral outrage and actually respect liberty at the same time.

@hairetikos6402 8 лет назад

This is one of the best speeches I have ever heard in defense of free speech (i.e. against 'hate speech' legislation). What saddens me is that Christopher is making an argument that already was made and won by the late 1600's.

@VolkColopatrion 5 лет назад

and one we lose now.

@ZachRose88 11 лет назад

Absolutely! It takes true mental alacrity and willpower to fight for liberty when what you're fighting for is essentially non-dogmatic. I feel that this will be the next great change in the spirit of our times and we are here to catalyze it!

@tkdchamp971 13 лет назад

Wow, quite possibly the greatest speech I have ever heard him deliver.

@allways28 10 лет назад

the clip that it cut to at the end made laugh

@alexolife 9 лет назад

Right? I wanted it to keep going so he could finish missing the point.

@thunderflash82 15 лет назад

Descartes - "I disagree with what you have to say but I will fight to the death your right to say it."

@wormdrink414 14 лет назад

One of his best performances. Hands down.

@Armand1694 14 лет назад

This is perfection.

@E101ification 11 лет назад

Hey, I'm from Yorkshire, Hitch! Lol, I'll let you off though, for all the good you did against religion :)

@tlydon2 13 лет назад

Hitchens is brilliant, brave and engaging

@AreopagiticanEco-Nationalist 12 лет назад

It makes me feel ill that so many people are ignorant of the value of free speech and liberty. I was just having a debate with a friend that argued in favour for censorship of free speech in order to maintain a happy society, and also that the new UK snooping laws (that give access to internet history, phone contacts and emails) are entirely justified because "he doesn't have anything to hide". Madness!

@alolfan1 12 лет назад

His record will serve us well, I promise you.

@darwinkilledgod 11 лет назад

You're much more optimistic than I am, but I hope you're right! I've been reading too much Mark Steyn recently...

@99bit 9 лет назад

we miss you, hitch

@Morclaw 13 лет назад

To that guy at the end. I would say. "You don't get it mate. Hitchens is defending his and by proxy everyone's right of free expression.".

@thunderflash82 15 лет назад

Sorry, you're right! Voltaire. I got my French philosophers confused.

@Bluelincolnpark 14 лет назад

brilliant

@AsEasyAsEasyIs 13 лет назад

[I reckon that the opposite of stay-at-home mom is go-to-work dad.]

@FunkyJogaBonito 14 лет назад

@bantumwt Any idea, and particularly one that is often as superficial and intolerant as certain aspects of religion, can be treated with ridicule and even contempt, in certain circumstances, but I would agree that "hatred" is going too far, although context is important. There's nothing contradictory about criticism (and even contempt) of a belief and also respecting the rights and dignity of those who accept that belief. That's an important distinction, in my opinion.

@DXP6 14 лет назад

I hope that dude at the end had more to say and that the cut off just took him way out of context. Being that this aired in Canada, however I doubt it.

@ot44eto 12 лет назад

Hitch, I miss you.

@DaveAllenDaveAllen 15 лет назад

Voltaire, surely.

@AsEasyAsEasyIs 13 лет назад

On page 723 of "Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus in Dictionary Form," Edited by the Princeton Language Institute, Barbara Ann Kipfer, Ph.D., Head Lexicographer (1993) ...we find the synonyms for: THEORY [n] hypothesis, belief -- approach, argument, assumption, base, basis, belief, code, codification, concept, conditions, conjecture, doctrine, dogma, feeling, formularization, foundation,

@DaveAllenDaveAllen 15 лет назад

Well, because it's cut off you can't tell whether the guy understood that or not. He is right, Hitchens was, at this point, proud to defend David Irving (though their relationship has cooled somewhat since then), which is tantamount to defending the right to deny the holocaust. And there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion, and this guy may not think there's anything wrong with it either.

@AsEasyAsEasyIs 13 лет назад

grounds, guess, guesswork, hunch, idea, ideology, impression, method, outlook, philosophy, plan, position, postulate, premise, presentiment, presumption, proposal, provision, rational, scheme, speculation, supposal, suppose, supposition, surmise, suspicion, system, systemization, theorem, thesis, understanding

@BrianBartholin 13 лет назад

@wormdrink414 Dont know.. But its at: Hart House, University of Toronto, Nov. 15 - 2006

@profjbrown 13 лет назад

Where can I find more of Andrew Moodie's commentary about this speech? I'd love to see what he has to say... I don't know anything about him (even if he agrees or disagrees), but it seemed like he was going to say something intelligent, at any rate.

@OneBigRetard 16 лет назад

LMAO. Well put.

@enemoj 16 лет назад

whoa good speech very brave to say it i am not stating i agree or dissagree but i hope hes safe

@CarlChapman 15 лет назад

DesertFox - You've heard of Occam's Razor?

@kryptoknightmare9463 14 лет назад

I don't understand your point. The topic upon which he was commenting was: Be It Resolved: Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate.

@conman2317 13 лет назад

Imagine, articulating this speech when you were in grade 6, attending a catholic school?

@blacbraun 11 лет назад

How likely is it that there are unknowable gods (but we somehow know what they want from us) that exist in the universe despite not a shred of evidence outside mankind's deluded mind??

@darwinkilledgod 11 лет назад

I've read Darwin, and am very well educated about evolutionary theory (I teach it), and there's nothing in it about super-races. The concept of superior races was around well before Darwin wrote, and there's nothing in the logic of his idea that suggests one race is better than others. Indeed, one of the heresies of his theory is that it implied all men share a common ancestry. And genetics and the big bang are not the foundations of modern science... they're two prominent theories.

@wormdrink414 13 лет назад

Where can I find the full debate?

@Mike3303 14 лет назад

I think he says "our adrenaline glands are too big and our thumb-finger opposition isn't all that it might be" as opposed to the testosterone comment.

@bantumwt 14 лет назад

@shystylzyt I never claimed he was a conservative, but his stand on certain policies such as militarism in the Mid East and some economic policies are identical to those of the neoconservatives. He is leftist on most other things. There is a difference between the neocons and conservatives. Neocons are generally globalists. Conservatives tend to be more nationalist.

@abuliberalee 12 лет назад

"What you just said was one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul." -Billy Madison

@wubbe 16 лет назад

Yea man, the guy in the end is WAY OFF. Some people just can't understand Hitchens however much they try, but thankfully they are all ridiculed in debates when literate and intelligent people laugh their asses off at his comments. Stay cool, Hitchens!

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

Hi John. As a Catholic, I would state that you are just agreeing with Aquinas and refer to natural law as normative. If atheism were true there is only matter in motion and no basis for declaring any human rights. The humanb will can only choose what appears to it as good, and it takes no expertise to acknowledge rape, theft and murder. To call these things evil as we naturally do , is to affirm theism. I hope some day you can get past the other fundamentalists like this flyweight.

@SnaggleKong 13 лет назад

Breath man!

@LondonPride25 13 лет назад

@tomthefunky the adrenaline gland is what he refers to, not testosterone levels. I hardly think a testosterone fuelled mammal like Hitch would decry the androgen steroid hormone that gives him the fire in his belly. So to speak.

@bantumwt 14 лет назад

@FunkyJogaBonito He still admits his ties to Trotsky, whom many consider to be the first neocon and he calls himself a Marxist and a great admirer of Lenin. That pretty much seals it for me. The man is dangerous to anyone who values freedom.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

I just re-read my post and there are two problems with your response. First , I never said you mentioned evidence, and secondly an ability to 'explain' relevance to someone not interested in explanations or discussions is not a criterion of relevance. Reason please.

@IulianusTabernarius 12 лет назад

@HumaneAnon Its nice that he was cut off, but its annoying that he was aloud in at all. How dare he accuse Hitchens of being a Holocaust denier, last time I checked Hitchens came from an ethnic Jewish polish background. You may as well accuse Martin Luther king of being a segregationist because he mentioned it in speeches and said one shouldn't respond to it with violence.

@eleganzaitself6115 12 лет назад

His death is a crippling loss to rationalism.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

More surprisingly, for someone who has 'read Darwin" and teach evolutionary theory, you appear to be ignorant of his statement that his theory did apply to human life and the role of his theories in the universities of Germany. This is not of course to argue against Fr Mendel or evolution as it presents no difficulties for theism at all. Quite the contrary. The rise of complexity and consciousness as Chardin describes it is consistent with a final cause.

@carenome1 13 лет назад

he said adrenal glands. NOT testtosterone.

@AsEasyAsEasyIs 13 лет назад

It's a shame that the murderess Aileen Wuornos was executed when she could have been of great help to the legions of brave U.S. marines who torture, irradiate, mutilate & murder elderly men, young mothers & children of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan & Libya.

@jacksmith6831 12 лет назад

His name is C'H'ristopher.

@bantumwt 14 лет назад

@FunkyJogaBonito I certainly do not agree with everything about religion or specific religions BUT the problem is not religion, the problem is extremism, which includes religious people, atheists, and anyone else holding extremist views. The problem is people. Hitchens has a personal axe to grind against religion and that is offensive and bigoted.

@AsEasyAsEasyIs 13 лет назад

Shirley Booth played Hazel With her big white bra She never stopped Luring men into her confidence who were bra salesmen at Kmart

@AreopagiticanEco-Nationalist 11 лет назад

Remind me where I mentioned atheism and explain to me why your comment isn't completely irrelevant.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

Zach ...your comment is so alarmingly funny and what's funnier is that you honestly believe what you wrote is somehow connected to reality. So funny in particular as the physicalism atheism reduces to makes free will and 'willpoiwer' a joke, and secondly the hugely funny notion that you aren't up to your armpits in a really dumb dogmatism. As Socrates warned , there are two types of people dogmatic people who know they are dogmatic and dogmatic people who don't know they are dogmatic. Too funny.

@bantumwt 14 лет назад

@CosmosLoyal I think you need to brush up on your history a bit. American neo-conservatism not conservatism (there is a difference) can very much be traced to trotskyism - especially regarding support for militarism in the Middle East. The link runs through Shachtman. As far as Hitchens goes he is/was an avowed Trotskyite and marxist/leninist. far more committed than simple admiration.

@uhila24 14 лет назад

@bantumwt CH opposes fascism which aligns him with neo-cons of the noughties, unfortunately and sadly liberals never did.

@FunkyJogaBonito 14 лет назад

@bantumwt But again, unless you can show that he actually supports oppression, you really don't have an argument. I completely disagree with his stance on certain strains of Islam, but at least I've taken the time to understand his far more nuanced position than some would give him credit for. It is a statistical certainty that you also believe some of the things that Trotsky and Lenin did, and also a large proportion of Marxism (however defined), so you need much more than that.

@Mrawaken77 12 лет назад

@Youdamana This is a joke, right? Because if not, I cannot believe you watched what he said and see the irony of what you said.

@PinataMan 14 лет назад

@bantumwt Have you ever even entered a classroom?

@bantumwt 14 лет назад

I am not saying that he doesn't have the right to say what he has to say, but I am saying that he is most definitely a hatemonger and given that rights must be balanced with responsibility and accountability, he must accept any consequences that are a result of his remarks. Trotsky and Lenin, his stated mentors, were responsible for the most massive violations of free speech rights and human rights in history. Religious speech is also free speech.

@alolfan1 12 лет назад

I don't have to defend Hitchens against pathetic ad hominem and gross ignorance. This is about free speech, and the only religious identity that conflicts with it: Islam (or specific interpretations thereof, whatever). But if you can't understand that Hitchens is defending Irving's free speech as much as Hasan Nazrallah's, then I don't really care what your opinion is. Regardless of their support, we have the right to criticize ideas, especially explicit directives to violence.

@FunkyJogaBonito 14 лет назад

@bantumwt As far as I am aware, that's not actually true, anymore, and hasn't been for many years. You appear to be making the "Glenn Beck argument", which is that, if you admire or agree with any part of an ideology or belief that can be linked, no matter whether it logically follows from it, to human misery or death, you are therefore somehow implicated in that. That's obvious nonsense. And if it were true, not one person would be free of implication, including yourself.

@eleganzaitself6115 12 лет назад

Who is that ludicrous man who lurches in at the end? Delete him.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

John. I understand your confusion on these points and you really are profoundly confused. If as atheism would like to hold, there is no intelligent ordering personal reality behind nature.. which is virtually impossible to believe given what we know, then all there is is matter and motion. This is not 'bandied about by religious apologists, and it is not a 'religious' idea but an unavoidable fact. And if there are no natural, good, ends and purposes then there can be no 'morality'. Check Feser.

@NorthernStorm8 17 лет назад

No. The documents are real. Check your facts please.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

You're not even framing the question properly. So you think intelligence is an accidental byproduct of mindless, purposeless physical forces. You have difficulty with the idea that Intelligence brought about intelligence and instead attribute your mental abilities to unintelligent causes. And you think theism is dumb?! The arguments for theism are many and coherent, unlike mindless materialism.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

I'd be more sympathetic to what you are offering if your moniker weren't so absurd. Darwin killed god? This just reflects a near total unfamiliarity with the philosophical merits of theism and a surprisingly naive notion of what evolutionary science reveals. So genetics and the recent detailing of the human genome and the big bang aren't pretty much foundational in modern science? Seems you're using an awfully fine filter for my comments while plowing with a truck on yours.

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

Hitch's father .. the great communist .. and his unfortunately bent alcoholic son who watched his mother commit suicide chasing her adulterous partner accross Europe. A total mess. Like anyone needs to be warned about fundamentalism, from atheists and the communist heaven on earth or Muslim. Poor bitter failed noisemaker. May God rest his soul and that of all of us. (Soul means the formal principle in matter that makes different thnigs.) Your word 'information' comes from this, Plato's work.

@darwinkilledgod 11 лет назад

You don't know what hate is. You also don't appear to know anything about Nazis or Hitler, who had no love of Darwin or free speech. also, Darwin stopped believing in god when his daughter died. Darwin's theory merged with Mendel...but it wasn't "saved" by it as it was never in danger!

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

Too bad you can't distinguish whipping up a crowd of dummies with rhetoric, from the duller, truer path of honest fact. We lost 130 milllion lives to the atheist dream in the last hundred years. RECENT history. I do hope you will expand your reading. The existence of God is easy to demonstrate metaphysically. An infinite series of conditioned causes is impossible. Aristotle's 'uncaused cause' is necessary to explain the existence of all us dependent things. I do hope you will follow reason.

@AreopagiticanEco-Nationalist 11 лет назад

Sad individual.

@kennypark 16 лет назад

Did God dictate it in English? In Latin? In Greek? Unless you can understand the nuances of classical Hebrew and Aramaic, you are saying you know better than your God by assigning to him a translation into idiot-speech for the lovers of Monster Trucks. And no one believes it was dictated to Moses; it's a ridiculous idea. "Good morning, Moses. Now, where did we leave off?"

@Youdamana 11 лет назад

The joke is that I am literate scientifically and philosophically. Some genius thinks atheistic materialism makes special ordering allowances for 'evolution'. Evolution is an instance of what Aristotle called final cause. Your purposeless universe crap is just insisting upon a not-even-stupid universe. That's why mankind laughs at the poor dummies who embrace the uncoherent. Its sooooo stupid. Too bad you can't see it. Try Aristotle. Save your mind. You'll be shocked at what you're saying here.

@tkdchamp971 13 лет назад

Wow, quite possibly the greatest speech I have ever heard him deliver.