Steven Crowder and the Classical Liberal Free Speech Lesson | Moral Libertarian View

Welcome to Moral Libertarian View, a podcast style program where we discuss big ideas to see if they can contribute to more individual liberty and equal opportunity, values that are at the heart of the Moral Libertarian idea. My aim is to untangle the confusions and seek the truth, in the areas of civilizational values, economic policy, and culture. I hope you subscribe if you are interested.

Today, I want to look at the recent controversy surrounding Steven Crowder.

As a free speech advocate, I am sad to see that free speech has become a culture war battleground again. Once a fundamental value of post-Enlightenment Western society, even enshrined in the first amendment of the US constitution, free speech clearly doesn't enjoy the same level of universal support nowadays. To reverse this trend, we need to look at what's actually gone wrong. So I had a chat with several of my friends who are not as into free speech as myself. So why don't they share my faith in free speech? It appears that they see free speech not as the enabler of a free market of ideas, but as an excuse to say things that harm certain people. In many of the free speech advocates who have come out to defend Crowder, my friends saw not free speech warriors, but people who want to encourage homophobia. Now, this view may not be correct, but rightly or wrongly, this appears to be a commonly held view out there. If we don't address this view, the future of free speech is in jeopardy.

I think the problem with the way we defend free speech these days is that it is all about defending others' rights to speak, without also showcasing how, in the bigger picture, the free market of ideas actually works. I think our defense of free speech would be that much stronger if we also talked more about the free market of ideas, and how to participate in it. By extension, we also need to showcase examples where, despite agreeing with each others' right to free speech, we are unafraid to put our strong disagreements out there for all to see. The free speech movement and its associated entities like the Intellectual Dark Web have seen too much intra-movement agreement, too much avoidance of actually discussing our disagreements, and I think it has hurt our credibility.

So here it is. While I totally support Steven Crowder's right to free speech, and disagree with moves to punish him for his speech, I have to voice a strong disagreement with almost everything he has said to date regarding LGBT matters. Crowder's gay jokes are juvenile. As someone with a biological sciences background, I have also noticed that some of his views on LGBT matters are also not scientifically sound, and I believe it is my responsibility to point this out. Crowder's failure to properly respect other individuals, and engage in polite discourse with those he disagrees with, is also in direct opposition to the classical liberal tradition, where we are committed to treating each other with civility despite our disagreements. Civility is an important part of maintaining an effective free marketplace of ideas. Whether you agree with them or not, people like Ronald Reagan and John McCain had lots of civility, whereas people like Steven Crowder clearly don't, and that's a very important difference. Finally, I am personally committed to using my own free speech to make the world a better place for future generations of LGBT people. For the LGBT youth listening out there, it will get better in the future, because of people like us, who will use our free speech to argue the case for acceptance and respect. I am confident that our ideas will win in the free market of ideas, because I believe that our ideas are the sound ones, and sound ideas always win in the end. That's the motto of the free market of ideas: may the best ideas win.

That's all for today. I'll be back next time to discuss another big idea. Subscribe if you want to follow our story. The transcripts are available on my website, and my Medium profile. And remember to resist the hive mind and stay individualistic. The world depends on it.