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00:00Let's move on to truth and freedom of speech.
00:04You're a free speech absolutist, I think, if I'm interpreting that correctly.
00:11Are you concerned about threats to free speech either from censorship or self-censorship?
00:18Do you think there should be any limits to free speech?
00:21And is self-censorship becoming more of an issue than perhaps an overarching censorship by the government?
00:27Right. So let me start first by what I mean by an absolutist stance on freedom of speech.
00:33I'm Jewish. I grew up in the Middle East.
00:37I've had some very difficult realities in my childhood because we had to escape Lebanon.
00:43So I'm very much wedded to my Jewish identity.
00:46Yet I support the right of Holocaust deniers to spew their nonsense.
00:51There's almost nothing that could be as insulting and offensive as to deny the Holocaust.
00:56But if you wish to live in a free society, you have to be able to bear the imbeciles, the racists, the bigots.
01:03Where I draw the line as to what constitutes freedom of speech is already what's enshrined in the First Amendment, which is there can't be a direct incitement to violence.
01:12So I can perfectly say Judaism is one crock of nonsense.
01:18It's all garbage. And I would say I support your right to say that.
01:22On the other hand, if you say, let's go on the corner of Broadway and 7th Street.
01:27And when the Jews are coming out of the synagogue, let's beat them up and kill them.
01:31Then that becomes direct incitement to violence.
01:33And you're not allowed to do that.