Free speech protests continue to pop up on campuses across the United States, and everyone is getting a say on the issue, even former President Barack Obama.

You may or may not yet feel strongly about this. No matter where you stand, though, now is the time to get some context. What is "harm," and what kinds of speech should still be protected even if it is harmful? Time to ReConsider.

Sources and Links

• Atlantic, great summary of the issue on college campuses
• Diane Feinstein + Blum → UC Campus anti-semitic speech restrictions.
• Yale:
  • Open letter from Yale professors in support of Erika Christakis
  • Video of Yale professor getting cursed at
• A summary of some of the protests against offensive speech
• Censoring speech offensive to minorities
• Obama’s defense of free speech
• Video of Obama’s defense
• Poll: half of students believe they should be able to prevent media from covering protests
• Poll: restricting free speech
• JS Mill: On Liberty
  • Chapter II: On the Liberty of Thought and Discussion

• NYT, “A Confession of Liberal Intolerance”
• NYT, “Condoleeza Rice backs out of Rutgers Speech after Student Protests”
• The College Fix: “Students protest pro-free speech display at UMich”
• The College Fix: “College students protest against the first amendment”
• Erik's article on, among other things, University hiring bias:

ReConsider, by Xander Snyder and Erik Fogg, is a twice-per-month podcast in which we take on, in-depth, one pressing political issue facing western Democracies with a fresh, researched, and challenging perspective. We help listeners see the full context behind the issue and make up their own minds.

ReConsider Media is a syndicate of IVN.us. This podcast was originally published on ReConsider Media on December 15, 2016.