Former President Barack Obama Criticizes Certain Forms of Free Speech
Jose Nino
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In a recent episode of the Verge podcast, former President Barack Obama took a swipe at free speech.
Ironically, he initially told the podcast host Nilay Patel that he is “close” to having First Amendment “absolutist” views. However, he qualified his near “absolutist” views by proclaiming that “we have laws against certain kinds of speech that we deem to be really harmful to the public health and welfare.”
In his view, such laws have the rule of securing a “marketplace” of several ideas.
Obama continued: “(…) these ideas battle themselves out, and ultimately, we can all judge better ideas versus worse ideas. I deeply believe in that core principle (of the First Amendment).”
The threat of so-called “misinformation” has worried Obama, who believes that such an issue can’t be so easily solved through conventional legislative means.
He did propose a first step in addressing this issue as follows: “We need to think about different platforms and different business models.”
He added, “It may be that I’m perfectly happy to have AI mediate how I buy jeans online. That could be very efficient. I’m perfectly happy with it. So if it’s a shopping app or thread, fine.”
Obama ultimately desires the enactment of regulations that would expand people’s perspectives.
Obama is playing a game of Orwellian sleight of hand here. On one hand, he’s paying lip service to free speech absolutism, but then starts to discredit his very own ideas by making exceptions for certain forms of speech to be curtailed.
The former President actually knows what he’s doing. In politics, talk is cheap. One can claim that they’re 1st Amendment champions but once they start embracing certain forms of censorship, they open the door for greater infringements further down the line.
That’s why it’s so important not to let the cultural Left gain an inch in these political squabbles. By conceding ground, even small amounts, to the cultural Left, right-wingers are signing their very own death warrants.
Hopefully, the next generation of right-wingers take absolutist stances on this issue. We’re going to need all the free speech we can get if we want to expose the ruling class’ corruption.
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