No Safe Spaces (2019) - full transcript

[dramatic music]

- You need to get out.

Help me get this reporter
out of here!

I need some muscle over here!

- Keep doing it!
[shouting indistinctly]

[cheers and applause]

- You know, this is all
very personal to me

"cause I experienced tyranny
at a very young age.

Israel sent me
into the Soviet Union

when I was 21 years old

"cause I knew Russian
and Hebrew,



and I was sent in to smuggle
out the names of Jews

that I would find
in the Soviet Union

and to smuggle in
religious items and so on.

And I really experienced
what most people in the West

have never, ever experienced:

life under a totalitarian
regime."

[grand music]

[somber music]

In order to keep myself sane,
I would make myself laugh.

So, in my Moscow hotel,
which I knew was bugged-

And how did I know?
It's very simple.

They didn't allow any
Soviet citizen

to stay in the same hotel
as a Westerner.

So I would sing
from the Psalms.



It says,
"They have false gods."

They have ears that don't
hear, eyes that don't see,

but people still
bow down to them.

[singing in Hebrew]

- I think somewhere a cantor
just killed himself.

- A few cantors.
I think one is understating it.

- Everyone says, "Why are you
friends with Dennis Prager?

You have nothing in common."

[laughter]
As if, if our moms' first names

were both Connie,

we'd be simpatico
on every topic.

He comes from the East.
I come from the West.

He comes from religion.
I come from atheist/pagan.

He comes from college
and knowledge.

I come from tomfoolery
and sports,

but yet we both share
a little something

called common sense and values,

and the common sense
and values-

I think this may be the chance
for this country.

Common sense and values
should trump everything.

It should trump LGBT.
It should trump Chicano.

It should trump black.
It should trump Trump.

That's all we should be
focused on,

is common sense and values.

[applause]

This is the place I'd always
kind of dreamt of

when I was a kid.

The houses I grew up in
did not have garages,

and I always wanted cars and
go-karts and mini bikes and-

Well, I wanted
a basketball hoop.

I wanted a dog. I wanted dinner.
I wanted a whole bunch of stuff.

[smooth music]

I found out very early
what could happen to somebody

if you got a free house,
a couple of food tickets,

and just a stipend
from the government,

that it was debilitating.

My mom was never forced to go
out and take care of business,

and I said to her once, sort of
from the mouth of babes,

"Why don't you just get a job?

"You get a job,
we'll have a car.

"We could have a nice car
instead of a junker.

We could get some furniture.

And she said, "If I get a job,
I'll lose my welfare,

meaning, "Use your head, boy.

And I thought at that point-
I realized, not for me.

- I'm a little embarrassed,
because here's a guy

listening to my show
for years,

and he's the most downloaded
podcast in the world,

and I didn't know who he was?

- Adam Carolla and his
partner, Julianne Hough.

[funky music]

[cheers and applause]

- My name's Jimmy,
and his name's Adam.

- The king is parched
and grows weary.

Jester, bring forth
a chalice of ale.

[cheers and applause]

Scamper away.

I don't want to live in a world

where Dennis Prager
knows who I am.

The Dennis I enjoy is,
he's just home.

He's reading the Torah,
and he's smoking a cigar.

I don't want a Dennis Prager
who goes,

'Hey, Ace Man,
"Man Show,'

'Crank Yankers,' love it."

- If somebody were able to pick

the two most
opposite upbringings

in the United States
of America,

they would take my upbringing
and his upbringing.

I remember playing stickball
in Brooklyn, where I grew up.

So some kid would say something,
you know, unbelievably stupid,

and we'd all tell him,
"Will you shut up?"

And he'd go,
"Hey, it's a free country, man.

It's freedom of speech here."

And it basically shut us up.
He's right.

What's happening now
in the United States,

you are not to be heard
on a college campus

or at your place of work.

This is brand-new.

This is one of the few things
one could say

we have no precedent for
in the United States.

- The real question is how long

before they come for your job
and for my job-

I mean, for anyone
who speaks for a living?

- They want to close us down.

No, in all seriousness,
they do want to close us down.

- Don't you have a billion
views on PragerU?

- We do, we had a billion
views last year,

but the same thing's
gonna happen to you.

Look, you're the most
downloaded podcast,

to my knowledge,
in the world, yeah.

- Yeah, I got a family.
I got employees.

- We're not an enemy
to goodness.

We're not an enemy
to good things.

We're an enemy of the dogmatic.

- Dennis and I were gonna
get together

and do an event at CSUN.

That's Cal State Northridge
out here.

A little backstory-
my mother graduated CSUN

with a degree
in Chicano studies,

so that's all you need to know
about my mom and possibly CSUN.

- Never has a thesis
been so confirmed so rapidly.

We were going to do an event,
you and I.

- And we've done events there
before.

- And we've done before.

And the subject was,
essentially,

what is happening
at our universities

in terms of intellectual
openness, et cetera, et cetera?

They had fully approved
you and me being there.

They then canceled it
because of the topic.

It doesn't bother me for me.

It bothers me for this
beloved country of mine.

It bothers me for the young
people who are being deprived

of anything
that could open their minds.

- So I have a vision of us
as people, as human beings

that is interested not in what
is different among us

but what is the same, okay?

So I believe,
even though I'm not like you,

in the sense
of my superficial appearance,

that I can sit down and talk
to you and understand-

understand your predicament,
that I can listen to you.

If that's not true,
if you deny that,

then what is the reason
that you ask to be heard?

Yes, thank you.

That I disagree with.

That I disagree with.
- No, no, no.

- I disagree. I disagree.
- It's not a debate.

- I am sick looking at you.

I am disgusted watching Alex
argue with you.

You are not listening!
You are disgusting.

And now I want your job
to be taken from you.

- People who have a great,
sterling reputation at Yale,

"You know, you're old enough
to decide

what Halloween costume
you should use,"

and for that, it almost causes
a riot at Yale,

and that's Yale.

- And I know last year
on Halloween,

you went as Kevin Hart,

and that caused-

You don't know who
Kevin Hart is.

- Well, I do vaguely,

but the point is, it's cultural
appropriation no matter what.

- That is correct.

- We're on the way
to the airport,

which is where I do much
of my life, the airport.

You know, I go to all sorts
of campuses,

from Berkeley to Columbia
and everything in between.

So, you know, my hope is,
it's Wyoming.

It's a pretty
conservative state.

All will be peaceful
and tranquil.

- It all began when students
invited a special guest

to speak about socialism.

- Yeah, that's right, Aaron.

We were on campus tonight
as hundreds lined up

to see Dennis Prager speak
about his views,

but before he even arrived
to campus,

other students
who did not agree

tried to stop his appearance.

- We're essentially here
because we don't agree

with Mr. Prager's views
at all.

He has said
many hurtful things

and hateful rhetoric towards
underrepresented communities,

of which Wyoming has many
beautiful, diverse communities.

- In the case of the University
of Wyoming, it was precious.

"Dennis Prager, noted-"
which was a compliment-

"Noted bigot,

racist, homophobe, sexist,

Islamophobe, and anti-Semite."

[laughter]

I swear to God.

So word got out to the person
who clearly knew me well,

"It's probably worth
dropping anti-Semite.

"The guy is a well-known Jew,

written books on Judaism,
et cetera."

So they dropped that
without a word of apology,

needless to say.

They just dropped it,
but everything else remained.

- It's ironic that, you know,
"The Los Angeles Times"

would call you bigoted,
because what you do

is the opposite of bigoted,
which is,

"I don't care who's listening.

I will simply speak the truth
as I know it to you,"

versus a version that is meant
for this color

and that group
and the LGBT community.

Dennis is the most decent,
moral person I've ever met,

and thus, he does not have
this animus in his heart,

so he's able to be free
to piss everyone off.

[laughter and applause]

- The only reason
for the attack

is that I'm known
as a conservative.

This is a brainwash
that they undergo.

If you are conservative,
then you are not wrong.

You are evil.

They have to think we're evil.

Otherwise they have
to debate us.

All: Racist go home!
Racist go home!

- The chaos centered around
controversial conservative

Ben Shapiro.

- Values matter significantly
more than melanin level.

Racial diversity doesn't mean
anything.

Decency means something.

Diversity is not a bad thing,
but it isn't a good thing

unless the people who are
racially diverse

are also decent.

- Concerns over safety
and threats

prompted University President
William Covino

to cancel
the preapproved speech,

but Shapiro continued with his
scheduled appearance,

drawing dozens of protesters

who were desperate
to stop him.

- Look at me. I mean, like,

do I look like
a physical threat to anybody?

Last time I was in a fight,
I was 14 years old.

I was two years younger
than everybody else

in my high-school class,

and I was getting
my ass kicked.

- When I went to college,

suddenly there were some folks

who didn't think at all
like me.

I've heard some
college campuses

where they don't want
to have a guest speaker

who is too conservative.

All:
Charles Murray, go away!

Racist, sexist, anti-gay!

- That's the free speech
of the left.

- This is not an argument.
This is a religion.

- When Professor Stanger was
escorting Murray out,

she was left with
a concussion and whiplash.

- Shouldn't we be able to agree
on protecting free speech

no matter who is speaking?

- There will be resistance,
and it will not be peaceful.

Resistance to violent
hate speech

is not another act of hate.

It is an act of love.

- Whoever told you you only had
to hear what didn't upset you?

[suspenseful music]

[indistinct shouting]

All:
Shut it down! Shut it down!

Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down!

Shut it down!

[explosion, screaming]

- A protest has turned violent

at the University
of California, Berkeley.

- Campus locked down as more
than 1,000 people rallied

against the appearance
of a controversial editor

from Breitbart,
Milo Yiannopoulos.

- All I care about is free
speech and free expression.

I want people to be able to be,
do, and say anything.

- It's disgusting.

It's one thing to protest
someone's right

to come here and speak,

but it's another thing
to create

this much amount
of destruction and violence

and hurt and harm
other people.

- We need our voices heard,
and if this is the way

that we think it must be done,

then I suppose
that's what we got to do.

- It sends the message
that under no means

will we allow any of this to
go on anywhere near Berkeley.

- Has the birthplace
of free speech

now become its graveyard?

[dramatic music]

- If there's a fundamental
American right,

it's to say what's
on your mind.

The idea that if
you offend me,

you should not speak...

- To create a unsafe space
here for all-

- I did not-
- Be quiet!

- Is so bizarre.

- What a lot of people
don't get

and Americans get to take
for granted

is that free speech is a very
weird thing in human history.

Mostly, our instincts are,
we don't like dissenters.

We prefer to behead them,
set them on fire,

send them out of our village.

- Free speech is unique
to the United States.

Lots of countries pretend
to have it,

but they'll cut your head off
for blasphemy in Saudi Arabia.

In Thailand they'll throw you
in a prison

if you make fun of the king.

In Russia and China,
you go to jail

if you say anything nice
about gay people.

In Germany,
you can't praise Nazis.

Sounds good, right?
But maybe not.

Doesn't stop people from
promoting Nazism in secret.

It just means you can't
debate them in public.

France convicted
Brigitte Bardot five times

for criticizing the practice

of animal sacrifice
at a Muslim festival.

[sheep baas]

The U.K. convicted a comic

of a hate crime
for teaching a pug

to do a Nazi salute.

Just over the border
in Canada,

a Christian preacher
was arrested for, wait for it

preaching in public.

Pretty much everywhere else,
cops can come to your house

and arrest you for a rant
or a complaint

or even for making a joke.

The only reason
they can't do it here

is because we have
the First Amendment.

- The only reason why you have
a First Amendment

is to protect
the rights of minorities,

the rights of the oddball,
the rights of the underdog.

Free speech battles on campus
in the 1960s,

starting in Berkeley

and the Free Speech Movement
in 1964,

were primarily about
whether or not

you could have politics
on campus,

and that was the start
of the Free Speech Movement.

From 1964 on, it, you know,
took over campuses

all over the country,

and [ think it was
so successful

that there was probably
a perfect week in 1977

when free speech
was protected on campus

at a level it never had been
before and would be again,

probably right around the time
"Star Wars came out.

The phase that we're in
right now

is the most distressing one.

Sometime around 2013, 2014,

the students themselves

started demanding
new speech codes

or that people not be
invited to speak,

or if they were invited,
that they be disinvited.

- Both Condoleezza Rice
and Christine Lagarde

had to withdraw themselves
from giving speeches

at Rutgers
and Smith Universities.

- That was when you first
started hearing

about trigger warnings,

things like
microaggression training.

- We're not sure if we even
believe in freedom anymore.

Most universities today don't
require classes in civics,

courses to know
the fundamentals

of the Constitution.

Instead, we have classes
on the things that divide us-

identity politics.

If we don't rediscover,

reclaim an understanding
of the foundations

of our society, we're in
jeopardy of losing it.

[light music]

- Whew, you sure got to be
careful what you say nowadays

so people don't get offended.

Wow, I wonder who that
little scrap of paper is.

I'm the First Amendment,
yes, the very First Amendment

And I'm found
in the Bill of Rights

Well, it's a long, long time
since my ink has dried

And a long, long time
since my authors died

But I'm just as important
today as I was back then

At least I hope I am

'Cause I defend
all your rights

- Gee, First Amendment,
you certainly sound important.

- Call me Firsty.
I like to think I'm important,

but I'm not so sure anymore.

- How come people don't know
more about you, Firsty?

- People tend to take me
for granted,

but if it wasn't for me,

Americans wouldn't be able
to say what they want to say.

- Oh, no.
- Oh, yeah.

Sometimes when people
speak their mind,

other people get offended.

I hope people remember why
I'm important, or I may die.

- Die?
- Yeah, die...

along with the rest
of your freedoms.

I'm the First Amendment,
yes, the very First Amendment

Without me,
you'd be living in China

In the Bill of Rights,
I'm the leadoff hit

Read me in a museum or when
you're sitting on the sh-

[tires screeching]

[gunfire]

Both: Firsty!
- [groans]

- Why?
- [groaning]

both: No!

- Liberty is a value,
not a natural inclination.

- Yeah, I love when I listen to
Dennis's show and somebody says,

"Well, everyone yearns
to be free."

- No.
- And he says, "No."

- They yearn to be
taken care of.

The greater yearning
of the human species

is to be taken care of,
not to be free.

The French Revolution
and the American Revolution

are at war with one another.

Their motto was "Liberty,
equality, fraternity."

That was not in our motto.

We have "Liberty, in God
we trust, e pluribus unum...

life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness."

They're different values,

and we have raised
a generation

to believe that being
taken care of

is more important
than liberty.

49% of kids on campuses
in America today,

according to Pew Research,

do not believe in free speech
for hate speech.

You know how moronic that is?

The issue of free speech
doesn't apply to love speech.

Nobody ever threatened
love speech.

It's precisely the speech
you hate or you find hateful

that needs to be protected,
but this is unknown.

This is why we're fighting
for the soul of America.

[applause]

[somber music]

So how many of you think people
should be free in America

or on a university campus
to say whatever they want?

One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight.

How many of you think
there should be restrictions

on what you can say
on a campus?

One, two, three, four, five,
six, so it's pretty much tied.

So no country in the world
has had free speech

as much as this country.

In Europe, you can be arrested
if you say things

that the government thinks
is hateful.

Give me an example-

those of you who said
that you think

there should be restrictions,

give me an example of what

should not be allowed
to be said.

- I would say, like, if you
have Nazi beliefs or values

and you raise those

because that can
make people uncomfortable.

- Okay, that's very important.

So I'm a Jew, and Nazis
killed six million Jews.

That's one out of every
three Jews on Earth

was annihilated
in World War |I by the Nazis.

So I have a real hatred
to Nazis,

but I believe they should
be allowed

to march freely in America,

because if we say to the Nazi
today, "You can't speak,"

then we'll say
to a non-Nazi tomorrow,

"You can't speak either."

And we hope that
if everybody speaks,

the good ideas will win.

- Free speech is one
of the greatest innovations

in human history.

It's how we figured out how
to have peaceful,

pluralistic societies

that are endlessly creative
and free.

Free speech done correctly

is one of the most
exciting experiences

you can have in your life.

Throw anything out there.
We'll question anything.

Let's figure stuff out.
It's absolutely thrilling.

And I also think
that it's incredibly fragile.

If I thought that free speech
would just be something

that could defend itself,

I wouldn't be as worried
about it,

but humans don't really
like freedom of speech.

They like to say they like it.

They definitely like their own
freedom of speech.

They don't necessarily like

your freedom of speech
that much.

- So we had an attorney
write CSUN a letter.

You folks, you have a charter
which says

that there's free speech
on your campus.

So they had no choice.

- So we're coming back, and
we're saying whatever we want.

- Exactly.

So here is exhibit A

of a man who was raised
with white privilege.

- Oh, yes.

I got into a semi-heated debate
with a black fella

who was on public radio,

and he went on to explain
to me,

I didn't know what I was
talking about

because of my white privilege.

And I said, "Well, let's
examine my white privilege,

may we?"

I did not go to college.
I worked cleaning carpets.

Later on,
I worked on construction sites,

not as an apprentice or
a carpenter, but as a laborer-

digging ditches,
mostly cleaning up garbage.

Whatever work donkeys
were qualified to do,

that's what I did.

At a certain point, when I felt
like my white privilege

wasn't kicking in at all...
[laughter]

Mom was on food stamps
and welfare,

Dad was eking out a living

and had no extra money or time
for anybody else,

I said, "You know what
would be a good job for me?

Fireman. I'm strong.
I'm eager for the fray.

I have no qualms
about my personal safety,

and [ think I would make
a good fireman.

Plus, I love chili.

I love playing foosball,
and as far as I could tell,

when they're not putting
out fires,

they're eating chili
and playing foosball,

So I just walked over there,
and I said,

I'm gonna put in an
application to be a fireman,"

and they said, "Fine.
I filled it out.

I handed it to the guy,
and the guy said,

Don't hold your breath."

And I said,
"What does that mean?

And he said, "We're not gonna
be getting to you

for some years.

And when you're 19
and you're destitute

and your stepmom"s
trying to extricate you

from the garage
you're living in

and you have no job
or no real income,

the notion of "We'll call you
in six or seven years"

is not a buoy you cling to.

And sure enough,
I moved out of the house.

I was about 25, 26, five,
six years

into my carpentering career.

My dad showed up
to my apartment one day,

and he had a letter,
and he said,

It's from the I A.
Fire Department."

And sure enough, there was
a date to take the written test

the following weekend.

And I said, "I don't even
want to be a fireman anymore,

but because I've waited
six years to be a fireman,

I'm going down
to Hollywood High

on 10:00 a.m. on Saturday."

And I stood in line.

There was a young lady,
very diminutive lady,

a small, slightly built lady
behind me,

could not tell her nationality.

Could have been black, Latino,
or mixed

or something like that.

Everyone around me-
I kept saying,

"When did you put in
your application?

When did you put it in?"

I turned around to her,
and I said,

"When did you put in
your application?"

And she said, "Tuesday.

[laughter]

- A safe space is a place
you can go to

where it's safe
to do whatever you want.

You can just be yourself,
and no one's gonna say

or do anything
that makes you uncomfortable.

- There's this myth that when
you're in a safe space,

all you do
is sing "Kumbaya" or something.

The reality is,
it's when you feel safe

that you have some of the most
important

transformative discussions,

at least I do
when I'm in my safe spaces.

- Once you go beyond college,

you're gonna have
uncomfortable experiences,

but to kind of force yourself
through pain

and difficult experiences
is totally unnecessary.

- See,
I never went to college.

I was a builder,

but I always thought college
was this place for ideas.

And now it's turned
into a place

for some ideas
but not other ideas,

and that seems to fly in
the face of ideas in general.

- For a generation that demands
safe spaces,

that equates ideas they don't
like to actual physical battery

and requires trigger warnings
for class assignments

that might be upsetting,
there's a name-snowflakes.

- We're creating
this environment

where liberals and leftists
and progressives on campuses

think that they need
to get government authority

or university authority
to protect their ears

from stuff that they don't like

or stuff that's
actually offensive

or that is racist or that is
sexist or that is horrible,

and I just think that
that's a very dangerous view.

- I'm saying this not
for conservatives.

I'm saying this for liberals.

They have been bubble-wrapped
in academia for 40 years.

- When you try to create
a safe space

in which it's difficult
to be unsettled, unnerved,

you reinforce walls,

which makes it difficult for you
to cultivate the capacity

to learn from other people,

especially people
you disagree with.

- Can I just say,
it feels really nice

to live in a bubble
for a little while.

You feel safe.
You feel protected.

You feel like everyone agrees
with you and you're right.

- I If you do not like me &

you are not allowed
in my safe space I

all:
My safe space

- I Look and you will see

There's a very select
crowd in your safe space I

all:
My safe space

- I People that support me

I Mixed in with more people
that support me -

I And say nice things,
rainbows all around me

I There is no shame
in my safe space

- I My safe space &

- No university should
ever create

a safe space for an idea.

If you want to feel good,
get a massage.

- I want every student on
campus to be physically safe.

I don't want anybody
getting beat up.

I don't want anybody getting
sexually assaulted or molested.

I don't want anybody singled
out for, you know, threats,

but if you mean emotionally
safe or intellectually safe,

I don't know why you're
in college,

because the whole point is that
you're going to leave soon,

and I want you to be offended
every single day.

All:
? Social Justice Warriors

Get triggered 2

both:
Bias Response Team, go!

All:
I Social Justice Warriors I'

- We've gotten
to a point where,

if you say you're tolerant
all the time,

if you talk about diversity
all the time

and tolerance all the time,

people somehow think that means
you are tolerant

and you care about diversity,

and in almost every case
almost without fail,

today that's actually
the reverse.

So right now it's very in
for everyone on the left

to talk about tolerance and
diversity and all these things,

and what is the type
of diversity that they hate?

Well, the type of diversity
that they hate

is diversity of thought.

- Dave Rubin has
every credential

of a bona fide liberal.

I mean, Dave Rubin is gay.
Dave Rubin is married to a man.

Dave Rubin is a lifelong
Democrat.

- When I talk about liberalism,
what is liberalism,

and how is it different
than leftism?

Liberalism really is
about the individual,

and it's about live
and let live.

It's not just this
amorphous idea of tolerance,

which is what leftism is.

That's a collectivist view
of the world,

where we should be grouping
all of these people

and we should be taking
from some and giving to others,

and it is a shake
that will eat its own tail.

- You are a liberal.
- I am.

- We obviously have
different politics,

but it doesn't matter.

On freedom of speech
we are completely united.

Do you feel right now,
ideologically,

your biggest enemy
are conservatives or the left?

- Oh, there's no question.

A, my biggest enemy is
the hard left.

B, the hard left poses
a far greater danger

to the American future
than the hard right.

I'm not worried about a few
dozen people with swastikas...

- Thank you.
- Who want to replace

the Jews
'cause they're our past.

They have no resonance
on university campuses today.

- Right.
- But the hard, hard left

anti-Semitism,
anti-Christianity,

intolerance for speech,
these are our leaders.

When I used to teach
150 students

in my first year
of criminal law,

I'd look around, and I'd say,
"Future president,

"future chief justice,

'future editorial director
of 'The New York Times,'

future managing partner
of Goldman Sachs."

They're our future.

- What's happened
to this place?

Ah!!

[suspenseful music]

[gasps]

Ah!

This was the home of ruthless
media disrupter

Samuel F. B. Morse.

Who's his successor,
that fellow?

- Fellow? That word
is cisgender normative, okay?

You're worse than Hitler!

- Too late for flattery.

I'm not giving this school
a dime.

- I've seen,
over the past 30 years,

how the university has changed
and not for the better.

Now they don't tolerate
the other side's viewpoint,

and there are no conservatives
that are speaking out.

If you're conservative
at this university, good luck.

First of all,
I don't know how-

you're not gonna get hired.

I don't know what department's
gonna hire you

at what college
it's gonna hire you at.

You're not gonna get promoted.

There's no way that
you're gonna be accepted

by your fellow faculty,

and I'm telling you right now,

they're gonna figure out
a way to get rid of you.

I mean, they will
figure out some means

by whatever hook and crook.

They'll never say it's because
of your political orientation,

but they're gonna
get rid of you.

This is also something of an
irony, but it's also really-

I think it's kind of dangerous

that there's only
one worldview now

that's allowable
in the university,

and if you don't have that,
you better be quiet.

- You must think like we think
and do what we do,

and if you don't,
you're verboten.

You're unwelcome.
You can't even speak here.

You can't teach here.
You can't attend here.

How in the world can we
possibly argue

that this is academic freedom?

It is ideological fascism.

You must be one of us,
or you're unwelcome.

- Is it hard to be
a conservative at Berkeley?

Yeah, sometimes.

- My name's Isabella Chow.

I'm a third-year student
at UC Berkeley

studying business and music.

In spring 2018, I was elected
to student senate at Berkeley.

There's a bill proposed
to our student senate

that I felt like
I couldn't fully vote for

because of my Christian beliefs

and because I represented

the Christian community
on campus.

And so I abstained from voting
on that bill that night,

and I gave a short statement
of why I abstained,

and the backlash was swifter
and bigger

than what I would have
ever imagined.

- Senator Chow!
all: Resign now!

- Senator Chow!
all: Resign now!

- There were hundreds
of students that came in

and protested the fact
that I was still a senator

and demanded my resignation.

- Tonight is not about
dismissing Christianity

as universally toxic,

but about validating
the experience of those

at the hands of bigots who have
cowardly hid behind religion

to justify their actions.

- Sitting there was
really hard.

It was just difficult
to hear the accusations

of people calling me a bigot,
calling me a hater.

I hoped that there would be
dialogue.

I hoped that there would be

mutual respect
and understanding.

- When trans people are
under attack, what do we do?

All:
Stand up, fight back!

- At this point,
I've been disaffiliated

with every organization

that I had a working
relationship with

and voted out of clubs
that I've been in,

like, even since
freshman year,

but I wasn't elected to not
listen to my conscience,

and I wasn't elected
to not represent

a religious voice on campus,

even if that voice
is a minority here at Berkeley.

- I've been assaulted
on my campus.

- You were assaulted?

- The night after the election,
yes.

- You were physically assaulted?
- Physically assaulted.

I was walking back
from a meeting that I had,

and the assumption was that
someone followed me

out of a building,
knew where I was

'cause I had that meeting
every single week at that time,

and someone came up to me
and said, you know,

"F you, racist B-word,
you support a racist party,"

and just threw me
down the hill.

- Was anyone prosecuted for it?

- Mm-hmm.

- This is what they've tricked
everybody into thinking.

You know, years ago it was
you were a racist

and you were a bigot.

Then it became Nazis.

Now it's white supremacists,
or sometimes it's Nazis,

and they'll always ramp
this thing up.

- I've been called
a white supremacist.

I've been called a Nazi.

You know, what's crazy
about calling someone a Nazi-

that term is so malleable these
days-

is you can reduce them
to a, you know, inhuman form,

and you can justify punching
them or attacking them, even.

- You're not videoing me.

- All right, well,
we're in public.

So I'm just gonna video it
for my own safety

'cause you seem really erratic.

- You are [bleep]
encouraging violence.

- No, I'm not.

[objects clatter]

- Get your [bleep] phone out
of my face, mother[bleep].

Get your phone out
of my [bleep] face.

[bleep] you.
[bleep] you.

- Oh, [bleep].

- "The Dennis Prager Show
returns in five seconds.

[dramatic music]

- I want to ask you something
"cause you're so

on top of the situation
on campuses.

Right now if you had to grade
freedom of speech on campuses

versus two years ago,

would you say
it's getting worse,

it's the same, awful, or what?

- So what's happening is that
there's a student population

that has been silenced,

that has been ostracized for
their beliefs and their views.

Make no mistake, it's not just
the free speech laws

and the free speech zones,
but it's the culture.

This is what's so important.

It's what is culturally allowed
to be said

and not allowed to be said.

- I grew up during
the McCarthy period

when it was the extreme right
at Brooklyn College

which told me I had no right
to express my views,

and it was the liberals
that were demanding free speech

and the conservatives
that were trying to deny it.

Today it's flipped.

- My name is Chevy Swanson.

I'm the president
of the College Republicans

here at the University
of Washington.

We wanted to invite
Joey Gibson

from Patriot Prayer

to come do a freedom rally.

We expected about,
maybe 100 people at most

in the middle
of out central area on campus,

Red Square-ironically named.

Protesters started making
posts on social media,

saying they were gonna
come protest,

and the school ramped up
security on us,

telling us that because
we invited a speaker

that made the protesters mad

that we had to pay every cent
of security

caused by the protesters.

At first, that was $17,000,

and that's a bill we got a week
before the event-

an impossible bill to pay.

- We were forced to spend
$10,000 in security.

- The day after I submitted
my application,

they changed the rule

to now where if your security
costs more than $1,000,

you must make up
the difference.

- So they interrupt
conservatives,

and then conservatives
have to foot the bill?

- The College Republicans
are actually

under investigation right now-

you know, causing
all these riots

because of the speakers
we bring in.

- You're causing the riots?
- Yeah, so...

- Not the rioters?

- Ann Coulter's visit
to UC Berkeley

isn't for another month,

but student organizers
of the event

say they are nervous.

- Do I support what happened
at the Milo Yiannopoulos event?

Yes, I do, and what
we're saying this time is

we need to come out again, and we need
to come out in bigger numbers.

- Okay, let me ask you
a question here.

Let's just say
that Rachel Maddow

was scheduled to speak at Cal.

And let's say that people
on the far right

were really angry about that.

They did not want her to speak,
and they came out,

and they protested,
and they were violent,

and they kept Rachel Maddow
from speaking.

How would you feel then?

- I'm trying to picture
that actually happening.

- Campus police Captain
Alex Yow

says police simply
could not guarantee

that Coulter's originally
planned speech would be safe.

- We're hiding in the airport
in a baseball cap.

[chuckles]
That is exactly where we are.

They are fascists.

They don't want another point
of view.

I mean, I've been doing
these college speeches

for more than a decade.

- On the Berkeley campus,

College Republicans are
fighting

to give Coulter a platform
this week.

They filed a lawsuit Monday

trying to force the university
to ease restrictions

they say are only placed
on conservative speakers.

- I think it's important
to call that what it is,

which is essentially just
shredding the Constitution,

or in a way that we see
happen a lot

at Young America's Foundation

when we're working with
students on their campuses,

is this is the classic argument
that leftists will use

in order to shut down
conservative speech.

- Security is the new
"Shut up,

because by the time you factor
in all the security costs,

you could stage "Hello Dolly
Meets Godzilla on Ice"

for the same cost
as bringing Charles Murray in

to give a 20-minute speech
to a few students.

- I don't even-
I'm perplexed, even,

that people could even say,

"Oh, it's not an issue."

It's, like, one of the biggest
issues in America today,

that the place that is
supposed to be

a place of ideas,
the university,

is the most closed place
in the United States.

It's very important for people
to understand

that this is not just
affecting conservatives.

Liberals are being shut down.

[dramatic music]

- I considered myself
a leftist.

I was a teaching assistant
for Communication Studies 101.

I wanted my students
to comprehend

how grammar could actually be
a big issue in our society.

To demonstrate this point,
I brought in a clip

from TV Ontario.

So this is the province's
public broadcaster.

And in the particular clip
I showed,

it was Professor
of Transgender Studies

Nicholas Matte,

and he was talking
to Professor Jordan Peterson

from the University of Toronto.

- And your attempts to regulate
my language use and-

- I don't care about
your language use.

I care about the safety of
the people who are being harmed.

- I know. People who make
your kinds of arguments

are always concerned
with other people's safety.

- I want to have really
deep discussions

about all sorts of issues,

and I don't think anything
should be off-limits.

And that is today
what makes you an evil person.

When I showed the clip in my
class, I did not take a stance.

I was neutral.

I treated Peterson's argument

just as valid
as Matte's argument,

but that was the problem.

It was a problem
that I was neutral.

I was just genuinely
very confused,

because to me,
the university is a place

where you can
question anything.

- Dr. Jordan Peterson refuses
to be pigeonholed.

His new self-help book,
12 Rules for Life,

is already a best seller.

Hundreds of thousands
subscribe

to his online lectures.

His speeches regularly
attract protests.

- I'm not arguing
about your rights.

- And his new speaking tour
is selling out.

- I think he's dangerous
because of the sorts of people

that he enables.

- It's quite the place
you've got here.

So tell me about this one.

- It's a really nicely
built car.

- Mm-hmm.

Hardly looks like
it's ever been driven.

- It's been very well taken
care of, unlike its owner.

- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah, I've been put away wet.

So are they gonna pass a law
in Canada outlawing pronouns?

- Oh, it's already passed.

If you're an advocate
of free speech,

which you are if you're
an advocate of freedom,

then you still might say,
"Okay, well, there are limits.

Some of them are illegal.
I can't incite violence.

I can't incite someone
to a crime,"

you know,
and that's already illegal,

so there are limits
of that sort.

This is different.

This is the law insisting
that you say something.

"You use my language,"
and my response was,

"There isn't a hope in hell

that I will ever use
your language."

- Once you control the language,
you control the outcome.

- Yeah, well, that's why
I wouldn't say those words.

It's because
that's exactly right.

As soon as I allow you
to define the territory

in which we're going to engage,
then you get to win.

- There's a reason
that every time

one of these professors or TAs,

whether it's Lindsay Shepherd
in Canada

or Bret Weinstein
in Washington,

why are they all lefties

who then say one thing
that upsets the left,

and then they're purged?

It will come for you.

I mean, if there is someone
that's watching this right now

that is a hard-core progressive
that's going,

"Man, I hate Prager and Rubin,

and this is all nonsense,"
guess what.

If you have any spark
of individualism in you,

if you have anything about you
that's interesting or different,

they will come
to destroy that, too.

[dramatic music]

- You know, most people
don't get to see

the thing that they love,

a system that has the potential
to do great good in the world,

be destroyed from within.

[line trilling]

- Dean's office.
- It's Stacy Brown.

Is Steve around?

- Oh, he just walked
in the door.

Hang on.
- Thanks.

- Yeah.

- Stop telling people of color
they're [bleep] useless.

You're useless.
Get the [bleep]-

all:
Hey, hey! Ho, ho!

Bret Weinstein has got to go!

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!

Bret Weinstein has got to go!

- I think we did not see,
effectively,

a coup in the institution
coming,

and we didn't feel
vulnerable to it

because we were both
very popular among students

and we had the equivalent
of tenure.

- Weinstein, who identifies
as politically left,

had announced he was
boycotting a decades-old event

created by students of color
at the school.

- Day of Absence was a
tradition on Evergreen's campus

from very nearly the founding
of the college.

Day of Absence is named after
a play by Douglas Turner Ward,

a black playwright,

and the premise of the play

is that in a fictional
Southern town

the black population
decides not to show up one day

in order to make the point
to the white population

about the important role
that they are playing.

Last year the committee that
organizes the Day of Absence

announced in a faculty
meeting-

a faculty meeting in which
there was no opportunity

to ask any questions-

they announced that
white people were being asked

to leave the campus
for the day.

And it was so strange
to hear that announced,

that I assumed
I had misunderstood

what had been said,

and then the administration
of the college made it clear

that they were strongly
encouraging white people

not to come to school
on that day

in an effort to
Center people of color."

I found this offensive.

This was not, as
it was being portrayed,

a simple flip of the script

where instead of people
of color,

it was white people this time.

This was people organizing
this protest

telling others not to show up
to a public college

on a particular day

because of the color
of their skin,

which is anathema
to me as a liberal,

so I said so.

There was a backlash
over email.

My email went to the staff
and faculty email list.

There were students who worked
on campus

who were on that list,
which I was aware of,

and I just simply said,

"This is unacceptable,
and you can expect me

to be on campus on that day."

Tuesday, May 23rd of 2017,

I went to work.

I biked in as I always did.

I began teaching
my morning class,

and a student who I knew
pretty well from a past program

called me over a bit concerned
and said,

"Do you know that there
are people outside the door

chanting for you to be fired?"

And I said,
"No, that's pretty odd."

What shocked me was that

they were not at all
interested in that discussion.

If somebody who was the object
of a protest

that we were participating in

wanted to talk to us about
the nature of that protest,

I would have been right there.

So how is it that
I was being protested

by people who
weren't interested

in even engaging me
on the question

and showing me
that I might be wrong?

It would be weeks before I
would understand why that was.

All: These racist teachers
got to go!

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!

These racist teachers
got to go!

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!

These racist teachers
got to go!

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!

These racist teachers
got to go!

- Protesters then engaged
the president of the college

and got him to agree
to a meeting.

I decided that I should be
at that meeting.

If they were calling
for my firing,

I wanted to be there
to answer the charges.

I found a seat and sat down.

Within a couple of minutes,

there was an announcement
by protesters,

who were clearly in complete
charge of this meeting,

saying that the food and water
that was available,

publicly supplied,
were for people of color,

and that white people should not
avail themselves

of those things.

That was the tenor
of the meeting.

[cheers and applause]

- So / was here,

and I get this text from Bret,
two of them, actually.

The first one says,

They say I may not be
allowed to leave."

The second one,
I'm not sure what to do."

And then silence.

I heard from one dean

before I knew anything
about what had happened,

and that dean's concern

was that Bret not talk
to the press.

That was the concern
from the college,

that if any of the press
came calling,

he should send them
to college PR.

- At the end of the meeting,
I was allowed to leave,

and I left the building
with a number of my students,

and I was flanked
by a number of other people

who wanted to talk to me
for various reasons,

including one young woman

who I think in some ways

had not gotten the message that
talking to me was not allowed.

The next day the protesters
made a point

of bringing her to a rally

that they had organized
on campus

and having her read
a statement

that they had
prepared publicly,

and it's heart-wrenching
for me.

She read this statement,
and she butchered it.

Reading out loud maybe
in front of a group

was not in her skill set.

- Based on false,
racially charged alleged-

allegations.

- They effectively
humiliated her

in order to demonstrate that

they had recaptured her
in some way.

- Whereas the college
administration specific-

[mumbling]
Sorry.

- There are a lot of moments
that are

particularly telling
from the protest,

but I must say, that is among
the most chilling to me.

- It's our students
that are stopping people.

- Oh, our students
that are stopping people.

Why aren't we stopping them
from stopping people?

- Because the president
has told Stacy to stand down.

- I biked this direction,

which to this point is
my normal commute.

I saw people that I recognized

from the protest
the day before.

They saw me,

and they appeared to start

doing something
with their phones,

and I kept biking,

and then I realized,
"That just doesn't feel right,"

and I took the next entrance
into campus,

and I went to the police
station, and I said,

"Here's what I think
I experienced,

but I must be imagining it."

And she said, "I don't think
you're imagining it.

"I think they're looking
for you, and what's more...

"I can't protect you.

"You're not safe on campus,

and you're not safe anywhere
in town on your bicycle."

I think it's pretty clear
what happened at Evergreen

is an extreme case,

and I've heard people
dismiss it on that basis,

that it was just a very
liberal campus

that went farther off
the deep end than any other,

and I think that's really
a mistake.

In some ways, Evergreen
is a preview of what's coming.

The fact that this
is happening

across so many campuses

means that it is going
to spread

into every quadrant
of society,

and things are going
to get worse elsewhere.

So Evergreen is describing
a future

that is rapidly approaching.

[explosion, siren wailing]

- These ideas have sort of
contaminated the campuses,

but how are they getting
off the campus

and into the mainstream?

- Well, they're partly
doing that

because the mainstream
will be run

by the people who are
on campuses,

but there's a more
conspiratorial element

to it than that.

It's like, it's very important
to remember

that the most politically
correct disciplines

are producing activists.

That's their goal,

and so they have a stated goal
of infiltrating organizations

and altering them in the
politically correct direction.

- Once we've created
an expectation,

that it's a nice thing
to do to censor people

in an enlightened way,
there's no reason to believe

that they're not gonna
construct a world

that looks like that,

and that is not a good world
for dissent.

That's not a good world
for oddballs.

It certainly isn't
a good world for comedians.

- Bill Belichick,
the most confident coach

of all time, right?

Most coaches are like,
"I want raw athletes,

raw talent, sheer athleticism."

And Belichick's like, "Yeah,
that's cool. You got any Jews?"

[laughter]

Yeah, Jews, like,
five, six Jews.

No, we got, like, 6'4"
black dudes. No, no, too easy.

A Mexican,
you got a Mexican?"

Give me a place
with no free speech,

and I'll tell you,
unfunny people.

Russian comedy is-there's
a doll, and then you open it,

and then there's a little doll,

and then, wait for it,
you open that little doll,

and there's an even
smaller doll.

This is highbrow
Russian comedy,

is little doll, little doll,

little doll,
little doll, right?

And it's funny to them
every single time it opens.

There's another little doll,

and they can't get enough,
oh, my God.

That's no-free-speech comedy.

- I know what
microaggressions are.

It's the latest liberal attack
at free speech

and a lot of fun
if you do them right.

- The university has
a list of stuff

they don't allow speakers
to say,

you know,
to protect the students.

- From what, ideas?

- Allen is responding
to the show's

unexpected cancellation.

Some say the show was axed

because of its portrayal of
conservative Christian values.

- If it was a bomb,
you could understand,

but the sitcom was ABC's

second-highest-rated comedy
this season.

- Isn't it spooky that
we're having this discussion?

- Yes.
- Yes.

- But we have to have it.

- I understand,
but it's just kind of spooky

that it's even a thing that
you're even thinking about,

that we have to be modulated,

and I'm a little worried
about it,

a little alarmed
about things I cannot say.

I do it anyway because
the thing I've always loved

about this is it's people,
money, and me.

There's no middleman in this.

Essentially, I'm running
the show at that moment.

But it is weird
that I'm thinking a little bit.

- We as comedians,
the whole point

of what we're doing
on stage with our words

is to make a point
about the absurdities of life.

- Right.
- Like, I have a joke about,

you know, being comfortable
with my size, you know,

and I say, "It depends on where
I'm geographically,

"and if I'm in New York,
I'm pleasantly plump.

If I'm in L.A.,
I'm a beached whale."

I say if I'm in the Midwest,
I'm anorexic, and it's awesome.

- Right.
- And then I've had someone

come up to me after a show
and be like,

"You know, I was bulimic
in high school, and-"

- Right.
- I'm like, "Okay, calm down.

"That wasn't about you,
first of all.

It was a joke, and that's
what I'm up here to do."

- How accountable can we be

when you are, in real time,
trying to create humor?

And as I explain to people
all the time...

the sort of foundation of humor
is negative.

So, if you said,

"What do you think
of your mother-in-law, Adam?"

And I was on stage and I went,
"She's a delight.

Megan's a delight."
[laughter]

We're not hearing any laugh.

We're hearing laughs now
because we know how absurd.

You are free-forming it,

and you are responsible
to the 300 people

who put down 30 bucks
to come see you

and want to have a laugh.

- It's way easier to be
against something,

but defining what you're for-

- Defining what you're for.
What do you want?

What's the point of this?

And I say that because I-
back to comedy-

- To feel good.
- I can't do college campuses

because the first
couple sentences,

they're going, "Ooh."

Already I've got this image
of me, that I said,

"Listen, I've been doing comedy
for 32 years,

mostly about men and women."

That's essentially what
I've been doing,

and I still have to explain,

"This is a man's perspective."

- I do this joke about...

the way people need to justify
their cell phone.

I need to have it with me
because people are so important.

- Right.
- You know, I said, "Well,

they don't seem very important,
the way you scroll through them

like a gay French king,
you know, just-"

[laughter and applause]

Well...

- That's very offensive
to the gay French kings.

- Well, yeah.

I did this line recently

in front of an audience,
and you could-

comedy's where you can kind
of feel, like, an opinion,

and they thought,

"What do you mean, gay?
What are you talking about, gay?

"What are you saying, gay?
What are you doing?

What do you mean?"
You know?

And I thought,
"Are you kidding me?

I mean, we can't even-"

- [laughs]

- I can imagine a time-
and this is a serious thing.

I can imagine a time
where people say,

"Well, that's offensive
to suggest

"that a gay person moves their
hands in a flourishing motion,

and you now need to apologi-"

I mean, there's a creepy
PC thing out there

that really bothers me.

- Kevin Hart has stepped down

from hosting
this year's Oscars.

- I swear, man, our world
is becoming beyond crazy.

My team calls me,
"Oh, my God, Kevin,

the world is upset about tweets
you did years ago."

- You have the right
to remain silent.

Children: Anything you say
will be used against you.

Your posts on Facebook,
Twitter, and social media

will be saved to shame you.

You can't be funny.
You cannot think differently.

You can't challenge us.

We reserve the right
to be offended by everything.

You have the right
to remain silent.

- It cannot help
but be true that

if this is allowed to continue,

that it is going to work
its way

into the entire apparatus
of government,

journalism,
maybe most seriously,

into the tech sector,

which has become
the governance apparatus

for the new public square.

YouTube and Google,
Facebook and Twitter

dictate whose voices
can be heard,

and if those entities
start trying

to engineer the conversation

to adhere to the rules laid out

with these phony
Trojan horse terms,

disaster will be the result.

- Facebook is a place

where more than
a billion people worldwide

come to share
their thoughts and feelings.

Sometimes they post content

that's upsetting
or insensitive,

and some of those things
can make people feel unsafe,

like bullying, hate speech,
or violence.

That's why we have
global community standards

to decide what
and who should be removed.

- I can't say nothing,
nothing I

Shut up, shut up,
don't want to open my mouth

[ can't say nothing,
nothing &

Shut up, shut up,
don't want to open my mouth

- Can you define hate speech?

- Senator, I think that this is
a really hard question,

and I think it's one
of the reasons

why we struggle with it.

- I'm worried about
the psychological categories

around speech.

You used language of safety
and protection earlier.

We see this happening
on college campuses

all across the country.

It's dangerous.

40% of Americans
under age 35 tell pollsters

they think the First Amendment
is dangerous

because you might
use your freedom

to say something that hurts
somebody else's feelings.

- We have a problem,
in that our public dialogue

is passing
through private servers

where no protections exist.

In other words, if you are not
able to access the Internet

in the same way
as someone else

because the content
of what you are saying

has been deemed unacceptable,

then that shapes
the conversation

that we are having
with each other.

- PragerU had a billion views
last year.

This impact has
apparently disturbed

some of the folks at YouTube,

which is owned by Google.

Believe it or not, over 100
Prager University videos

are on the restricted list,

meaning that, in effect,

they are lumped with violence
and pornography

as unwatchable by children,
libraries, and schools.

So, for example, Churchill,

the man who saved
the free world-

Oh, my God,
everybody understands

why that'll be
on the restricted list.

The Iran nuclear deal.
Are you kidding?

That's the modern
"Debbie Does Dallas.

It shows you how convoluted
their moral compass is

that this would disturb them.

- Among those that are
censored include a video

on the Ten Commandments.

The restrictions
are purportedly

for blocking things like
pornography,

but apparently,
in YouTube's world,

talking about
the Ten Commandments

is comparable
and should be blocked.

- I believe
the Ten Commandments video,

for instance,
contains references to murder

and, I believe, potentially,
Nazism or World War I,

something along those lines,
but they're not censored.

They're available to everybody
who's using normal YouTube.

They are not available
to the small subset

who have chosen
to activate restricted mode.

- So I was thinking I have
a solution that will,

I think, appeal to Google.

I will re-release it
as the nine commandments.

That should solve the problem
of including murder

in my discussion
of the Ten Commandments.

- I always say when you see
someone attacking a subject

by attacking a personality
rather than debating the idea,

that's often a sign
of a smear campaign.

- I'm very much
into classical music.

I periodically conduct,
and I've been-

it's been a passion of mine
since I was a teenager.

If 1 sell out
the Disney Concert Hall,

it'll be the first time

that a regional orchestra

has ever sold out
the Disney Concert Hall.

Every penny is going
to the orchestra.

I am not getting a nickel
for doing this.

There are players in
the orchestra who won't come,

who urge their other players
not to go.

"We're not gonna play
for a conservative."

Welcome to
The Dennis Prager Show."

My guest is
Professor Andrew Apter,

professor of history
and anthropology at UCLA,

also a violinist and a member

of the Santa Monica
Symphony Orchestra,

which I am conducting
next Wednesday night

at Walt Disney Hall
in Los Angeles.

He and a couple of other
members of the orchestra

have asked people
not to attend

and fellow members
not to play for me

'cause I'm a hateful bigot.

When you write in your first
open letter I have here,

"Please urge your friends
not to attend the concert,

and then you're telling
my audience

that you in no way have worked
to stop the concert.

Protesting outside
doesn't stop the concert.

Telling people not to go to
the concert stops the concert.

- No, you could still play

with an empty hall
if you want to.

- Okay, well, all right.

- And we know there's plenty
of people who are gonna go,

so that's really
not the issue.

- [It is the issue.

It's really mind-blowing.

They're not going to attend the
concert of their own orchestra

to raise funds
for their orchestra.

It could be a beautiful story,

music transcends political
and social differences,

but they call us haters.

That's the irony.
That's really the irony.

- No, we're not.
When I was growing up,

and I lived in a tiny
little room with my sisters

and the exterminator would come
and take care of the roaches,

when I was growing up, I didn't
get handed a packet that said,

"Here's your excuse in life.
You don't have to do anything.

It's 'cause you're a victim,"
okay?

I learned that I had
to work hard.

I had to stay in school,
and I had to study.

I don't need to learn
about white privilege.

White privilege is not
serving anybody.

This whole idea of the fact-

teaching little kids
that their skin color

makes them less fortunate

is not helping black kids
get ahead.

There seems to be
an ideological war happening,

and the left has
built their brand

off of the idea
that I am a victim.

- The same people
who are covering everything

with bubble wrap

are also telling these people,

"You have a target on your back
because you're female.

"You have a target on your back
because you're black or Hispanic

or whatever you are,"

and thus, making all the people

they're trying to protect
miserable

because of the target
they falsely placed

on everyone's back.

- If you're a victim surrounded
by predators,

by evil predators, man,
you're frozen.

I mean, if you think
of an animal

in a situation like that,

the animal's frozen in terror.

One idea is that, well,

you protect people
by protecting them.

The other is you embolden them
by encouraging them,

and that's a whole
different thing,

and it's the right thing,
right?

Because you can't
protect people.

Life's a fatal disease, right?
That's the old joke.

It's a sexually transmissible
disease that's 100% fatal.

You're not gonna protect people
from that,

and so the best you can do
is to make them strong.

- [on TV] Evel Knievel
is not hesitating.

Here we go.

[dramatic music]

- I rode a bike everywhere,
never with a helmet.

The thing I found interesting
about not wearing a helmet

and crashing all the time-

Because I rode BMX bikes.

I was jumping
and doing wheelies.

I never hit my head once,

but because I didn't
have protection,

it was all elbows and knees
and rolling,

and I actually learned
how to fall.

- The goal is not to put
yourself in danger,

but the goal is to get more
of a sense both of who you are

and of what the world
can look like.

- I say never deny the pain.

Just don't let the pain
have the last word.

- I would rather my kids
have spina bifida

than think of themselves
as victims.

I can't think of anything
more debilitating

than thinking yourself
a victim.

- I do an hour on happiness
every week on my radio show,

and I learned something from
listeners that startled me,

and that is I am convinced

that a certain percentage
of unhappy people

are addicted to being unhappy.

- Absolutely.
- I never knew that.

I thought everyone
wants to be happy.

- Well, think about how
empowering it is

to say your problems

are not because of you,
you know what I mean?

You can't get a date, but it
has nothing to do with you.

The system's against you.

- The system is stacked
against you,

and there isn't a bloody thing
you can do about it,

so why bother trying?

Of all the things to tell
anyone ever about anything,

that's got to be bottom
of the list

unless you really
don't like them.

- Here's what our job is
as parents, as educators,

as politicians,
as cops and lifeguards.

Our job is to convince
younger people

they're not victims.

Our job is to say to a kid who
is confined to a wheelchair,

"Don't worry.

You're just gonna outwork
everybody else.

You're gonna out-hustle
everybody else,

and you will see that this thing
is not gonna hold you back

because you have the heart
of a tiger."

What we're doing how is
we're taking able-bodied kids

and convincing them they need
to use the handicap ramp.

- I went to
Clark Atlanta University,

which is a black college
in Atlanta,

and I really wanted to have
just open and free dialogue

with as many of the students
as possible.

I got a great motto
on my radio show-

"I prefer clarity
to agreement."

We may not agree,
but at least it's important

that we be clear
where we differ.

The general belief
in American history

has been free speech
includes all speech,

including hate speech.

Do you think that
should be changed?

- That's hard. That's hard
to say because you're really

telling a person that they
can't say what they think.

- Right.
- Right.

- It's hard to say,
but words are powerful,

so people know what
they're saying

will invoke some type
of emotion.

Some type of feeling.

- Right. Should they be
allowed to say it?

That's all I'm asking.

I'm talking a legal question,
not a moral question.

- I can't legally say
that a person

shouldn't be allowed
to speak their mind.

- According to polls,
50% of Americans your age

thinks that there shouldn't be
free speech for hate speech.

You don't agree with that?
- I do not agree with that.

I think if you take away
hate speech, you're hiding it.

- Right. That's worse.
- So it become worse.

- Mm-hmm.
That's an interesting point.

Let me ask you this,
"cause it's generally said...

that a lot of
African-Americans think

that this country is
essentially racist.

Do you agree with-
do you think this country's

essentially racist?

- I wouldn't say the average
white is naturally a racist.

I say it's been embedded
with on-

which this nation
has been built on.

So, if you think
of generation to generation,

think of your ancestors
and my ancestors,

the different, you know,
grounds which we come from,

you know, ever since
my ancestors

were brought here to America,
they were slaves.

Your ancestors were
slave owners.

So fast-forward generations,

then that privilege,
the white privilege

and that oppression
that has been,

you know, given within
my families, it's still there.

So I wouldn't say
it's intentional racism,

but it's more so
systematic racism,

a racism that has been
developed through generations.

- Okay, just to correct
the record,

a vast number of whites
in America,

their ancestors
were not slave owners.

A, they were either Northerners
or they came here later.

I mean, you know, my ancestors
in 1863 were in Poland,

and they were not doing
very well.

They were Jewish, so...
- Got ya, got ya.

- But anyway,
just for the record.

Your interactions
with non-blacks,

are they largely positive or
negative on a day-to-day basis?

- The interactions
you will have day-to-day,

they won't be racist,
but, you know,

when there's opportunities,
you know,

you may hot be
the first thought.

You may not be the first one
to be called.

There's a lot of things
that go into why...

things, you know,
are the way they are.

- At some point down the road-
I don't know when-

but at some point, we as blacks
are going to realize

the degree to which we identify

our aspiration
in victimization...

the degree to which
we rely on it...

not just as an excuse
but as a self-definition.

"Well, I don't know
what I want to do with my life,

but I think there's
some racism out there."

Well, there very likely
is some racism out there.

So what?

Until black America
gets to the "so what" place,

we're gonna fall farther
and farther behind.

You don't sit still in life,
I've discovered.

You go up, or you go down.

- But the thing is,
it's another thing

to actually be in the shoes

of those who are
being oppressed.

- I don't think anyone
in America's oppressed.

You do, obviously,
and that's a very big divide.

- After hundreds of years
of slavery-

- After hundreds of years
of slavery.

- You don't think we've
been oppressed?

- No, no, no, you didn't say
"have been."

You said "are."

- You think blacks
were once oppressed?

- Oh, of course.
It's a given.

- So how do you not think
that it's generational?

How do you not think that we're
still trying to consciously,

socially still recover
from that?

- It takes a long time.

- After telling us
that we're not humans-

- Okay, so the oppression
is not happening from outside.

It's a residue of the inside.

- Of course, of course,
because of what's happened

on the outside.

But the thing is, it's still
being placed outside.

- So no matter how whites act,

no matter how kind they
might be, it's irrelevant

because you're still oppressed

because of slavery
from the 19th century.

- You just answered
your own question.

- You may not be physically
getting beat, but mentally-

- You answered
your own question.

- All right. So, right, well-

- You answered your own
question.

- How many generations
would it take

for that to end?

- That's a trick question.

- No, no, it's not a trick.
Maybe there's no answer.

Maybe we don't know the answer.
- Exactly. Exactly.

- Okay, fine. It certainly
wasn't meant

as a trick question.

I can't argue with what any
given individual feels inside.

- Naturally, 'cause you
don't walk in our shoes.

- Right, but you're not
walking in white shoes,

but you're ascribing
to whites-

- Exactly,
'cause we're the oppressed.

So I don't have to walk
in your shoes to tell myself

that I've been oppressed
by you.

- In America,
you were brutalized.

From birth on,
you were whipped, lashed.

Your children was taken
from you and sold away.

Your wives were used
at the will of the overseer.

I mean,
it just was dehumanizing

in every conceivable way,

and for centuries.

So you got a beef.

How long are you gonna
ride that beef?

How long do you think
it's gonna take?

'Cause the only person
who can break that bond is you.

Inside yourself, say, "Well,
just because white people

were once racist does not mean
I'm gonna sell out my life...

I'm gonna ask less of myself

and claim that I'm being held
back by victimization."

And that's what is so
startling to me-

the way that you see now
of inventing,

reinventing, as I say,
the oppression in your mind,

the same oppression that is
fading out of the world.

As it fades, you cling
and reinvent it, rebuild it,

and so you now become the
racist overseer of yourself.

[dramatic music]

- Whether it's victimization,

cultural appropriation,
social justice,

or even trigger warnings
and safe spaces,

it's all about
identity politics,

which is the exact opposite
of common sense.

- This country was founded on

we don't give a hoot
where you're from.

I know that there were
racists in the past.

I'm not talking about Americans
as flawed individuals.

I'm talking about the values
of the society

were e pluribus unum,
from many, one,

and now the other identities
are all that matter.

It's astonishing how dividing
of people this is,

and that's called wonderful.

That's called progressive.

- Not belonging to a group,
to me, is my privilege.

Not having to walk in lockstep
with this group

or that group
or conform to whatever

whoever the leaders
of that group are espousing,

that is my real privilege,
to just be an individual.

- The idea of the divine
individual, that is the West.

If we subsume that
under group identity,

then we will perish painfully,

and God only knows what'll go
along with us,

maybe everything.

I mean, look what happened
in the 20th century

when people put
group identity first.

I mean, how much
bloody evidence do you need?

The Communists did it
for good reasons,

and the Nazis did it
for bad reasons.

Tens of millions of people
died horribly as a consequence.

- Is the individual sacrosanct,
or is the group?

Do we have freedom to speak
what we want to say?

- 58% of Americans
hold opinions

that they don't feel
comfortable sharing publicly.

- Oh.
- Wow.

- Man, oh, man. So I don't
believe that this new tyranny,

this new politically
correct tyranny

is changing anybody's behavior.

- No.
- And it sure as hell isn't

bringing anybody together,

but it's creating an atmosphere
of fear and repression,

and you know what happens
when that happens.

It's gonna bust.

- The University of California
at Berkeley

is said to be bracing-
that's the quote-

bracing for
conservative speaker

Ben Shapiro's
upcoming appearance

at their campus.

- Many are comparing
to hurricane preparations.

- The barriers are up.
Officers are out in force.

- Taking extraordinary
security measures

costing around $600,000.

A large swathe of the campus
will be closed off,

including the plaza where
the Free Speech Movement began

in the 1960s.

- If Ben Shapiro is not
allowed to speak,

the First Amendment will have
lost a tremendous battle today,

a very important event
in the history of our rights.

- The Constitution
is absolutely clear that,

particularly
as a public institution,

we cannot and will not
discriminate against speakers

because of their perspectives

or because of the beliefs
of those who wish to host it.

- There's no free speech
for fascists.

Their words are violent,

and for every action, there is
an equal and opposite reaction.

- Administration rolls out
the red carpet for fascists

to come and spout their
white supremacy and xenophobia.

- And to the dismay of the
People's Republic of Berkeley,

you get to see him live.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Ben Shapiro!

[cheers and applause]

- He came. He gave his talk,
very conservative.

I thought it was a great talk.

I didn't agree with a single
thing he said, but who cares?

It was a great,
interesting talk.

- The reason that I am here
is because fascism

does not own this university

because there are students who
do want to hear differing views,

who don't want to be told that
they can only hear one view,

who don't believe that
the First Amendment should die

under the jackboots
and Birkenstocks

of a bunch of anarchist,
communist pieces of garbage.

[cheers and applause]

- He gives his talk, and he
says afterwards when he's done,

"Everybody who has questions,

line up at the microphones on
either side of the auditorium."

- Well, we're gonna do a Q&A
after this,

and I love taking questions,
my favorite thing,

and I have a rule, which is
if you disagree with me,

you raise your hand, and you
go to the front of the line

because discussion
makes the country better.

- Half the hands go. "Good,
come to the front of the line."

I'm like, "Ah, my man."

Guy gets it.

That's what university's
supposed to be all about.

- And finally,
America is the greatest country

in human history.

You are not a victim.

If you are a victim
of something,

you need to show me
what you are a victim of,

and I will stand beside you,

but do not blame the freest,
most civil society

in the history of Planet Earth

for your failures...

because that's on you.

[applause]

Now, was that so rough?

I mean, did we need $600,000 of
security to hear all of that?

- [ Think we underestimate
the heroism

of our own cause as Americans.

We are trying to do something

that nobody told us is
almost impossible.

If you look at human history,

we've got every kind
of human being

ever born in one country,

and we mostly get along.

Nobody points that out.

Where it gets hard...

takes real work.

- I still don't understand
what's going on.

Hopefully you can explain it.

Are you testifying
in front of Congress?

- I am.
- Why are you testifying?

What have you done?

[dynamic music]

- Thank you.
It's an honor to be asked

to speak in front of you all.

First, just a quick piece
of business.

Do we get to keep these pads?

[light laughter]

We're talking a lot
about the kids,

and I think they're
just that, kids.

They grew up dipped in Purell,

playing soccer games
where they never kept score,

and watching
"Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!"

Studies have shown
that if you take people

and you put them
in a zero-gravity environment,

like astronauts,
they lose muscle mass.

They lose bone density.

We're taking these kids-

in the name of protection,
we're putting them

in a zero-gravity environment,

and they're losing muscle mass
and bone density.

They need to live in a world
that has gravity.

- From helicopter parenting

through safe spaces
in colleges,

if that's what
you've been exposed to

and therefore you haven't
experienced any physical risk,

any emotional risk,
any intellectual risk,

of course you are fragile.

How could you be anything but?

- Children are the future,

but we are the present,

and we're the adults.

Could we just
bring back order,

and could the faculty
and administration

on these campuses

act like adults who are
in charge of these kids

who need some gravity
in their life?

Thank you.

- Thank you all for your
eloquent testimony.

We appreciate that,
and, frankly,

I think Congress broke
some new ground today,

first reference ever
to "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!"

In a congressional hearing.
[laughter]

So there was talk earlier
about a speech code.

Seems to me the speech code's

the one that's right behind me,
right?

Isn't that the speech code
in America,

the First Amendment itself?

Speech code and common sense,
as Mr. Carolla's talked about.

- This is about individualism

and fighting
for your own capacity

to think and create a society
that you want to live in,

not one that's just thrust
upon you.

The best thing you can do
is sometimes realize

that you have to pick
a moment to fight.

- According to the settlement,
the $123,000 will go to pay

the legal fees for
the U-Dub College Republicans.

- We have reached
a settlement deal with them.

We've gotten everything
we wanted,

plus our lawyer's fees
paid for,

and the school can't charge us
security fees anymore.

This is a massive victory
for free speech on campus,

and I think it's going
to prove to be that way

for not just this campus
but other campuses.

- The University
of California Berkeley

paid conservative groups
$70,000

to settle
a free-speech lawsuit.

- This is important not just
for conservative students

but for all students,

and one of the things
that our clients try to do

is bring important speakers
to campus

that they don't usually get
to hear from on campus,

and even liberal students
benefit from that.

- I prefer clarity
to agreement.

These are fellow students
of yours,

if you're a student here
at Berkeley,

and they are a left of center.

I am right of center,
obviously,

and my hope is that we can
clarify where we differ.

So, Dave and John,
please come out.

[cheers and applause]

- This journey that we've
been on-

What has struck home with me

is the fact that there's so many
people that are on our side,

that you should be able to share
ideas with other human beings

without fear of being fired
from your job

or kicked off a campus
or shouted down.

- Anybody who comes to speak
to you and you disagree with,

you should have an argument
with them,

but you shouldn't silence them
by saying,

"You can't come because,
you know,

I'm too sensitive
to hear what you have to say."

- I'm wondering,
how do you propose

that we as the future
of America

can begin to actually fight
against these challenges?

- How do we turn the tide,
Dennis?

- So the way out...

is start saying
what you believe.

I know that sounds so simple.

- There are many,
many people out there

who are similarly
feeling silenced.

Find courage and speak.

- I really don't regret
anything that I said

or anything that I did,

because I know that the names
that I've been called

around campus really
aren't true

and that they really don't
define me

and that I can be
and I should be who I am.

And I know that
I did the right thing

in love and respect
and in truth.

- If you truly are not racist,
if you're not a bigot,

if you're not a homophobe

or any of these other
nonsensical buzzwords,

if you're none of those things,

you'll realize the water
isn't so cold

when you jump into the pool.

- All the good intentions
in the world

amount to nothing
without one thing.

It is the single
most important thing

in doing good on Planet Earth-
courage.

You cannot do good if you
are afraid of being attacked,

but the first thing is to
decide, "I will be courageous."

[uplifting music]

- Tonight's concert
featuring Dennis Prager

kicked off a couple
of hours ago,

but it looks like
a planned boycott

of the event has backfired.

I'm told that inside
the concert hall

there's not one empty seat.

It's a total sellout.

[cheers and applause]

- It's hard to deal
with all that love.

[laughter]

It is, actually.
I'm overwhelmed.

Thank you all for coming.

[orchestra playing
classical music]

I've seen the world;
I've been abroad

every single year
since [ was 20.

This uniqueness of America,
the "so what"...

So you're a Turk
and you're a Jew,

and you're a this and you're
a that, it doesn't matter.

Why?

Because we celebrate the human,
not the group.

[uplifting music]

- America was built on ideas,

and I built a living for
myself talking about ideas.

The only way we separate the
good ideas from the bad ideas

is to be free to say
whatever we want about them.

We're not all going to agree,

but that's what makes us
individuals,

and we can't lose that,

because this car is
too much fun to drive.

- America's not perfect.

Liberty's not easy.

It's not always comfortable,

but liberty is the flame

that lights the path
of human progress,

and we find our way
by raising our voices

in debate and dissent.

For ideas, for disagreement,

for being who you want to be,

America is the true
safe space.

[orchestra playing]

[Dennis Quaid and The Sharks'
"Out of the Box"]

I don't care if have
to climb a mountain

Cross a desert or an ocean

I am open to a different
point of view

Thinking out of the box

It don't matter if you're
suffering a broken heart

Don't just sit around

Watching your life
fall apart

Think out of the box

Your life is not your own

God owns your very bones,
and we all turn to dust

Close your eyes
and look inside

Wake up to the wonderful
feeling of being alive

And with love in our hearts,
joy in our souls

Life's way too short

So let's rock and roll

To the farthest star

Down the deepest,
darkest hole

- I feel the same way
about this as I feel about...

terrorism, which is...

Huh, something just-

Oh, there's a bee up there,

just pooped on me,
or whatever that thing-

- You have bee poop on you?
- I swear to God, I just did.

- I've never been pooped on
by a bee.

- Yeah, well,
maybe it pollinated me.

- Oh, my goodness.

- You're good.
- You got the bee?

- That was great.
- That's nice.

- But you realize
you cannot say,

"No animal was killed
in the making of this film."

[upbeat music]

I'll tell you what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

I will tell you what,
I will tell you what

I'll tell you what
Tell us what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

Tell us what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

Tell us what

I will tell you what,
I will tell you what

I'll tell you what
Tell us what

- I Tell you what &

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

Tell us what
I'll tell you what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

Tell us what

I I will tell you what,
I will tell you what

I'll tell you what
Tell us what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

Tell us what

I will tell you what,
I'll tell you what

Tell us what

I will tell you what,
I will tell you

I will tell you,
I will tell you what

all:
Say what? I

[glass clatters]