Free Speech Vs Safe Space?

[mushroom25]

should comedy be allowed to range into difficult areas? or is it right that performers' material should be rigorously controlled in the name of "joy and inclusivity"?

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/dec/11/comedians-asked-to-sign-behavioural-agreement-for-soas-gig

[Old_Geezer]

University's gig. They want to put performers off, their shout.

[1ozzy]

I'd go for free over safe.

How boring could life be?

But, worst of luck, not always possible.

[emmie]

i would also go for free over safe, you can't dictate what comedians will come out with, i think its ridiculous.

[cassa333]

I wouldn’t have pulled out. I would have done one of two things.

1. Not signed it on the day and see what happened.
2. Signed it and sat on stage in silence in protest.

[woofgang]

Who pays the piper calls the tune. The charity won’t make money if the audience don’t turn up. while I might not find some current comedians funny or even acceptable, I wouldn’t seek to stop them performing anywhere but I wouldn’t pay to see them.

[dannyk13]

Free speech every time, but within the bounds of decency.

[emmie]

but this is an school of Oriental and African studies, one assumes that many are black and Asian students, including Caucasian, so maybe they are being asked not to make racist jokes on colour particularly.

[naomi24]

Safe by whose standards - and who’s watching the watcher?

[ludwig]

What a crock of tish. Performers should boycott this kind of event, and the comedian in question was right to pull out of it.

Apart from anything else, you just know it's hypocritical and the policy of being 'respectful and kind' will only apply to things that the organisers think we should be 'respectful and kind' about. Tory politicians, brexiteers, the Royals, Religion (Christianity only of course), [insert other lefty hate targets here] will all be fair game for any amount of vitriol and mockery with complete impunity.

[Mamyalynne]

I agree fully with this statement in the article.

//Soas students’ union said it did not require external speakers to sign any form of contract before speaking at events and the Unicef on Campus society had been “overzealous” in interpreting guidelines. A spokesperson said: “The union believes fully in freedom of speech and the freedom to try to make people laugh.”//

[ToraToraTora]

bang on ludders, then of course there is always white middle class men and fat people to target. They are all allowed. Oh and of course jews the staple of the left.

[fender62]

the crowd would probably be paid up members of antifa, i guess roy chubby brown will not get a gig there, or the late bernard manning.

[Mamyalynne]

//the crowd would probably be paid up members of antifa//

Is that what they call a leap in the dark?

[andy-hughes]

It does make the originators of this nonsense sound simultaneously power-mad, and ironically, given the situation, utterly devoid of humour.

Comedy is about provocation, and of course, there are appropriate limits to be applied, but the notion of only providing 'joy and inclusivity' is a straitjacket that no professional comedian would agree to work in.

It seems the student body concerned need to understand what it is that comedians actually do, and exactly how far you can go to deny free speech.

[naomi24]

Ludwig, //being 'respectful and kind' will only apply to things that the organisers think we should be 'respectful and kind' about. //

Absolutely right.

[jno]

a private event, so their house, their rules.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - // Ludwig, //being 'respectful and kind' will only apply to things that the organisers think we should be 'respectful and kind' about. //

Absolutely right. //

Seconded.

Students live in a wonderful bubble of self-obsessed isolation, that's part of the joy of being a student, but I think encouraging people to believe that they can create artificial environments that exist nowhere outside university buildings is not helping any students prepare for life in the big world.


That's where you learn that exposure to offence actually doesn't kill you, it merely helps you work out what you will and will not accept, instead of having the choice removed for you in advance.

[-Talbot-]

https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1072840133655826432