EP71: You Can Shout Fire In A Theater - Gracearchy with Jim Babka

It's time to demolish the myth that you cannot shout fire in a theater.

It's not insightful. It's not graceful. It's not applicable. Instead, it's such a flawed concept that anyone who invokes it is worse than wrong.

This canard is rolled out every single time someone wants to suppress expression they dislike. You'll turn on your TV, and some interviewer will say, "But the First Amendment says they have a right to free speech," to which the Authoritarian of the Hour will respond, "Well, there are exceptions to the First Amendment, I mean we already know that...

"You cannot shout Fire! in a theater."

Except...

1. You absolutely CAN shout fire in a theater.

2. It might be morally wrong to do so, but your action will have nothing to do with the First Amendment activities.

Timeline

0:00 Intro

1:00 Historical context of Shout Fire

2:45 The case of Eugene Debs

6:35 Why does everyone use Shout Fire?

7:46 The precise words of Oliver Wendell Holmes

11:52 You agree that Debs deserved prison?

13:08 Gracepoint, Stop using Shout Fire

13:49 The logistics of shouting fire

16:12 Unlikely to be arrested

20:55 Close examination of the First Amendment

24:03 Twitter Files and Biden v Missouri

27:00 The freedom of the press prohibits censorship

30:13 Can you print Fire in a theater?

33:44 Why the Founders saw Press as a separate right

38:29 The point when these rights matter most

38:52 Politicians should not be in the social engineering business

41:02 Grace to people who invoke shout fire

42:47 Practice Human Respect instead

43:15 Don't shut down epistemological journeys

Bill Protzmann is your moderator.

ZERO AGGRESSION PROJECT is our sponsor.

But the views expressed are exclusively those of the participants, and not necessarily those of the board, staff, or supporters of the Zero Aggression Project.

Thank you to Randy Garbin for our amazing thumbnails: http://randygarbin.com/

We are grateful to Sergio at https://www.youtube.com/@KeysofMoonMusic for our intro theme.

► https://www.patreon.com/user?u=10500501

or

you can purchase his music on BandCamp:

► https://keysofmoon.bandcamp.com/

► If you have any questions please feel free to write to Sergio at: serjo.de.lua.music@gmail.com

Be grace-full to each other.