WTW64: Did Students Shut Down Bipartisan Free Speech Event at Yale Law School?

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:03 Clip: What's so scary about the woke mob, how often you just don't see them coming.

0:00:11 Clip: Anywhere you see diversity, equity, and inclusion, you see Marxism, and you see woke principles being pushed.

0:00:19 Clip: Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down. The woke monster is here, and it's coming for everything, everything, everything, and everything. Instead of go -go boots, the seductress green M &M will now wear sneakers.

0:00:41 Thomas: Hello, and welcome to Where There's Woke. This is episode 64, and I'm Thomas. That over there is Lydia in a new and improved closet. How you doing?

0:00:51 Lydia: Yeah, someone came in and made this a lot better, which is really, really nice.

0:00:56 Thomas: Yeah, it's like either you identified another sexuality that you're hiding from people, or, you know what I mean? Like, you'd Still be in the closet, but you'd be like, oh, I discovered I'm in the clothet about another thing, too, you now? New and improved clothet. I'm sure that's actually probably happened, like, yeah.

0:01:06 Lydia: Yeah. A different thing. Know, This part of my life is all about growth, journey to understand myself. And this is a piece of that. So,

0:01:17 Thomas: Banter is actually relevant because we're going to talk about today some really awful anti-queer rights people. We're on season two, episode six of Things Fell Apart, and we're going to see how far we get. Here, I'm just going to start. I'm going to hit play, and I'm not going to do anything. We're going see how long we get on this one.

0:01:35 Lydia: What's the over -under?

0:01:40 Thomas: Okay. We got BBC sounds. Yeah. I don't disagree with any of that.

0:01:41 Clip: BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts, From BBC Radio 4, this is Things Fell Apart, Season 2, Young law students shouting profanities and threats disrupt a free speech event with a bipartisan panel on civil liberties.

0:01:50 Lydia: Accurate.

0:02:05 Thomas: Got to stop it. All right. Psych, everyone. We are not necessarily necessarily doing things fell apart today because it's actually perfect. This is, this is good because for one thing, I think we're things fell a parted out. Um, I will be damned if I don't complete this series. So this is still part of that, but as I have, I've copious notes on this episode and then I was doing the thing I always do, which is like, well, I'm going to do one last 10 listen throughs and see. And I realized I had intended, oh yeah, of course I thought to myself, I intended to track down these quotes he plays at the beginning of this one. He plays some quotes like you just heard. Realized like, well, I always want to track those down because it's actually really interesting what he ends up playing. And there's always something interesting there. Turns out it is very interesting. I can't wait to tell you. But the thing he's referencing, the thing that he's playing there is a total bullshit thing. So this can kind of be a standalone episode on that bullshit thing." So it's like, we're starting this hierarchy of of Trauma, season two, Episode six of Things Fell Apart. The first sound clip is something that we can kind of do a fun departure a little bit. And it's still relevant because, again, he is using all these things to make a point that's stupid. And having the context, we always talk about how much harder it is to provide the context than it is to just play a fucking clip and just be like, listen to those rowdy kids. They're idiots. This is fascinating. So I stopped. Stopped it literally it was like five seconds in okay let me look this up and I you know three pages later of solid notes I'm like oh yeah let's just talk about this so Let's talk about what that was. Uh, don't we take our break and patrons at patreon.com/wherethereswoke don't have to hear shitty ads you don't want to hear these stupid fucking ads we have no control over them they suck they're

0:03:49 Lydia: Control.

0:03:49 Thomas: Absolutely no control here's what we can control do you want them on or off and we're like well we do desperately need them on for some trickle of revenue and they're like great here's any ad you have no control over that's basically it there's like you can turn off like you or politics I like well I don't want to turn off politics because there's also left -wing politics So anyway, long story short, we have absolutely no control over specifically what ads, but you don't have to worry about any of that if you're a patreon.com/wherethereswoke there's woke and also what else might they find on the patreon this month a

0:04:22 Lydia: Man, we have a bonus. We are gearing up to record in moments that I am so excited about with a special guest.

0:04:32 Thomas: Special guest how tall is this special guest weird question to ask how handsome is he pretty handsome I'll answer very handsome it's heath enright back on the show I I love working with and the topic is going to be very fun I always fun when I can be like hey hon I have have a good idea. You do all the work. You know, that's the amazing delegating. It's, uh, I'm a good manager. Uh, so I thought, you know, it'd be a good episode right about now. I says to myself and you, let's track down a bunch of the like fake controversies around Tim Walsh. Cause they're just, every time

0:04:34 Lydia: Incredibly tall, incredibly tall, incredibly bald yep yeah it's great oh man yeah

0:05:09 Thomas: I see the right, trying to like take him on, they're like this just in his neighbors thought his lawn was long once or something, you knows, just nothing.

0:05:17 Lydia: I'll be honest I ran out of time like there there's so many but it's gonna be a really really fun one yeah

0:05:21 Thomas: This is not a comprehensive look. No, yeah, yeah. By any means. It's going to be fun. So we're going to go over with Heath some of the best, Tim Waltz controversies. We're finally shining some light on these things. So that'll be on patreon.com/wherethereswoke for So that all said, let's take our break. And then we'll be talking about the great Yale law protest catastrophe 2022.

0:05:43 Thomas: Yeah. I want, here's what I'm going to do. Unfortunately, I need, I've realized I'm gonna play a little more of the show just because I do want people to know the context he's trying to set here. So even though I wanted to only get like five seconds in, I realize now it will make more sense if I play a little more and then go back and talk about this first clip.

0:06:05 Clip: Law students shouting profanities and threats disrupt a free speech event with a bipartisan panel on civil liberties.

0:06:13 Thomas: Bipartisan panel. How dare they do that? What idiots?

0:06:18 Clip: It's a culture war has raged on college campuses about whether or not to de-platform contentious voices. The students that protested hurled insults at us, shouted us down. They were pounding on classroom walls. It was a terrifying night. Campus police issuing a shelter in place order after college republicans invited Milo monopolist to speak this is a police generator that was knocked over and set on fire when these protests turned into a riot something

0:06:24 Thomas: Fucking Jesus Christ. A different one. Don't worry. That'll be episode, I don't know, three. God. I'm continuing, even though that's like four more episodes I need to do just in the first 30 30 seconds. But you have to hear, sorry, might be the laziest, like minus student framing I've ever, I'm actually in disbelief. So you heard, you already heard it was complete bullshit. I'm resisting going off on it because I will for a while. For decades, a culture war has raged on college whether or not to de -platform contentious voices. That's like already but just it gets so much worse like that's step one of the stupidest framing ever because I how about you talk about for decades um hardcore right -wing conservative groups like the federalist society like college republicans that have been astroturfed into existence by the way with big money this is all this is not conspiracy theory there's not tinfoil this is direct facts big money comes in yeah

0:07:38 Lydia: We had Isaac Kamala on talking about that. Like there is research. People have the receipts. This stuff is funded by the Koch brothers.

0:07:40 Thomas: Big money come in they astroturf this stuff exactly what what you said. I'm glad you remembered the gap. I knew I was like, wait, that wasn't us. Thank you. Because Isaac was great. And that was a really good episode. Absolutely true. Oh, I also remember the episode. You can remember another name. That's your job. The book about this asshole, the guy with the face too small for his head. He's Charlie Kirk.

0:08:02 Lydia: With oh Um, Katherine Spencer.

0:08:09 Thomas: Holy shit. How does she do it, everyone? Nevermind. This is the show. What other names do you know? They're just just in your brain and you can just like, you can just like recall the names at, at, will. New show, everybody. How, how does she do it? Anyway, I eventually got Charlie, Charlie Kirk? Yeah, see, I, but it's so, the way I'm doing it is just a catastrophe. It is just an absolute, I don't, just a, just a junkyard of like bullshit Rube Goldberg devices to get maybe

0:08:11 Lydia: Know a lot of names yeah yeah oh

0:08:44 Thomas: Kind of the name to my brain and then you're like Kristen Kyle. Anyway uh uh we don't have time for this sorry um uh this is a serious point though it is astroturfed it is big money coming in there to find the couple nazi republican college students because they exist um I wasn't one of them I was almost one of those too lazy to be one of these people but I was I would have like listened to them like I would

0:08:50 Lydia: Spencer, yeah geez -hmm yeah there were too many buttons you would have had to press to join

0:09:10 Thomas: Too many. Yeah. Meetings. Am I going to a meeting? Fuck off. I'm not going to do a meeting. But if I had met one of these assholes at lunch, unfortunately, because, again, I grew up conservative, I would have listened and been like, damn, yeah, you and me, man, we're conservatives. Yeah, there's like three of us on campus.

0:09:23 Lydia: My god I'm so glad I met you when I did

0:09:26 Thomas: Fucking A. Yep. Yep. Hey, but Trump didn't exist back. It was different politics. It's different politics It was just, you know, very probably racially problematic hatred of Barack Obama back then. So it's fine Oh, no, actually that was toward the end of school. This was this was supporting the Iraq war. So, you know, it's way better Anyway, while Lydia googles divorce lawyers in our area what she can do in her brand new improved closet I've got a better setup where she's able to access her laptop easier. Ear. So expect to see those search results. Anyway. So to frame it as, I'll repeat, I know it's a lot of nonsense, so I'll read it. For decades, a culture war has raged on college campuses about whether or not to de -platform contentious voices. And what's really happening there is these astroturf groups are purposefully baiting protest by inviting fucking Nazis

0:09:31 Lydia: I guess yeah yeah Of course.

0:10:16 Thomas: To campuses and then very reasonable people and some very unreasonable people. Cause guess what? Those people are everywhere. Unreasonable people are everywhere. Uh, including when you're younger, when you got more energy, when You're super young and progressive, you're going to be energetic and maybe go too far on some stuff, but you're a college kid. So I should never fucking find out about this unless but anyway, they invite these Nazis, Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, fucking whoever, to bait these people to create the protest and then to sell this fucking storyline. Is not tinfoil hat. This is literally what's happening. And to do no research into that and to just take it, just fucking hook, line and sinker John Ronson or his researcher, I don't know who, whoever at the BBC sounds, just to take and just be like, yeah, the debate is really whether or not to de -platform. By the way, not Nazi, harmful, awful piece of shit, contentious voices, contentious voices. I know, I know know. I always do the gratuitous analogies, but it really does, I think, help. Like, because often I'm trying to make a logical point that I feel like I can't get the wording quite right, but I know it's absolutely like sound, contentitious voices. Just not what it is. Say I think I'm at a fucking train station. I see someone who I think is holding a Gun and they look — oh shit, I think they're about to hurt somebody. I tackle him. Now let's say other people were like, wait, he wasn't actually holding a Gun. It was some other item. And so instead of just saying, Thomas thought that was a Gun and so he tackled the guy, you can judge me on like how reasonable was it for me to think that? How damage did I do to the guy? How much disruption did I, if it turns out to not be a Gun, by the way, if it turned out to be a gun, I'm a fucking hero. And maybe you should stop Googling divorce lawyers. There's, you know, you should think about that. But if it's not a gun, you could judge me based on that. But here's what these assholes do. Preserve both sides -ism, they don't call it a gun anymore. They're like, well, it's a controversial item. And they say, you Know, Thomas thought it was okay to tackle someone just because they had a controversial items. So, like, why does he, why Does he think it looks so many people agree that if you think someone's got a controversial Item, you Should just be able to tackle him. Next? You Can stab him? Can you punch him? Where does it end? Can you not handle a controversial item? You too coddled to be able to, you know? And it's, that really is exactly what's happening here because these complaints, 100 times out of 100, are specific problems with specific fucking assholes that

0:11:05 Lydia: Contentious voices. -hmm.

0:12:38 Thomas: Are like, hey, this person you invited to the campus fucking blows. They suck. They're causing literal harm to trans people, to queer people. We are, have a, this is a gun. Don't like that you are inviting someone to campus with a gun and I accept that other people don't think it's a gun, other people are like, no, we we don't, think they're dangerous, we Don't think they are harming people, we I understand that, that's what you have to do, you can't both sides it and then treat everyone as though they're acting in accordance with that both sides -y thing. Contentious voice. You think that anyone would agree with that? You Think if you ask, well, okay, should, should you de -platform contentious voice? Who's a contentious voice? I don't know, like a stand -up comedian that is a little blue, you know, that works a little Blue. Do you thing, do you think they'd agree like, yeah, okay. De -platformed. No, it's not about being contentious. It's about being harmful. It's a, it, it the fucking weapon. Can disagree with that. You can disagree with whether or not they're harmful. They're actually fine. I disagree with you. You can just agree with that you have to treat what I'm doing what the students are doing with the points are making from their point of view. You

0:13:48 Thomas: Don't say Thomas you tackled someone for no fucking reason because they had a like a cell phone. I didn't think it was that you can't say my so then therefore I will tackle everyone with a cell phone. You know there's a tortured analogy But that, I have just had to watch four hours of newsreel of every single fucking CNN, MSNBC, Fox News. Oh, contentious voice. Students don't allow viewpoints. That's what they do. It's not logically sound. It is not. Is the least bad part of this framing because it gets worse. We go.

0:14:23 Clip: Big and surprising has changed

0:14:25 Thomas: Something's

0:14:25 Clip: About this particular culture war for the longest time protests over free speech were pretty much confined to college campuses So

0:14:29 Thomas: Changed. What? What country are you from? Oh, yeah, that's right. You're not from this country. I'm the last person to get all pretentious, but read a fucking book, John Ronson. I know you're an author like that this is coming from me I don't read books I I listen to them but I the the for the longest time debates about free speech were only on the campus and then where is it going by the way

0:14:39 Lydia: Yeah yeah

0:14:59 Clip: Suddenly, they exploded out of colleges and into workplaces, including newsrooms.

0:15:02 Thomas: Workplaces including newsrooms does that seem a little arbitrary to you perhaps well this is as far as we're going to get in the episode for this episode So we have stopped now at around a minute, something as far as we're going to get, if that seems a little gerrymandered, like that fuck, like, could it be because he has some asshole who's going to complain about how he was censored in the workplace and the newsroom and he works in a newsroom. That's it. That's that. Guess what? It's, it's Lee Fong, the guy we already heard from. That'll be later. Like, this is the laziest, most sophomoric gerrymander fucking intro for the example he's going to later bring up is so fucking hyper specific it is not universal at all and by the way this has always existed at the workplace fucking unions you

0:15:06 Lydia: What yes yes it does right yeah yeah yeah

0:15:46 Thomas: Know how long union busting it's still today by the way still today but also dates back so far the right for a union to try to to speak at workplaces to try to recruit at work places that is a fucking free speech issue that is an a way more important free speech issues than whatever fucking nonsense this is going to be about because that involved especially going but you know 1900 fucking what like way back when we've had the first amendment that whole time but this a lot of this was just not allowed they were just union bust they'd fucking use violence. Yeah where was the free speech rights back then? Is that something the founders always believed in and supported? Or is it actually true that, um, not until we had more liberal Supreme court that gave us some of these rights and like the fucking sixties, uh, we have these rights? Um, being very general, but that is kind of how it's worked for the longest time. That's a free speech debate that is far more important than anything we're talking about. It dates back a century or more and, uh. It already was in the workplace. It started in the marketplace. Actually, that's where these things started before school. I guarantee you free speech debates that of any import and free speech controversies and battles over free speech started. I've just, this is my, I'm using the force. I don't know. I haven't looked this up. I warranty you it was more common in workplaces and more important in work places before universities were inviting Ann Coulter or whatever bullshit they were doing. I guaranty it. This is just the laziest frame. It's not not historically accurate in any way. It's And it's just gerrymandered to introduce the person he happened to talk to who, surprise, surprise is an anti -woke guy who's got a complaint that's stupid about

0:16:18 Lydia: Pre -labor day yeah oh

0:17:24 Thomas: A thing. So bad. So that is what he's setting up. Is what you're saying. Reminder. I know I had to go ahead a little bit, but I think it's important to set back up and go back to that first quote. Now let's go back that first thing he played. Let's see how this makes sense. Let me see how much sense it makes, because what keep you participating a little bit, heard all you've heard, and you've heard enough, rhetorically is he setting up exactly? If you kind of want to summarize where he's trying to get you as a listener.

0:17:49 Lydia: Where people coming on to college campus to give a speech or a lecture or a discussion and that represent a variety of viewpoints are being shouted down and prevented from speaking at all because of college kids.

0:18:06 Thomas: And the timing is it started at college campuses. No, it didn't. And now lately it's moved on to work places. And keep in mind that the entire, entirety essentially this series, not about 2020, is about the culture wars of 2020. Interesting. So let's go back to that. Let's go back to the quote and I'll do some, detective you work and figure out what it's from.

0:18:27 Clip: Profanities and threats disrupt a free speech event with a bipartisan panel on civil liberties. With

0:18:35 Thomas: Okay. Well, type, type Google, Google, Google. Let us, let's look, look what that's from. Hey, do you think that be from? If this is the timeline he's setting up for us, I would say literally any time before 2020. If the thing he is setting up is here's these things that used to happen on college campuses. And now where we are, it's exploded onto workplaces I would would expect that's like, okay, these are the controversies that have happened. And then we forward forward into current time. Would surprise you to know, as I look this up, it's from March 10th, 2022. So it's after, that quote is from something after all this. This is not super important. That's a little weird, isn't it? Like, okay. For the longest time it raged and you're playing this thing from the future. Like that's weird. And also I go and find that clip and oh I've tracked it down look at this I've tracked it uh here it is I

0:19:24 Clip: Shouting profanity and threats, disrupt a Free Speech Event with a Bipartisan Panel on Civil Liberties. The event

0:19:32 Thomas: Awesome that's me I found the clip hmm is this source boy news what what is that oh brings news and analysis from a catholic perspective to TV viewers across the English-speaking world that's a bizarre source don't you think Like, already, I was like, what is happening? So I'm expecting history. And to be fair, the next clip is from something from 2016, 17.

0:19:41 Lydia: There we go. Yeah, yeah.

0:19:56 Thomas: That makes more sense. Like, I would think the chronology of what you're doing is this all happened leading up to, again, the focus on the series is 2020 and what exploded in 2020. The culture wars around that time, right? That's been the whole fucking thing. You would think this would be the before times. The next event is 2017. But this one's from 2022. Not that long ago, you know, and the source you're using is a Catholic YouTube thing.

0:19:56 Lydia: OK,

0:20:22 Thomas: Like, yeah, like, how do you how do You even do that? Goes Like, to this question we've had about this whole thing. Like where is he getting his information why why why is that the source at all that you would use I know it's like I get that sometimes you play Fox News coverage of something to make a point but we're in fact zone narrator voice here we're not in look at how these right -wingers distort events we're at here's what's happening and every source is a right -winger clip um So here's the funny thing. Again, I like to use you and it creates a lot of tension in our marriage. So it's good. What do think this event was based on what you heard? This is not trick questions. Just tell me as a listener. I'm just trying to keep you as the average listener. What's going on? I

0:20:22 Lydia: And their framing of what happened. Yeah, it's weird. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

0:21:06 Thomas: Can replay it if you want.

0:21:07 Lydia: Can you replay it?

0:21:08 Clip: By Yale law

0:21:09 Thomas: Get it. It's hard to find a divorce lawyer. So she's had to like Google a lot and Yelp. And then Yelp's all weird now. It's kind of hard to fine the right results. So yeah,

0:21:16 Clip: Students shouting profanities and threats disrupt a free speech event with a bipartisan panel on civil liberties. The

0:21:26 Lydia: Bipartisan panel, civil liberties and free speech.

0:21:30 Thomas: Free speech event.

0:21:31 Lydia: Yeah free speech event.

0:21:33 Thomas: There's about a million more places that summarize this. Fox and friends.

0:21:39 Clip: Is new video emerging of a protest at Yale Law School last week, moments before the cops had to be called in.

0:21:46 Thomas: My God. The cops had to be called in.

0:21:48 Clip: There event was ironically about the importance of free speech featuring a liberal atheist and a conservative christian looking to find common ground and the speakers weren't great with that it was the people in the audience who had the problem with it one

0:21:52 Thomas: Ironically. Yeah. So yeah, it's a, it'S panel about free free speech, right? It's like, oh, the importance of free speech. And these protesters, you're like down with free speech? How dare you? That the kind of the indication you're getting? Go ahead.

0:22:11 Lydia: Yeah Um, I did want to just note that I think doing this show has like, like spidey sense whenever I hear I know I hear free speech and I'm like, oh yeah Yeah, yeah, if I'm a normie and I don't listen to Where There's Woke and learn a lot of great things from the show um think I would view it as um why are they, you know, shouting down people who just want to talk about how important it is to, you opinions. Companions yeah

0:22:20 Thomas: You got to put yourself into them. I'm trying to, yeah. Pretend you are just a normie here overhearing some television coverage. First of all, how dare you. Yeah the have gotten so yeah they can't even handle free speech they don't even want free

0:22:53 Lydia: Campus

0:22:53 Thomas: Speech to exist blah blah blah then it makes it all the way. And look, not I'm sure if I'm going to later do this, but I kind of want to sometime go through, like, one of the 420,000 videos about this that are all the same thing, because it does illustrate the point, the larger point about this show. A million people or there's a group of really dedicated people who are on the same message and have a bunch of russian money and shit and other just billionaire money that are creating their astroturfing this thing and every time there's one of these bullshit things this yale protest the results are all that they're all that and then it filters to the mainstream then the mainstream picks up their version of it and is so susceptible even like msnbc even like liberal people are so susceptible to just accepting their version of events.

0:22:55 Lydia: Craziness, whatever Right.

0:23:41 Thomas: And one part of that is Joe Rogan.

0:23:43 Clip: All have the time on our hands to be offended by everything. Before, we were out there trying to collect some food and some clean water. I'm not saying we were trying to do that 10 years ago, but we've gotten to the point now where we can all be just offended as f*** over anything. There was a free speech conversation, debate, held at Yale. It just may have been this past week. And it was interrupted by a large protest from a bunch of law students who objected to the fact that there was a free speech debate.

0:23:51 Thomas: I used to collect food, but I have a pretty good food collection going. Do they have a cat box?

0:24:15 Clip: That is f***ing madness. It's such a f***in' madness, and it's dangerous. And these f***kin' kids, they don't realize how dangerous it is. When you stifle debate, then who decides what can and can't be talked about? It's not going to be

0:24:15 Thomas: They objected to the fact that there's a free speech debate, everyone.

0:24:30 Thomas: It's just noticed. It's so funny. You could hear that they're blanking out the F words. And I, and also, yeah.

0:24:35 Lydia: That's why it like skips a little bit.

0:24:37 Thomas: And also the F word aren't in the captions. And I realized, oh yeah, yeah, it's because the Alliance Defending Freedom tweeted this video. So they have to replace it with like, oh gosh, darn it. There's the one. And meanwhile, it was Joe. And they don't care. This guy, I couldn't actually even find who it was. I think it might be someone from there. I don't know who this guy is, but like they're dropping F -bombs left and right. They don't care except when they want to sanitize it for their little Christian mad audience.

0:24:44 Lydia: So they censored it. Yep. Yeah.

0:25:03 Clip: Who decides what can or can't being talked about. It's going to not be you. I've got news for you, and these woke kids kids who think because they scream the loudest and they pull fire alarms and they stop discussions and they stifle debates, they think that they have more control than they really do. But what they do do in that is they set a precedent. And that precedent is you can stifLE information that makes you uncomfortable. You can stIFLE discussions where people have points of view that you don't agree with. And you think you're right, so you think YOU should be able to stop those points of view. That is not the way to do it. It's just not. It has never been the way to do. It is a dangerous precedent to set because

0:25:05 Thomas: Yeah. Who decides? Wise words.

0:25:44 Clip: Then, when more power is acquired,

0:25:48 Thomas: All right. You get the point. What do we, I'll help you be the average person I think we're to believe from all this that there was an event called free speech yay or nay free speech in defense and or and then but you also heard something bipartisan you heard something about agreement so maybe it was like free speech is good here's two different people like one right one left who agree it's good maybe and then

0:26:11 Lydia: And they come to it from different positions or something.

0:26:13 Thomas: Yeah and then the Yale communist leftists are like fuck this we don't want to hear that at all, not at all. We want to turn off free speech. We don't want you to be able to even do your events. I'm not really exaggerating. That's where we've gotten to. This is Joe Rogan. This is 11 billion people. They more, I know I've played CNN, Fox news, whatever it, I wouldn't be surprised if this fucking version is the one more people hurt just because of Joe Rogin, like didn't come from Joe Rogon. It came from this guy, but you know, like still nobody, Nobody ever checks. All right. You want to know what the event was?

0:26:19 Lydia: We don't like free speech. Mm hmm. Tell me.

0:26:48 Thomas: Okay. Well, I will go to the flyer for the event. Now, it is the Yale Federalist Society, and there is — truly, legally, and this is how we do our shit with the First Amendment in this country, and I don't think it's necessarily entirely correct, but it is. The atmosphere we're in. Are these conservative groups as we've already talked about oftentimes they're astroturf and if they invite someone to speak legally they got to be allowed to do that and that is true like it sucks that they can just invite fucking hitler jr and then like the law is like yep you gotta you gotta let them I get it it some play in the joints there I think here and there depending on the school policy but if it's it'S a a federally funded school. If it's not a federally funded school, actually the school can just say whatever.

0:27:32 Lydia: Yeah. Hillsdale gets to do whatever they want.

0:27:34 Thomas: You isn't it funny that those Hillsdale students don't, they need to hear both sides. Don't they need to learn how to understand arguments from both sides, blah, blah. Um. So I've had to listen to it 400 times. You need to be able to hear the argument. Fuck you. Okay. So it's the Yale Federalist Society presents, and this this is a Supreme Court case that we covered back in the day on OA, and it's very hard to pronounce. I v. Presowitz, the event has someone that we know, actually. I'm actually a little disappointed because I think that she was invited to exactly create this exact thing yeah yeah you have a guess rather who's been on no way yeah

0:28:09 Lydia: Liberal side. Someone who's been on O .A.

0:28:15 Thomas: Keep referring to her as a humanist american humanist association like person yep that's it how did she do it everyone how does lydia know these names yep they've got kristin wagoner someone you know and have prepared a little bit on and Monica Miller, I guess, moderated by Kate Stith, a at Yale Law School. It is called the event, the actual title of the event. Uswagbunum v. Przewski, colon, Litigating Civil Rights. OK, do you see free speech in there anywhere? Do you see any anything about free speech?

0:28:20 Lydia: Oh, Monica Miller. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. Nothing about free speech. No.

0:28:50 Thomas: It's kind of weird.

0:28:51 Lydia: Yet.

0:28:51 Thomas: And the weird thing is, it's not at all about free. That's not even like, oh, technically they didn't include it on the poster. Like it's not really, it is a civil rights issue. It is a first amendment religious freedom issue that the case is about, So but the reason they have Monica Miller is don't know how pre this was with Yale Federalist Society. I'm not sure, but if it was, it was dastardly because they their whole thing was, hey, we got two different sides. We got a humanist and the opposite of a humanists, a fucking asshole Christian.

0:29:21 Lydia: Dehumanist.

0:29:21 Thomas: I know, I love unironically, they're like, we have two totally both sides. You know, a humanistic is like cool with people and like doesn't want to hurt people and Kristen Wagner, you know, both sides and they agree on this case. They both filed briefs on the same side of this case. Wow. Here's the problem with that. And I'm very disappointed that Monica Miller was involved in this. I get it. You're invited to a thing. I get It. You know, you're invited, especially Yale. That's awesome.

0:29:51 Thomas: If I was invited to Yale Law thing, that's awesome, it is the fucking family law society. So that sucks. But unfortunately, this is a trick because the thing they agree on is a very technical bullshit that was at the heart of the case. So Here is Uswagbunum v. Przewski, it was — that case I actually remembered it because again we did cover it I didn't remember it at first there there's a student Uzwagbunum was Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia. And while at school, he converted to Christianity, apparently, and he wanted to proselytize on campus. He was stopped by campus security and told that religious recruitments or proselytizing was limited to certain free speech zones on campus, use of which you had to register ahead of time. Now, that's a timeplace a time, and manner restriction that I don't think I have any problem with like I feel like hey you're trying to fucking recruit yeah like you're still allowed to do it but you got it like hey we can't don't have just everybody trying to proselytize to our fucking students yeah like yeah to register yeah

0:30:33 Lydia: I don't either. Roaming the halls, like, while class is going on, you could do it wherever you want. Like, yeah, no way.

0:30:50 Thomas: Now he did follow the procedure to register a block of time okay but due to a student complaint his activities were determined to be violating the policy that disallows speech that disturbs the peace and or comfort of the students or faculty um

0:31:04 Lydia: Oh, like saying, like you're going to burn in hell. Like.

0:31:07 Thomas: Here's the problem here's a problem with these fucking things all the time because the case that got to the supreme court it doesn't turn on any of that because we're dealing with a threshold issue we're doing with a tech it's the reason it's there is a total technicality and so what you do is you assume the best or you or you disregard it actually like it honestly doesn't matter but you assume the best for this student. Now, we don't know. It's not in the facts that I've seen. Maybe it's somewhere in the case history, but this isn't opening arguments. I haven't figured that out. We don't know if he was an asshole and yelled about how gays are going to burn in hell.

0:31:39 Thomas: We don't know. There may have been an entirely good reason, but it doesn't actually matter because, and this is how the law works. I'm totally cool with this. This is how it has to be. The issue was he made no further attempts to proselytize and he graduated from college. And then years later, the the Alliance Defending Fascism, sorry, the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a record scratch. I just came up with that now. Has anyone ever said that? That was good, I thought. See?

0:32:05 Lydia: I've never heard anyone say that.

0:32:07 Thomas: See?

0:32:07 Lydia: Yeah.

0:32:08 Thomas: Record scratch, the alliance defending freedom. Filed a lawsuit, but like, it's kind of way too late. You know, like, after he graduated, you know, that's a technical issue. And after the filing of the suit, the college changed its policies on the free speech zones. And that renders the claims moot since activities were no longer regulated. And also he had graduated and no longer was associated with the college that, now this is the interesting thing, I'm pretty sure that if this was anything other than a Christian, right the is like, we don't care. It's moot, fuck off.

0:32:41 Thomas: That's, that's usually what it is. I want to say, I have no problem with Monica Miller and everybody on the left who was in favor of the student in this lawsuit, because we are on the side of, the people on the Left are on side of not limiting or hindering or getting rid of avenues for people to sue over their civil rights. Totally a good, this is one where, hey, here's what we're going to do. We're going go ahead and piggyback on this because it's a Christian, the fucking right -wing idiots will probably be a fan of it and will support this. And it's good because it sets a precedent for being able to sue later. The specific technical thing is that, ah, it's too late, but we're saying the should still be liable for nominal damages as it had violated his rights at some point in the past. Nominal damages, typically a single dollar, are to assert that wrongdoing has occurred. So it's like, it's a way, yes.

0:33:34 Lydia: Symbolic. Yeah.

0:33:35 Thomas: And apparently there's something with Taylor Swift doing this at some point. Do you know whatever that is? I don't know. Something about a dollar.

0:33:39 Lydia: I don't remember the case, but yeah, it is a dollar. I think Gwyneth Paltrow did the same thing for the ski, skiing issue, where they don't want payment. They just want recognition that they're on the right.

0:33:50 Thomas: It's related to all that. It's the fact that like, hey, no, it's still alive because nominal damages. And it allows people to still say, I want this to go forward, even though the policy has changed. And even though they can't like assign a monetary value, you can't be like, well, because I couldn't proselytize, that's worth a million dollars.

0:34:08 Thomas: You know, it doesn't really make sense. So this is good. All in all, this is great. It is good now. Now, that doesn't mean that this student is good. That doesn't mean the Alliance Defending Freedom is good, that doesn't mean this case made sense, because maybe the guy was being a total piece of shit, and maybe had it been on the merits, the school would have been able to say, yeah, he's harassing people, that's why we're not letting, who knows, but I think in an effort to avoid that, avoid the controversy, who knows, for whatever reason, they changed their policies, they mooted the lawsuit, and so they tried to get out of it, that's what went to the Supreme Court. The ADF said, hey, no nominal damages that should still allow us to sue. Is the thing that they agree on. Should nominal damages be a good reason to keep this case going or should it not? And it goes all the way up to the Supreme Court and it goes 8-1 in the first and only time that the Chief Justice Roberts has been the lone dissenter because Roberts is like, hey no, I thought we love technicalities that don't let people have civil rights. Like I thought we were, we were really good with that.

0:35:06 Thomas: Yep.

0:35:05 Lydia: Lone dissenter crazy.

0:35:06 Thomas: 8-1. And the rest of the Republicans on the court were like, nah, he's a Christian. So probably whatever. I don't know. I didn't read the fucking decision, but I'm guessing that's their motivation. Like there's, this has gone the other way so many times where if it's anything on the left, if it's anyone trying to not be killed or something by the, you know, executed, it's always some technicality. Oh, technicality, sorry. Should have thought of that before you were executed just now.

0:35:29 Thomas: Now it's always that shit, but so that is the quote-unquote, like the coming together, the sort of like agreeing on quote, litigating civil rights, which is a very general way to put that point. Like we know what Chris, this is why I kind of wish Monica Miller hadn't really done this. We know what Christian Wagner wants out of this.

0:35:51 Thomas: We know what the fascists on the right want out of this, but the only thing we agree with is, hey, cool, another avenue to sue over your civil rights being violated. That's the thing people on the left tend to like because we like civil rights. The people on the right are like, we like when Christians have privilege. This one incident was another way to extend Christian privilege. So contrary Contrary to this being a free speech panel on free speech and debate of free speech that the kids can't even handle free speech, it's about this very technical issue. Now, one might wonder if it's a very technical issue, why do all the kids disagree so much?

0:36:27 Thomas: Why are they all so mad? Why are you so mad about this? Shouldn't that set off your spidey senses slightly? Well, next time on Where There's Woke. If your spidey senses asked, told you, that's weird that they're so mad about this technical issue involving something, damages. Why would they be so mad? Why would the tolerant left be so bad about that? Hmm.

0:36:43 Thomas: Great question. Well, not only that, about like the case that was 8 -1, the liberals on the court were for it. Monica Miller's for it, hmm. Why are they protesting? That seems weird. So much for the tolerant Left. Why are they so mad? Well, you'll find out the answer to that question next episode. So have to do with the fascist that was invited uh the thing uh we're going to talk all about that and there's so much more on this Yale event and we haven't even gotten to like a bunch of the fallout it's god it's it gets so bad it gets this gets really bad by the way this gets like in the name of free quote-unquote free speech people on the right violate the free speech and the rights and the and just the dignity of people on the left so badly I can't wait to tell you about it. It's actually fucking outrageous. And I remember this vaguely at the time and then, you

0:36:43 Lydia: About a dollar my is it has to do with kristin yeah yeah

0:37:30 Thomas: Know, we move on. But is ongoing from this. So I can't wait to break that all down for you. Please support the show. patreon.com/wherethereswoke and get you some Heath. Get you some heath and right.

0:37:30 Lydia: Get

0:37:39 Thomas: And that's what I'm about to do.

0:37:38 Lydia: You some heath get those eyebrows I

0:37:41 Thomas: Sorry, plug your ears, hon. That's what I'm about to do. Get me some heat.

0:37:45 Lydia: Need to plug my ears

0:37:47 Thomas: You're right. And I can't wait to talk about bogus Tim Walls controversies on that bonus, so join us for that. Otherwise, we'll see you for next episode that's not really Things Fell Apart. It's is I'm not gonna do another uh fucking thing but I hate youtube search so fucking bad god it's impossible it just goes off into whatever you it's yeah unbelievable uh

0:38:28 Lydia: They want to show you yeah yeah also