When a teacher gets fired from Eton for an interesting YouTube video that seem unexceptionable (though it might be wrong on some points), it galls my free-speech values. So I thought I would highlight here what some found so offensive: the video above.

This kind of debate is absolutely within bounds and exactly the sort of debate our society should be having. However much you believe one side, it it not healthy to have that side shouting the other down. Saying men and women are naturally different might be wrong, but it is not a flat-earth idea. And it is not OK to push down an idea because you think it is dangerous. That way lies tyranny.

(We simply don’t have time to carefully consider every stupid idea. But we must make time to carefully consider every idea that seems dangerous to us. The sense that it is dangerous usually suggests that there is an important partial truth in the idea.)

The article and video below provide more background:

My own free speech sensibilities have been informed by a careful reading of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. To see the gist of John Stuart Mill’s arguments, see my post “John Stuart Mill's Brief for Freedom of Speech.”