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Greg Lukianoff

@glukianoff • 82,535 subscribers

CEO @thefireorg. #freespeech lawyer. Buy my new book, War On Words! Newsletter: https://t.co/kOQpTdvWWy

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Why does free speech matter? In my TED Talks, I make the case with four simple truths:
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Why does free speech matter? In my TED Talks, I make the case with four simple truths:

Greg Lukianoff

36,921 views • 12 days ago

Before Monty Python's "Life of Brian" became a classic, John Cleese told me it was radioactive. No studio wanted to touch it. Enter George Harrison, who had the means, taste, and spine to make sure it existed. Free expression and comedy need that courage.
1:03
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Before Monty Python's "Life of Brian" became a classic, John Cleese told me it was radioactive. No studio wanted to touch it. Enter George Harrison, who had the means, taste, and spine to make sure it existed. Free expression and comedy need that courage.

Greg Lukianoff

295,574 views • 4 months ago

I’ve watched the right adopt language the left developed on campus. The idea is that speech can be punished if it might lead to harm someday. We’ve tried that before. It was called the bad tendency test. Under that logic, nothing is protected.
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I’ve watched the right adopt language the left developed on campus. The idea is that speech can be punished if it might lead to harm someday. We’ve tried that before. It was called the bad tendency test. Under that logic, nothing is protected.

Greg Lukianoff

84,166 views • 2 months ago

Why does free speech have a “branding problem”? Part of it is simple. Once an institution becomes ideologically one-sided, it stops needing free speech and starts seeing it as a threat. That’s what I watched happen on campuses. A slow-motion train wreck.
1:30
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Why does free speech have a “branding problem”? Part of it is simple. Once an institution becomes ideologically one-sided, it stops needing free speech and starts seeing it as a threat. That’s what I watched happen on campuses. A slow-motion train wreck.

Greg Lukianoff

142,520 views • 4 months ago

Monty Python’s John Cleese makes a point here that should be obvious, but somehow isn’t. Learning usually starts with the uncomfortable realization that you weren’t misled by villains or harmed by disagreement. You were just wrong.
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Monty Python’s John Cleese makes a point here that should be obvious, but somehow isn’t. Learning usually starts with the uncomfortable realization that you weren’t misled by villains or harmed by disagreement. You were just wrong.

Greg Lukianoff

73,878 views • 3 months ago

"Free speech makes you safer. Free speech cures violence. Free speech protects the powerless. And even 'bad' people can have good ideas." My talk from April at TED Talks 2025 in Vancouver is live!
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"Free speech makes you safer. Free speech cures violence. Free speech protects the powerless. And even 'bad' people can have good ideas." My talk from April at TED Talks 2025 in Vancouver is live!

Greg Lukianoff

178,624 views • 1 year ago

You are not safer when people hide what they really think.
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You are not safer when people hide what they really think.

Greg Lukianoff

21,991 views • 1 month ago

On my way home from Canada, I got a little reminder about why the First Amendment is so important for, among other reasons, protecting you against “petty officials” on power trips. As an American, I do not love being pushed around for my speech, or, in this case, a joke I didn’t even get to finish.
2:34
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On my way home from Canada, I got a little reminder about why the First Amendment is so important for, among other reasons, protecting you against “petty officials” on power trips. As an American, I do not love being pushed around for my speech, or, in this case, a joke I didn’t even get to finish.

Greg Lukianoff

43,192 views • 4 months ago

“Hate speech laws would have stopped the Nazis.” There’s just one problem. They already tried.
1:51
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“Hate speech laws would have stopped the Nazis.” There’s just one problem. They already tried.

Greg Lukianoff

12,252 views • 1 month ago

Speech being violence is one of the oldest arguments in the book. People discover that the line between speech and violence is a social construct, then decide that means they can redraw it however they like. Usually in a very convenient way.
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Speech being violence is one of the oldest arguments in the book. People discover that the line between speech and violence is a social construct, then decide that means they can redraw it however they like. Usually in a very convenient way.

Greg Lukianoff

35,681 views • 4 months ago

Extremism rarely defeats extremism. More often, it empowers its mirror image. David French joins Jeffrey Rosen to explain how opposing political extremes can end up using the same tactics and weakening the same principles.
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Extremism rarely defeats extremism. More often, it empowers its mirror image. David French joins Jeffrey Rosen to explain how opposing political extremes can end up using the same tactics and weakening the same principles.

Greg Lukianoff

16,964 views • 1 month ago

Afroman reminds the world that you should be able to mock power without fear in this country, because we are a free people. FIRE exists because that's not always true in practice, but I’d like to thank Afroman for reminding Americans that he wasn’t just standing up for his own rights. The right to dissent belongs to us all.
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Afroman reminds the world that you should be able to mock power without fear in this country, because we are a free people. FIRE exists because that's not always true in practice, but I’d like to thank Afroman for reminding Americans that he wasn’t just standing up for his own rights. The right to dissent belongs to us all.

Greg Lukianoff

40,112 views • 5 months ago

Free speech may be humanity’s greatest invention for peace. At Florida State University, I explained why the ability to settle our deepest disagreements with words instead of violence changed the course of human history.
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Free speech may be humanity’s greatest invention for peace. At Florida State University, I explained why the ability to settle our deepest disagreements with words instead of violence changed the course of human history.

Greg Lukianoff

14,075 views • 1 month ago

I don't know how to say this with more urgency: letting the government control AI is the fast-track to dystopia.
2:51
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I don't know how to say this with more urgency: letting the government control AI is the fast-track to dystopia.

Greg Lukianoff

36,835 views • 6 months ago

Cancel culture did not happen because students suddenly got worse on their own. It took an unholy alliance between students ready to punish and administrators ready to enable them. A key point from this conversation with Rikki Schlott on So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast.
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Cancel culture did not happen because students suddenly got worse on their own. It took an unholy alliance between students ready to punish and administrators ready to enable them. A key point from this conversation with Rikki Schlott on So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast.

Greg Lukianoff

24,138 views • 4 months ago

My mentor, the great civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate, gave me probably the best advice I ever got in my life. And now, after much too long, I'm finally sharing it with everybody.
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My mentor, the great civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate, gave me probably the best advice I ever got in my life. And now, after much too long, I'm finally sharing it with everybody.

Greg Lukianoff

30,109 views • 6 months ago

We ran ourselves ragged this year for free speech. I paid for it in some ways, including getting sick after months of nonstop travel and missing my dad’s 100th birthday. But as painful as it was, it was worth it, because this work matters.
1:51
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We ran ourselves ragged this year for free speech. I paid for it in some ways, including getting sick after months of nonstop travel and missing my dad’s 100th birthday. But as painful as it was, it was worth it, because this work matters.

Greg Lukianoff

13,854 views • 2 months ago

The marketplace of ideas matters most in higher ed, which is probably why it’s so hated there. Free speech helps us discover truth, but it also reveals what people really think. And sometimes, the wrong ideas are the most important ones to know about.
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The marketplace of ideas matters most in higher ed, which is probably why it’s so hated there. Free speech helps us discover truth, but it also reveals what people really think. And sometimes, the wrong ideas are the most important ones to know about.

Greg Lukianoff

11,466 views • 2 months ago

I wish Gen-Z would look past the title of 'Coddling' to see that it's really not a rebuke of them as much as it's a critique of the mental habits they were taught by the, in some cases, well-meaning adults who raised and taught them.
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I wish Gen-Z would look past the title of 'Coddling' to see that it's really not a rebuke of them as much as it's a critique of the mental habits they were taught by the, in some cases, well-meaning adults who raised and taught them.

Greg Lukianoff

12,727 views • 4 months ago

“Sticks and stones” was never a claim that words don’t hurt. Of course they do. The point is that insults don’t own your dignity, and calling words “violence” trivializes real violence. A clip from my conversation with Nadine Strossen on So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast:
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“Sticks and stones” was never a claim that words don’t hurt. Of course they do. The point is that insults don’t own your dignity, and calling words “violence” trivializes real violence. A clip from my conversation with Nadine Strossen on So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast:

Greg Lukianoff

12,251 views • 4 months ago