Freedom of Speech

Information and knowledge, discussion and debate, these things are being more and more restricted by big tech corporation. Information that threatens the elite and narratives are actively removed, and dissidents are canceled.

I believe in freedom of Speech .Hate speech has nothing to do with freedom .

“We’re in the cancel culture now. [...] Political correctness has killed comedy. Every joke you tell now, it hurts somebody’s feelings. But what people don’t understand about comedians is that a joke has to be about something. It has to be about somebody. We can’t write jokes about puppies all the time. The joke can’t be about bushes all the time. Some of these jokes will have to be about people, because that’s the most interesting topic."

Still, if I worried about every last thing that someone said and I had to try to change it, then I would never be me. Anyone wouldn’t be them! That’s why I think cancel culture is the most ridiculous thing, because I really do believe—and you and I have been at several dinners together where people are discussing their thoughts on it—in rehabilitation and freedom of speech. I’ve never really been into cancel culture. I believe that if we cancel someone for something that they had done or said in their past, then we’re not inviting them into the conversation to really understand. It depends on the situation. You might not care if it’s absolutely ridiculous. But it’s a fine line. It’s what you were asking in the original question: When do you let something go? And when do you have thick skin and not care what people say about you? The more that I don’t care about fame, the less I care to correct people. I don’t really care what people think about me, but there’s some times where I say, “OK, I completely understand how you would feel like this is disrespectful, and I will absolutely change this.” I always own up to the mistakes that I make and I try not to make them again. That’s just how I live my life. But I think if you don’t have these conversations with people, how are they ever going to change something that isn’t right? […] I learned a lot from that situation. No matter what, it taught me to be a little bit more empathetic for people that just want to do what they want to do: freedom of speech!

Parlament resumes this week and Trudeau reveals his action plan. I can tell you there's nothing new with this socialist government. We'll have more intrusions into exclusive provintials jurisdiction, with our national child care program. More censorship with legislation that will regulate online content. More mass immigration with an increase in the number of refugees and elderly immigrants. And more spending with a recovery program that will cost one billion dollars. As inflation continues to reach new highs each month and everyone gets poorer, Trudeau's priorities are climate change and the imposition of more restrictions on our rights and freedoms.

It’s a very complex situation, this cancel-culture, or this instant rush to judgment based on essentially what amounts to polluted air. It’s got so far out of hand that I can assure you, no one is safe. Not one of you, so long as someone is willing to say one thing.

You don’t get to condemn people just because they think differently than you. That’s not equality. That’s not justice and that’s not hip-hop, just being honest. There have been enormous considerations within the culture, within the community of hip-hop. Enormous considerations, man, for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters because we feel they are also one of us. You dig? But we don’t feel that same way in return.

There has become a thing that’s gone on it seems like, especially in this last year, where ideology is more important than art. Ideology trumps art. Ideology trumps individual effort. Ideology trumps good. Ideology trumps entertaining.

So it’s a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me, right? Arrived this morning with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money. And the answer is ‘F— you!’ […] We want to thank you for considering this project. We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and necessary today, which speaks to how timeless a work. […] And yet they want to use it to make Facebook and Instagram even bigger and more powerful than it already is so that it can continue to censor all of us in this room and prevent this story about Julian Assange getting out to the general public so the general public could go, ‘What?! What? No. No more.’

We live in this cancel culture of people erring and doing wrong – either on purpose or by accident – and there’s less forgiveness in our world. I think we’re unfortunately in a coarser environment. I think our societies have become harder and less understanding, less tolerant, less forgiving.

Today is the result of allowing people with hate in their hearts to use platforms that should be used to bring people together and allow people to build community. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, Susan Wojcicki—you have all failed the American people today, and I hope you’re going to fix things moving forward.

For anyone that might need to let out a little aggression today… it is national register to VOTE day. I never do this but for anyone who has not registered to vote please take this opportunity to feel HEARD. And not hopeless. I am voting because I WANT to believe in our country. Because I believe in climate change. I believe in systemic racism. I believe in freedom of speech and the right to assemble. I believe in gun control. I believe that women have a right to make choices about their own bodies. I believe people have the right to live and love and identify however they feel in their hearts without fear. I believe that people care about each other. So try and have a lovely Tuesday and vote for your f*****g lives.

Left-wing mobs have torn down statues of our founders, desecrated our memorials and carried out a campaign of violence and anarchy. Whether it is the mob on the street, or the cancel culture in the boardroom, the goal is the same: to silence dissent, to scare you out of speaking the truth and to bully Americans into abandoning their values.

The problem is that people on both sides are absolutely exhausted by the energy of the other. It’s not just the right, the left is just as f***ing crazy and dumbass. It is absolutely f***ing exhausting listening to these people try and control s***. If they’re not trying to control the way you act or think, they’re trying to control the way you f***ing talk, they’re trying to control the things that you should be offended by. Look, there’s a very clear list of things that you should be offended by: anything racist or anything that has to do with trying to kill people. Everything else is open to interpretation and it all depends on where you grew up, who you grew up with, and what you think in your own f***ing head. And it’s a war for the language right now. A war for the language that we use and that we’re allowed to use. I get it on both sides. I usually try to stay in the middle and say the things that need to be said, that aren’t weighed down with the jargon. But, because I’m perceived on both sides as being on either side, it’s a “shut up and sing” situation. The liberals think that I’m this knuckle-dragging mook who just wants to drink Mountain Dew and smoke Marlboro Reds and stare into the sky. The far right thinks I’m this liberal snowflake who wants everybody to get their paychecks so we can all drink jasmine coffee and pick each other’s asses. I’m neither, man! I think you're all full of s***! But at the same time, it’s a great vantage point, I love it. I watch everybody talk s***, and I go, “None of you know me, I’m not gonna take any offense to any of this.

I think it’s important for culture academia everything to go to those scary shadowy extreme places in order to understand them, identify them and reject them if that makes any sense […] but then the other side of that [liberty of speech] is that it must be done with responsibility. You can’t simply say things for the sake of exercising your right of freedom of speech.

This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff, You should get over that quickly. The world is messy; there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you. and I think that one danger I see among young people and particularly among college campuses […] but I do get a sense sometimes now among young people and this is accelerated by social media, there is this sense sometimes that the way of me making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people and that’s enough. If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb or … then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because man, you see how woke I was? I called you out. Then I get on TV, watch my show, watch Grown-ish. You know, that’s not, that’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change, you know. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far.

Proud to have voted against M-103 today in Parliament. Everyone should have the right to believe in or criticize any religion.

I believe in freedom of speech. I don’t believe in putting a gag on creative expression. Don’t go to the movie if you don’t want to see violence. That’s your choice. I hate slasher films, for example. I don’t watch slasher films, I think they’re disgusting . But I think it’s important to live in a world where there’s that freedom to create whatever it is you want to create. [...] That is a political question. It’s something I would love to be able to answer. But I’ve been very neutral. By design. I know some people look down on my quietude, but I feel it would impact my ability to be an artist. If I wanted to make a movie about it one day, I don’t want you to know what side I’m on when you go to that movie. It’s like, I know this is random, but the whole reason Claudius survived and went on to be emperor is because he was smart enough to keep quiet and to build his path. Which is what I’m doing.

Not one word of social criticism that’s been leveled my way has ever changed one word of any script or any story I tell.

America is the land of "Free Speech". We can always agree to disagree. Keep on smiling!!!