Dave Rubin: evaluation

Transcript context

…If it’s indeed a country where anything can be said, does that make it harder to be funny? Is a certain amount of censorship, whether explicit or implicit required for humor to have its force? So you see from totalitarian societies, satire has much more power than maybe it does in America today. Yeah. Well, that’s a great question, because if you listen to the hysterics of the people on the left at the moment, they’re making it sound like Trump is cracking down on everyone’s free speech. Now, I did not… I voted for Gary Johnson, and I should be judged accordingly, but Trump… I don’t fear the government coming for my free speech at the moment. I simply don’t. What I fear is the chill factor, that we’re doing it to ourselves. Every day, we’re slowly putting out less information, we don’t wanna be de-friended with somebody on Facebook and we don’t wanna be attacked on Twitter. I literally get emails from people that are going through divorces over politics now. And even just think about that in your own life. There used to be a time… I used to know couples and friends that disagreed on things and that was it. You’d have a drink and you’d have something to eat and we agree to disagree and that’s it. That’s becoming increasingly rare, and I find myself even… Even though people know what I do, I have good friends who I get into crazy arguments with and I always make a point of saying, “Whatever happens here, our friendship is far more important.” And the fact that you even have to say that these days, or you have to preface something by, if you like somebody who’s a little out of mainstream think, you may have to go, “Well, I don’t agree with everything he says.” What a crazy notion that is. Who do you agree with all the time? I don’t even agree with myself all the time. [laughter] Don Rickles, he just passed away at age 90, famous comedian. He was famous for insulting people. He insulted everyone, but often he insulted people in ways that today would be hard to pull off. Could there be a Don Rickles today?…

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