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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBanout moved through other examples in U.S. history. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall crystallized the First Amendment position in a 1972 ruling when he stated that the government has \u201cno power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a stance that Frederick Douglass had posited decades earlier when he described free speech as \u201cthe dread of tyrants.\u201d Curbing it not only does an injustice to the speaker, but also to those who are deprived from hearing the \u201cdangerous speech,\u201d Douglass argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banout noted that free expression is fundamental to liberal education, adding that humans are \u201clikely to gravitate and seek the company of those who tend to agree with us.\u201d But aligning ourselves only with those whose views we find acceptable \u201cruns counter to liberal education,\u201d which requires us to assess our own assumptions and perspectives. Confirmation bias, he said, is a form of \u201cself-deceit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe seek evidence that proves our own positions. We interpret ambiguous evidence in a way that favors our own views, and we often simply disregard that which would challenge or disprove our views. This is the antithesis of education. This is not why you came to Clark. Self-deceit is easy. Education is hard. Self-deceit is natural. Education takes work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLiberal education should liberate us from our tendency toward self-deceit,\u201d Banout insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following his lecture, Banout sat for a conversation with Clark President David Fithian, who began by posing a question about whether free speech is an \u201cabsolute\u201d principle or must be tempered so as not to cause harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banout acknowledged that speech can create harm \u2014 for instance, when safety is compromised. But the 1972 Supreme Court decision stipulated that speech restrictions cannot be put into place to regulate content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the question is how you set up policy on a campus, or law in society, that is most helpful in setting out the farthest limit of what’s permissible while also cultivating a culture in which people are fully included, which means able to speak their minds freely,\u201d Banout said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don’t think you’re going to evade the reality that people will still be offended at times or people will share ideas that others find immoral or wrongheaded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conversation ranged across a number of relevant topics, including students who admit to self-censoring their views to avoid conflict, Clark\u2019s guardrails against speech is deemed to be threatening, and the polarizing effect of social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banout said social media has siloed the public and perpetuated an \u201coutrage culture\u201d that is \u201cbeyond any one institution\u2019s ability to control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere will always be contemporary challenges that outpace our regulatory ability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banout and Fithian also addressed the notion that a liberal education at some level is meant to generate some measure of \u201cdiscomfort\u201d when it challenges one\u2019s views and exposes potential blind spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Presidential](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Presidential_Lecture_10_Nov_2025-54-1024x683.avif\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Presidential](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Presidential_Lecture_10_Nov_2025-74-1024x683.avif\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nDuring a question-and-answer session with the audience, Sociology Professor Rosalie Torres Stone cautioned that some students have known great discomfort in their personal lives \u2014 whether through discrimination or low socioeconomic status \u2014 and they struggle to provide an alternative voice to the dominant ideas in the classroom. \u201cNot all students are equipped to feel that they can argue back,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel very protective of students who have always felt that discomfort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The night concluded with President Fithian asking what is the most essential question involving free speech in America right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banout stressed that we need to examine free speech as fundamental to the structure of our constitutional democratic order, and to be wary of the fallout when that principle is corrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen speech is highly used by any side to drive a political agenda, we are in troubled times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This semester\u2019s Presidential Lecture was a probing discussion about the benefits and challenges of free expression in the public discourse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":25893,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-deeper-red)","story_headerImg":25893,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[225,223,245,239],"displayed_author":[235],"featured":[494],"topic":[542,543],"class_list":["post-25891","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities","category-clark-community","category-social-sciences","category-worcester-world","displayed_author-jim-keogh","featured-secondary","topic-free-speech","topic-government"],"yoast_head":"\n