Commercial Interests Aren t Enough To Save Free Speech – by Seth Moskowitz – Persuasion
Dave Chappelle s latest stand-up special pushed a lot of buttons. Over The Closer s 72 minutes, Chappelle makes off-color jokes about Jewish people, black people, white people, and gay people. The group he dedicates the core of the show to jabbing, however, is transgender people. It s understandable that some took offense, and it s not surprising that activists quickly demanded that Netflix take it down.
Reasonable people can disagree about the content of Chappelle s special whether it was funny and whether he took his jokes too far. But the instinct to censor and remove any piece of art, especially one as widely popular as The Closer, is wrongheaded. Free expression is a fundamental aspect of liberal democracy. Especially in the inherently boundary-pushing arenas of art and comedy, we should embrace a culture that allows performers to take big risks whether or not we happen to like the result.
I think Dave Chappelle is hilarious, but that’s just me.