Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 863, Limiting Free Speech.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 863.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there and become a member of ESL Podcast.
If you do, you can download a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Toshi and Celeste about freedom of speech.
Let's get started.
You can't go outside looking like that.
What are you thinking?
I'm exercising my right of free speech.
I've put on these clothes and painted my body this way to protest the treatment of women.
I want to send a message.
You're crazy if you think people are going to take you seriously.
What you're wearing is offensive and those messages painted on your body are hate speech.
It's my basic human right to a freedom of expression and this is how I choose to express myself.
There are limits to free speech and expression and you've crossed the line.
In fact, you're abusing those rights.
Obscenity and hate speech aren't protected, you know.
If you feel so strongly about it, I have a suggestion for you.
What?
You can express your free speech by protesting against me.
After all, it's your inalienable right.
Hey, you're not really going outside looking like that, are you?
You know what they say.
The medium is the message.
And I'm sending my message loud and clear.
Our dialogue begins with Toshi saying to Celeste, you can't go outside looking like that.
What are you thinking?
We're not sure what Celeste looks like, but Toshi doesn't like it.
Celeste says, I'm exercising my right of free speech.
To exercise, E-X-E-R-C-I-S-E, here means to use.
Usually, to use your abilities or your rights or your privileges to do something.
The verb to exercise is often used with the word right or rights.
In referring to your ability to do things that you are legally allowed to do.
The right of free speech is the legally protected ability that you have to give your opinion, to express your ideas in public.
Of course, that's not always true in every situation.
In general, that's the meaning of the term free speech, the ability to say what you want.
Free here doesn't mean the opposite of expensive or having to pay for it.
It means that you have the freedom, that you are allowed to say what you want.
That's what we mean by free speech.
Celeste says I've put on these clothes and painted my body, put colored paint on her body this way to protest the treatment of women.
To protest P-R-O-T-E-S-T means to fight against something, to express your disagreement of something, usually in public.
Celeste says I want to send a message, meaning I want to communicate my opinion, my ideas, to someone else, in this case to people who see her at this protest.
That I guess she's going to.
Toshi says, you're crazy if you think people are going to take you seriously.
You're crazy means that you have lost your mind, that you are not thinking properly.
You're crazy if you think people are going to take you seriously, Toshi says.
To take someone seriously means to consider what another person is doing or saying and thinking that it's a serious message.
You don't think that they're silly or stupid or foolish.
To take something seriously can also mean to treat it as though it is an important thing, not just to ignore it or to think oh, that's not important.
Toshi says what you're wearing is offensive and those messages painted on your body are hate speech.
If something is offensive, O-F-F-E-N-S-I-V-E, it's something that is insulting.
It hurts other people's feelings.
It might be rude.
It might make other people mad or upset.
All of those things could be considered offensive.
Hate speech is a relatively new idea, that words that express very bad, negative things about other people because of certain characteristics they have should somehow be treated differently than other opinions.
So there's free speech, which is the freedom to say what you want.
Now people, some people talk about hate speech, which are things that you should not be allowed to say because they are so offensive to other people.
Celeste says, it's my basic human right to freedom of expression.
The term human right refers to something that everyone should be allowed to do, no matter where you are, where you live, what government you have.
That would be a human right.
Not everyone agrees on what those rights are, but most people believe that there are things such as human rights that everyone should have.
Celeste believes that one of her basic, one of her fundamental, one of her most important human rights is freedom of expression.
Freedom of expression is just another word for freedom of speech.
This is how I choose to express myself.
Expression can actually mean a little bit more than just speech in the sense of words.
Expression might also include your actions, or in this case, how you dress or don't dress.
Toshi says there are limits, there are restrictions to free speech and expression and you've crossed the line.
The phrase to cross the line means to go too far, to go beyond what you are allowed to do or what you should do.
Toshi says, in fact, you're abusing those rights.
To abuse, A-B-U-S-E, means to use something for the wrong purpose.
Perhaps to use too much of something or to hurt someone in some way that you do not have the right to do.
That you should not do.
Toshi thinks that Celeste is abusing her right of free speech.
He says, obscenity and hate speech aren't protected, you know.
Obscenity, O-B-S-C-E-N-I-T-Y, refers to words, images, or actions that are considered very rude, very offensive, especially when it refers to sex or sexuality.
Obscenity is one of those things that is very difficult to define.
There's been a debate in the United States for many years about what obscenity is.
One of the famous quotes from the Supreme Court.
One of the justices on the Supreme Court about what obscenity is and how to define it, was I know it when I see it.
In other words, he couldn't give a definition of obscenity, but he knew what obscenity was when he saw it.
A lot of people were not very happy with that definition, but that's what he said.
Obscenity and hate speech, Toshi says, aren't protected.
Protected means that the law allows you to do something, that the law prevents you from being punished because of your actions.
In this case, your speech.
Toshi says that obscenity and hate speech aren't protected, meaning you're not allowed to do that and call it free speech.
Celeste says if you feel so strongly about it, if you have such a strong opinion about it, I have a suggestion for you.
Toshi says, what?
Celeste says, you can express your free speech by protesting against me.
After all, it's your inalienable right.
Inalienable, I-N-A-L-I-E-N-A-B-L-E, is something that cannot be taken away from a person.
The word was famously used in the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, saying that the American colonies were no longer going to be part of Great Britain.
The colonists, the people who lived in the American colonies, had inalienable rights, rights that Great Britain could not take away from them.
Jefferson named three life, liberty or freedom and the pursuit of happiness, the right to be able to find things that make you happy.
Toshi says, I'm not wasting my time.
Hey, you're not really going outside looking like that, are you?
Celeste says, you know what they say.
The medium is the message.
And I'm sending my message loud and clear.
The phrase the medium is the message says was used famously by the Canadian writer and philosopher Marshall McLuhan back in the 1960s to mean that the way that a message is delivered affects its meaning, that a message changes depending on how the message is communicated, how it is delivered.
That's a very simple explanation of what McLuhan was talking about.
Celeste says the medium is the message, meaning I'm going to send a message by the way I'm dressed.
She says she's sending her message loud and clear.
Loud and clear means everyone can understand it.
There's nothing hidden.
It's easy to understand.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm exercising my right of free speech.
I put on these clothes and painted my body this way to protest the treatment of women.
I want to send a message.
You're crazy if you think people are going to take you seriously.
What you're wearing is offensive and those messages painted on your body are hate speech.
It's my basic human right to a freedom of expression and this is how I choose to express myself.
There are limits to free speech and expression and you've crossed the line.
In fact, you're abusing those rights.
Obscenity and hate speech aren't protected, you know.
What?
You can express your free speech by protesting against me.
After all, it's your inalienable right.
I'm not wasting my time.
Hey, you're not really going outside looking like that, are you?
You know what they say, the medium is the message, and I'm sending my message loud and clear.
Our scriptwriter takes her job very seriously.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
