Professor Arif Ahmed | This House Believes in the Right to Offend

Professor Ahmed is a genuine living hero of free speech.

Very broad statement that “right to offend” phrase.

Offensive sniggering and playing with iPhones in the background. Poor manners if nothing else

Love watching Dr. Ahmed speak at these events. Look forward to seeing more of him

I can’t believe people are looking at their phones at such an interesting debate!

That absurd heckling!

I cross swords with Arif metaphysically, but here i agree with him and Stock.

How difficult is to buy a well fitting suit and a correct size of collar for one's shirt ... very distracting
Even M&S sell them...

Biology is not offensive. Get a grip

Let him speak and after he finishes ask questions.

The two twelve year olds in the background should have been removed. They don’t belong in there. One had a pot belly so is obviously a well educated top class athlete. The other’s spots will go away when he is older.

His intellect is wasted on many of the people present. He presents well and the interruptions were banal and ego driven

If i dont have the right to offend .... then i no longer have the right to speak the truth.
Its called : dictatorship.

What a pointless, stupid, sense free topic. Right to offend? Laughter.
This right does not exists, has never existed and will never. To be easily offended .... that is a true state of mind. Weak people, weak nerves, soft cry babies are found all over the world.
It takes courage and a proud true heart to speak up, speak out.
Oh , by the way, its one of the pillars of our democracy. Its called : free speech.

So ..... speak up .... please offend me and deliver your facts, your proof, your theory.

Brilliant.

I always believed in free speech, but in present times find it potentially VERY dangerous in some circumstances. Today the alt right (further right) & far right, and a group of dictatorships are on the rise. By taking advantage of our free speech, online, in unis, etc, they plan to get in power.

And the right, and further right, tend to become more to the right over time, I believe. This leads us to a world ultimately dominated by totalitarian dictatorships, which brook no democracy, no dissension, very corrupt (reducing infrastructure inc.emergency safety, creativity, technological achievement in most forms, and treating people like dirt on the whim of one man - per nation).

I believe by letting China get powerful we have magnified world problems many times over, and find this prospect more worrying than climate change even. What's the point in living somewhere more nature filled (for a while under them), when you have very few rights, everyone is scamming each other, the leader/ government can change the law unexpectedly and you find yourself in trouble (which could be really bad under them), etc

My friend and I talked about China when I was 13 years old or so. I remember him saying how we we (the collective West) were helping China (an authoritarian regime) become more powerful. I said that that was a TERRIBLE expletive idea. He defended it, saying the experts agree that we should, that their system would evolve to be more like us. And I said something like 'and experts are sometimes idi ots". I respect people with learnedness, while also not seeming to do so at times, as I don't care to act submissiveness to 'superiors' in debating something. And on the topic of China I was completely right.

Totalitarian dictatorships are the main problem. The more immediate potential threat. Everyone probably knows this deep down, even non totalitarian dictatorships. Difference is, I believe non totalitarian dictatorships and the alt right don't mind if democracies get conquered/killed by their totalitarian buddies, as it buys them time - they are, for a while at least, not the ones being attacked.

Every election from now on is going to carry a huge risk of someone getting into power who cements his (or her) power base, and turns full dictator. I believe that this is more common to those on the right but not exclusive to. Devious power hungry people (wannabe dictators) may occasionally pretend to be a leftie. Or be bought off by a foreign malign entity.