https://youtu.be/WSCTJ5fxqq8

Podcast audio:

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Sam Weaver discuss how the introduction of both the Ten Commandments and DEI into the public school system represents an assault on intellectual freedom.

Among the topics covered:

How recent public-school mandates in Louisiana and Oklahoma use force to promote religion;

Why the mandates are an assault on the First Amendment and our founding ideals;

How the left pushes its ideas in public schools;

Why efforts on both sides should be understood as an assault on intellectual freedom;

Why the public education system necessarily leads to ideological disputes;

How tribalism drives religious mandates.

Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essay “The Establishing of an Establishment” in Philosophy: Who Needs It, Tara Smith’s book The First Amendment: Essays on the Imperative of Intellectual Freedom, Harry Binswanger’s article “The Ten Commandments vs. America,” and the New Ideal Live episode on “What’s Wrong with California’s Ethnic Studies Mandate?”

The podcast was recorded on August 7, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Watch archived podcasts here.

Image credit: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock.com.