This week on The Knight Tube, Stephen Knight (@Gspellchecker) is joined by Dr. Lyell Asher. Dr. Asher is an American English teacher and has become increasingly concerned about the stifling of free expression on American campuses and the spread of illiberal ideologies. He’s recently fronted a documentary titled ‘Why colleges are becoming cults’ which can be found on YouTube.

You can watch the video version of this interview on YouTube: www.youtube.com/gspellchecker

Watch ‘Why colleges are becoming cults’ on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAqDwn_Q-QQ

0:00 Intro 0:18 About Dr Lyell Asher 2:13 Why take the risk of speaking up publicly? 5:28 Which incidents inspired action? 08:37 The ‘N-word’ and a focus on ‘impact’ over ‘intention’. 15:31 How are you defining ‘woke’? 19:53 Why is progress not being acknowledged? Why is there a new obsession with race? 25:56 Why are students imposing speech codes and illiberal ideology on themselves? 30:49 How do we know we aren’t just grumpy old men that need to get with it? 36:31 Do you use social media? 38:16 Authoritarian tactics and redefining words as violence. 42:03 Have the right taken ownership of defending free speech? 46:32 American speech rights compared to UK ‘hate speech’ laws. 52:19 The importance of which method of reading is taught in schools.

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