The Case Against Free Speech: P. E. Moskowitz & Jake Flores @ Bookstore Cafe

By Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe

Aug 20  |  Community

The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent – Soho Events

P. E. Moskowitz presents their critical debate on free speech with Jake Flores, co-host of Pod Damn America.

A hard-hitting exposé that shines a light on the powerful conservative forces that have waged a multi-decade battle to hijack the meaning of free speech—and how we can reclaim it.

There’s a critical debate taking place over one of our most treasured rights: free speech. We argue about whether it’s at risk, whether college students fear it, whether neo-Nazis deserve it, and whether the government is adequately upholding it.

But as writer & journalist P. E. Moskowitz (How to Kill a City) shows in The Case Against Free Speech, the term has been defined and redefined to suit those in power, and in recent years, it has been captured by the right to push their agenda. What’s more, our investment in the First Amendment obscures an uncomfortable truth: free speech is impossible in an unequal society where a few corporations and the ultra-wealthy bankroll political movements, millions of voters are disenfranchised, and our government routinely silences critics of racism and capitalism.

Moskowitz will be joined in discussion by Jake Flores, creator and host of radical political comedy podcast Pod Damn America.

P. E. Moskowitz is the author of How to Kill a City. A former staff writer for Al Jazeera America, they have written for publications such as the Guardian, The New York Times, TheNewYorker.com, New Republic, Wired, Slate, Buzzfeed, Splinter, & Vice. A graduate of Hampshire College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, they live in New Orleans.

Jake Flores’ material has gotten him raided by the government, retweeted by everyone from Tom Morello to Bette Midler, and published in The New York Times. His stuff has been quoted on CNN by Wolf Blitzer and taught at Yale. He has appeared on The Majority Report, Chapo Trap House, Cumtown, Fun Fun Fun Fest, SXSW, Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, Comedy Cellar Radio and has been shouted out on The Joe Rogan Experience and The Doug Stanhope Podcast. He has toured around the country and opened for Doug Stanhope, Tig Notaro, Greg Fitzsimmons, Jim Norton, Felipe Esparza and Patton Oswalt He’s signed to Stand Up! Records and tours regularly while not running his popular Brooklyn show, Yoko. Previously the author of The Observer’s satire column “A Millennial Reviews,” he’s currently the creator and host of radical political comedy podcast Pod Damn America.

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