Greg Lukianoff calls the Trump administration's campaign against the press, including excluding Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House pool, the most important free speech issue today.
Lukianoff's biggest fear is that power uses AI regulation to control AI's knowledge function and decide what is true, and he favours Karl Popper's disconfirmation model over Foucault's.
Lukianoff says FIRE's survey of nearly 63,000 students across 262 schools shows leadership matters most, with Vanderbilt rising to about fifth nationally under Daniel Diermeyer.
Lukianoff says political power is now free speech's biggest threat
Free speech pressure is shifting toward political power, from the White House fight with the press to politicians targeting universities and the possible control of what AI treats as true. Lukianoff holds that private actors may exclude speakers, but suppression backfires and consistent institutions earn credibility. Campus rankings show that leadership and steady rules make the difference.
Takeaways
Press campaign is the top free speech issue. Lukianoff points to Trump's broader campaign against the media, including excluding Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House press pool. He says the wider campaign matters more than any single exclusion, and both men see it as distinct from private disputes.
AI regulation could let power define truth. Lukianoff says AI regulation could boost or wreck free inquiry. His biggest fear is power taking control of AI's knowledge function and deciding what is true. He prefers Karl Popper's disconfirmation, with AI as a distributed system for finding what is not true.
Private venues may exclude, but bans backfire. Lukianoff says the First Amendment protects Robert Kraft barring Macklemore, yet squelching viewpoints makes them more intense and sends a poor message. Galloway agrees venues can refuse anyone, but says a healthier culture would simply stop buying tickets.
Campus leadership and consistency drive free speech rankings. FIRE surveyed nearly 63,000 students at 262 schools. Vanderbilt rose to about fifth and Dartmouth to the top under strong leadership. Virginia succeeded by consistently banning indefinite encampments, while NYU finished last after New York schools alternated between tolerance and crackdowns.
Politicians are now the top source of campus censorship. FIRE counted 184 de-platforming attempts on campus speakers in 2025 and 172 this year, with more now from the right. Lukianoff says both sides still act, but politicians, emboldened since Trump took office, became the top source of campus censorship in 2025.
Kirk's murder exposed failures on both sides. Lukianoff criticised Kirk for disrespecting scholars' speech but was impressed by his patience debating students. He says Kirk was murdered for arguing, and faults the right for punishing insensitive comments and the left for suggesting he had it coming.
Lukianoff's higher education reform ideas
Replace tenure with five-year contracts, drawing on Meghan McCartle's view that tenure selects for complacency and timidity. FIRE itself takes no position beyond barring firings for political viewpoints.
In his book The Academic Filibuster, create counter departments that test a department's empirical assumptions and add structured friction.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
Make a year of work or national service before college mandatory or preferred, to build resilience in students.
Galloway, newly on the UC Regents, calls tenure bloat and Latin for student debt. He adds that private institutions can fire faculty who voice hateful views.