Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:18 — 15.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS

The so-called “Cancel Culture” seeks to silence divergent voices, and among those who are being squeezed are today’s humorists.

Comedy outlets — from television shows to magazines to stand-up clubs to websites — are facing increasing pressure to “toe the line” drawn by the “powers that be”.

One proponent of free speech is the leader of the satirical humor website The Babylon Bee. CEO Seth Dillon talks about political speech, social commentary, and the context of public dialogue in our culture. In this special Family Life Interview, Dillon tells about how The Bee was booted off of what was then called Twitter, after it posted a joke about a White House advisor.

Dillon talks about:

• How humor is one of the best ways to speak the truth, especially when many others aren’t
• Why many people — with public roles or not — have been frightened or shamed into silence
• The state of comedy today, and what it says about us
• Highlights of The Bee’s absurd jokes … which ended up becoming true, which he considers absurd.
• Why TV shows, writers and online comedians need to skewer the foibles of Democrats and Republicans and social movements of all types.

 

Seth Dillon says his experience with deplatforming and censorship has placed him on the front lines of the battle for free speech in the public square. In addition to owning and writing for The Bee, Dillon travels the country to speak at conferences and college campuses about the effectiveness of humor, the “moral imperative of mockery”, and the dangers of silencing competing voices. Some of his videos are posted here. The website started as a Christian satire e-publication.

Dillon is in Pennsylvania next week to speak at the “Friends of the Family” Banquet of the Pennsylvania Family Institute. His presentation is Monday, November 6, at Hershey.