Often when we hear the term speakeasy, we think of the prohibitionist era a time when people sneaked into underground swanky bars and secretively sipped interesting concoctions of alcohol. The principles that surrounded the rise of Speakeasies in America, are the same reason why we started our SPEAK EASY!
What caused Speak Easy?
When the US Government outlawed Alcohol, that did not take away the demand for this addictive good, and we saw the prop up of illegal secretive bars where people indulged in drinking Alcohol. For us as Students in the 21st century, we have our parallels. As I have witnessed first-hand, students across the country are seeing their mainstream ideas becoming indirectly banned by their establishment, the Students Union.
Most know me, as the young man who invited Baroness Claire Fox to my university, Royal Holloway to discuss the importance of debating. Student activists lobbied our Student Union to pressure the debating society to disinvite Baroness Fox. On the premise that her support of Gender Critical views highlighted by her retweet of a Ricky Gervais joke is a danger to the LGBT community. Unfortunately, this instance of cancelling speakers for holding views that disagree with progressive illiberal is not a one-off but something that has consistently happened.
This has led many students to feel that their free speech faces illegitimate restrictions, in the same way, many people in the states felt alcohol has wrongfully been banned and had no choice but to go to these underground bars. All of these numerous examples have led students to believe that they need a place like Speak Easy. A place where they can sneak into underground swanky student rooms and secretively sip the interesting concoction of free speech discussions.
Why SPEAKEASY is important?
Alcohol was banned because of the negative externalities it had on communities because of its overconsumption and by banning it the state is protecting the welfare of its citizens. Likewise, Student unions and student activist believes in cancelling and discouraging the spread of views that disagree with their protectionist dogma on marginalised communities like gender critical views or sceptics of critical race theory (CRT). They are protecting the well-being of all its students and ensuring that all students feel like they are safe from “dangerous ideas|”. This is often repeated through the mantra of being gender critical is transphobicand in some cases tantamount to trans genocide and being a sceptic of CRT makes you a racist.
What many of these activist fails to realise is that cancelling events involving speakers who are critical of those beliefs not only cancel proponents of those ideas but also proponents of trans ideology and critical race theory who want to have a chance to formally meet and debate the other side. I know this because when I was organising the invitation of Baroness Fox, I knew some students who are keen members of the LGBT community who wanted to use this opportunity as a way to debate Baroness Fox on her Gender Critical views and were hoping that they could be the student to defeat a Baroness in verbal conquest. A dream for many students, especially debaters. However, when Baroness Fox was cancelled, it was not only her and her supporters who were cancelled from engaging in this discussion but her critics as well.
What is the purpose of Speakeasy?
What Speak Easy aims to do is be a place irrespective of your beliefs, to be a place where you can have free discussions without judgements. A place where people who sit on the opposite spectrum of each other, can look each other in the eye and vigorously criticise their “opponents' views” with the hope of sharing a pint afterwards with respect. Universities aim to be a place where you can challenge each other's ideas and for many, it's an introduction to difficult ideas that’s what Speak EASY aims to achieve. A place where students have discussions and through these discussions grow into more refined people.
It is ironic that because of the prohibitionist era, female rights to publicly drink increased as prior females were discouraged from drinking in public settings like bars. However, Speakeasies actively encouraged female patrons. I believe that through the promotion of a diversity of legal views, we will see an increase in the equality of students rather than stoke division in this pointless culture war and more inclusion in academic spaces. Something that the progressive illiberals claim to want but actively has created an atmosphere where they exclude dissenters, and only promote diversity that they agree with. Speak Easy stands for the chance for students to speak easy about an array of topics. Something that Academia was created to do.