# Coming Soon: The Real Free Speech Threat

An episode of [Drilled](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439735906), 15 Aug 2023, 3:21.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/pdrl.fm/3e5572/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/9a7ab5ee-ce11-48ff-a544-b3ec00ea9b1e/e08f0eb2-d71b-47ba-91fc-b3ec00efd282/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f82f371-6316-4ea6-a108-b3ec00ea9b2d

Around the world, environmental protesters are facing escalating repression—from harsh laws with life-altering prison sentences to fines to protesters arreseted near "critical infrastructure" to violent attacks. Corporations are suing protestors and NGOs, comparing protest to organized crime. Governments are growing increasingly comfortable branding environmental protestors as “domestic terrorists.” The media is largely participating in the rhetorical “othering” of protestors, opting in most cases to focus on the disruption that protest causes rather than the change it seeks. In our new season, we take an an in-depth look at how climate protest has evolved in recent years, where this backlash is coming from, how it’s grown so quickly, and what it feels like to be someone who’s concerned enough about the future of humanity to join a protest, only to find themselves facing violence and legal ramifications. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Lately, when we hear about free speech, it's usually stuff
[0:09] Speaker 1: like this. These companies went on a rampage deep platform
[0:12] Speaker 1: and conservatives, beginning with at the time the sitting President
[0:15] Speaker 1: of the United States. But there is an actual free
[0:19] Speaker 1: speech threat happening right now, and it's not about people
[0:23] Speaker 1: being able to spread lies or insults with no consequences.
[0:28] Speaker 1: I'm talking about the way governments all over the world
[0:31] Speaker 1: are suppressing environmental protests.
[0:36] Speaker 2: Are you telling the dogs to bite the protest The
[0:41] Speaker 2: dog has blood and its nose in its mouth.
[0:43] Speaker 1: You can see the access since just the oil. I've
[0:45] Speaker 1: just been dragged away by police, very quickly, bundled into
[0:49] Speaker 1: the van. This isn't new. Anytime environmental activists have succeeded,
[0:55] Speaker 1: there's backlash, and sometimes it's violent.
[0:59] Speaker 2: Judy Barry, with a partner off to go and address
[1:01] Speaker 2: a rally, got into the car and a bomb exploited
[1:05] Speaker 2: in the car.
[1:08] Speaker 1: In many parts of the world, the assassination of environmental activists, journalists,
[1:12] Speaker 1: and lawyers has been far too common for far too long.
[1:17] Speaker 3: In these struggles, many people were assassinated, many people were
[1:21] Speaker 3: wounded almongst them. My mother, Berta Casaidz, she was murdered
[1:25] Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen. I guess, I mean he didn't understand
[1:31] Speaker 3: what he was up against until the actual night that
[1:35] Speaker 3: he was killed.
[1:39] Speaker 1: Still, what we're seeing now feels new. Nowhere is safe,
[1:44] Speaker 1: No one is safe, even in countries like the United States,
[1:47] Speaker 1: which has the broadest free speech protections in the world.
[1:52] Speaker 2: I have no idea what to expect for the next
[1:55] Speaker 2: decade of my life.
[1:56] Speaker 4: When I went to surrender to the FBI, I thought
[2:00] Speaker 4: it was going to be kind of a straightforward, more
[2:04] Speaker 4: of a like a clerical matter, But I ended up
[2:07] Speaker 4: being put into shackles.
[2:09] Speaker 1: And the attacks are more coordinated than ever, more widespread,
[2:14] Speaker 1: not just on people who show up at protests, but
[2:17] Speaker 1: on lawyers, journalists, and nonprofits too. It's almost like the largest,
[2:22] Speaker 1: most powerful industry in the history of the world is
[2:26] Speaker 1: fighting for its future, and its biggest opponents are the
[2:29] Speaker 1: people fighting for theirs.
[2:32] Speaker 2: So anyone who opens their mouth to express an opinion
[2:37] Speaker 2: about the climate crisis is a potential target for retaliation
[2:45] Speaker 2: by the industry and their government and financial enablers.
[2:49] Speaker 1: Who feel threatened. Over the next several months will be
[2:53] Speaker 1: investigating those attacks, revealing the people, companies, and politicians behind
[2:59] Speaker 1: them and highlighting the people who are fighting back. Because
[3:03] Speaker 1: you can't have climate action without democracy, we can't have
[3:07] Speaker 1: democracy without free speech. Join us for our new season,
[3:12] Speaker 1: The Real Free Speech Threat, wherever you get your podcasts,

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