Ed Helms

So obviously, this is a bit of a middle finger to the Constitution.

Carol, why do we do this?

Why do we keep convincing ourselves in scary times that free speech is the problem and that maybe silencing people and banning books will somehow make our problems go away?

We're going to walk through all of it.

We're going to get there.

We're going to get there.

I'm just wondering, right out of the gate before this even happened, free speech was just sort of thrown under the bus.

Like and it just it is to Kara's point, it's something we just keep returning to.

That is spot on.

And this is what we're about to dive into is actually the the first what's what's referred to as the first red scare.

The McCarthy era was was the second red scare.

True.

Let's jump ahead now to 1919.

The war has ended, which sounds great, but the national mood is actually very dark.

In fact, America is basically a pressure cooker with the lid barely holding on.

Factories that thrived in wartime production are shuttering everywhere.

Wages are plunging.

Prices are soaring.

Four million soldiers are limping home, wounded, traumatized, and finding themselves jobless, wondering what the hell they'd fought for.

Add to all this a monstrous pandemic situation.