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Speaker 1: Secondary teachers say there's been a dramatic rise in extremism

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Speaker 1: among high school students, especially young boys. It includes the spread,

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Speaker 1: they say, of misogynistic views that are amplified by social

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Speaker 1: media figures like Andrew Tate. The Teacher Union wants the

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Speaker 1: government to do something about the whole thing. JILLIANE. Heather Is,

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Speaker 1: the chief executive of the Free Speech Union, is on

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Speaker 1: the line with us tonight.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Hi Ryan, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Jelane. What did you make of the comments today from

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Speaker 1: the PPTA.

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Speaker 2: I was, to be honest, I was a little confused

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Speaker 2: about the comments. I'm not at all downplaying that there

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Speaker 2: are issues that teaching is an incredibly tough and important job,

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Speaker 2: but it really seemed to be that these were the

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Speaker 2: ideas that they disagreed with. You know, they sort of

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Speaker 2: said that classrooms are not ideological battlegrounds, and they wanted

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Speaker 2: more the government to censor or prohibit certain views, and clearly,

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Speaker 2: with the Free Speech Union, that is absolutely something we

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Speaker 2: don't have cap for where where we're for more speech,

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Speaker 2: open discourse, more dialogue, and not censorship of ideas no

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Speaker 2: matter how bad they are.

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Speaker 1: One of the issues that was raised was that there

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Speaker 1: were boys apparently saying they were pro Trump or Trump boys,

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Speaker 1: COUMP supporters, and some girls who were saying that they

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Speaker 1: wanted to be their career choice would be traditional wives

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Speaker 1: or tradwives, in other words, staying at home, raising children,

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Speaker 1: getting married, that kind of stuff. Is there anything wrong

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Speaker 1: with that?

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Speaker 2: You literally are talking to the wrong person, Ryan. Those

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Speaker 2: are ideass kids are programmed to push back against the

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Speaker 2: ideas that the adults hold, the ideas that the generation

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Speaker 2: before them held. I think they were completely legitimate political

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Speaker 2: or vocational ideas that kids can hold. And what you

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Speaker 2: want to do if you disagree with those ideas is

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Speaker 2: engage with them, engage in counter speech, dismantle the ideas,

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Speaker 2: test them, get them to bring their receipts. You can't

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Speaker 2: censor those ideas. Surely.

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Speaker 1: What about social media? The other argument here is that

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Speaker 1: social media is making everything worse. You know, as you

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Speaker 1: say you're from the free speech Union, that's free speech

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Speaker 1: and action Jesus pretty ugly.

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Speaker 2: Look, I don't disagree at all that social media the

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Speaker 2: algorithms can bring out the worst and really amplify the worst.

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Speaker 2: You know, there are absolute legitimate concerns from many parents

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Speaker 2: and teachers, and you know, sort of that asymmetrical power

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Speaker 2: and balance between the tech platforms and kids. But again

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Speaker 2: we know from history censorship and prohibition just doesn't work.

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Speaker 2: You drive the ideas underground, you make them more enticing,

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Speaker 2: you give them that stride and effect. You know, what

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Speaker 2: you really want to do is engage with these ideas,

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Speaker 2: or if we're talking specifically about social media, you really

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Speaker 2: want to engage with more targeted school community education efforts,

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Speaker 2: enhance media literacy more soon, mention critical thinking skills, you know,

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Speaker 2: the ability to evaluate the evidence, give parents, give teachers,

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Speaker 2: and give the kids and hard skills to deal with

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Speaker 2: social media because it's not going away.

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Speaker 1: Julian appreciate that. Thank you. Julian Heather, Chief executive Free

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Speaker 1: Speech Union.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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