Activists and organizations should not self-censor about Gaza or other political issues regardless of costs, as self-censorship defeats the entire purpose of having a platform; there is not enough real power behind Trump's executive orders to enforce many of these directives.

normativepending

Speaker

Ben Rhodes

Evidence Quote

I made a decision like a few years ago to not self-censor on anything you know um I have some views that are not that helpful to some future confirmation hearings um and guess what like nobody showed up and arrested US you know yet uh and and our audience got bigger um and I still got invited to play like there's people like these systems are designed to make you self-censor now but the moment you allow that to happen it's over you know it really is it's not worth it

Source

Ben Rhodes: The Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign PolicyWeatherhead Center for International Affairs
Created: 8/11/2026, 7:39:48 AM

My Notes

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