Rubin Report - Dave Rubin - Dave Rubin on George Carlin, Free Speech & Political Correctness | DIRECT MESSAGE | Rubin Report
Aired: 2015-10-22
Duration: 03:05


=== Connecting Through Comedy (03:02) ===

[00:00:02]  My guest this week is Kelly Carlin, daughter of the legendary comedian George Carlin.
[00:00:06]  Kelly is an author and a speaker whose work connects many of the dots her father's life was all about.
[00:00:11]  I've known Kelly for about four years now after connecting with her on Twitter because of how much I admired her dad.
[00:00:17]  We've become great friends.
[00:00:18]  Kelly has welcomed me into her world and the comedy community she's part of here in LA.
[00:00:23]  I thought Kelly would be the perfect guest this week, not only because of her new book about growing up as a Carlin, but also because of all the issues her father's comedy was about that have become central themes of what we do here on this show.
[00:00:35]  George Carlin was a relentless defender of free speech, using words and language to push the limits of what society found acceptable at the time.
[00:00:43]  He railed against political correctness like no other comic before or anybody since.
[00:00:47]  He dissected the absurdities of life that ultimately bring us together rather than rip
[00:00:52]  us apart.
[00:00:53]  I can't tell you how often I'm watching some campaign nonsense or some ridiculous
[00:00:57]  politically correct crusade and think, "Man, I wish George Carlin was still alive to tackle
[00:01:01]  this."
[00:01:02]  Not only do I want you to see George Carlin in a new way by sitting down with Kelly, but
[00:01:06]  I also want to use our chat as a living, breathing example of something else that's going on
[00:01:12]  As I mentioned, Kelly and I met on Twitter.
[00:01:14]  All I was to her was another person tweeting at her and 140 characters who had some connection to her father like millions of other people.
[00:01:21]  But through social media, we met, we became friends, and now we share so much of our lives and our passions together.
[00:01:27]  To me, that's what's so cool about what's happening here with you guys.
[00:01:30]  The reaction to what we're doing has gotten to a whole new level.
[00:01:33]  I've been getting emails from literally all over the world, from Denmark to Saudi Arabia to Mexico.
[00:01:38]  We're connecting because of the same ideas that George believed in, which I believe in, and which you believe in.
[00:01:44]  By the way, that doesn't mean that we agree on everything.
[00:01:46]  Actually, in almost every email I get that's heaping praise on me, you guys manage to tell me something that we disagree on.
[00:01:52]  I love that.
[00:01:53]  That's what this is all about, and it's precisely what the far right and the regressive left fear.
[00:01:59]  If the rest of us can wake up and realize that we can come together despite differences, then they can't control us.
[00:02:04]  It's really as simple as that.
[00:02:06]  The authoritarians that exist on both sides want control, and the best way to do that is to keep everyone hating on each other all the time.
[00:02:14]  For all the things that Milo Yiannopoulos and I disagreed on, this is one spot we had total agreement.
[00:02:20]  The Rise of the Cultural Libertarians is here, and it contains people from all over the cultural map, from Chris Rock to Bill Maher, from Maajid Nawaz to Sam Harris.
[00:02:29]  If George Carlin was still around, I think he would fit right in there, but would have also been sure to make fun of any group that would have accepted him as part of it.
[00:02:37]  The point of all this is that every week, actually every day that I've been doing this show, I see this movement getting stronger.
[00:02:43]  You guys are not only connecting with me, but with each other.
[00:02:46]  And now when I see the usual regressives spout off their nonsense, there's an army of people calling them out on it.
[00:02:52]  That is literally as important as anything that I do.
[00:02:55]  George Carlin's most famous routine was the seven dirty words you can't say on TV.
[00:02:59]  We live in a time that's getting dangerously close to the several dirty ideas that you can't challenge publicly.