The lecture will examine the plausibility of contradictory assessments of public communication in Germany: On the one hand, certain actors claim that you are not allowed to express your opinion freely in Germany without fear of being excluded from the discourse. There is a cancel culture that mercilessly bans unwelcome opinions from the discourse. On the other hand, we hear complaints about the brutalization of discourse. This brutalization also manifests itself in the fact that the boundaries of what can be said are being pushed further and further and ultimately abolished. Against this backdrop, the question of the state of public communication in Germany will be explored: What does freedom of expression mean and to what extent is it actually under threat? How can the boundaries of what can be said be determined and who has the power to shift them?

Organizer: Department of Cultural and Social Sciences

Contact: ksw-macht-worte@rptu.de