alh–Fair enough. We don’t yet know who they were (I would be happy to hear they are actors, but I doubt it).
This is unfortunately a very valid concern: http://www.techinsider.io/adrian-gee-blind-man-youtube-video-hoax-2015-11
I wondered if he edited out those who laughed at the notion of repealing the First Amendment. Surely there must have been some like that.
^^I truly hope incredulity was the most common response.
Nixon’s approval rating when he left office—when it was clear that he’d orchestrated a massive cover-up of a really fairly minor crime by using the levers of power to try to destroy both evidence and those who might have uncovered it!—was 24%.
Therefore, I agree with a number of political commentators who have posited that no matter how obviously wrong or stupid or evil or whatever an idea is, you can generally find at least 24% of the American public who agrees with it (and, by corollary, if you find less than that agreeing with you, you might want to reexamine your world).
Can I imagine 24% of the American public would like to see the first amendment repealed, or at least studied for serious modification? Sure. Why would that surprise anyone?
He says he got over 50 signatories in under 60 minutes. Possible, I suppose.
Yale’s student newspaper has nothing on the video. Yet. Wonder what their take will be.
^I keep logging in to check that out, too. 
I’m assuming those featured in the video saw the cameras.
I think there was something in the Register.
uses the words “purports” and “alleged”
Apparently it is difficult for some people here to admit that these students are not infallible.
This doesn’t really surprise me. People have been doing this sort of polling for years. Here’s a 1991 survey: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/us/poll-finds-only-33-can-identify-bill-of-rights.html
And if you are looking for another reason some might have signed the petition, maybe they just thought it was funny.
dfbdfb–24% of Americans asking for repeal of the first would greatly bother me, but I guess that is what you should expect of the general population. However, assuming they are not actors, finding 50 supporters for this position in one hour at YALE is far more troubling to me.
Oh I think we are all very fallible.
- And if you are looking for another reason some might have signed the petition, maybe they just thought it was funny. *
A possibility that had occurred to me, assuming they are really students and they see the cameras, is that they understand it as satire and play along with the joke, that they are being ironic.
I signed a petition the other day to outlaw dihydrogen monoxide in food production. Did you know it had the highest pH of any acid?
To the best of my acting abilities, my reaction was much the same as you see in the video. On the petition, I used the name and phone number of a friend in Norfolk, VA (sorry, Dave). I would assume some of the Yale students are less than genuine about it.
Lol, @Magnetron
typical backflips for any footage that show shows dopey lib students in a bad light
no surprise here
Okay–I find that funny, too, but to me, signing a petition to repeal the 1st would be as ugly/wrong/ frightening as signing a petition to ban an entire ethnic or religious group from Yale–losing the first is not a laughing matter. I couldn’t sign something like that in jest.
I tend to find lots of humor offensive these days.
How do you know they’re liberals? No, seriously—I’m always interested in hearing about others’ mind-reading abilities.
Yeah, maybe these were the conservative students of Yale–there are more than 50 of them, for sure.
If you could see the unedited footage, you’d most likely see the vast majority of students declining to engage with him at all.
If we don’t automatically believe everything we see in a video, is that evidence of kooky conspiracist tendencies? or some light weight version of critical thinking?
One Yale prof apparently thinks these are really Yale students. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/17/first-amendment-repeal-video-sad-commentary-yale-professor-says.html
“The collection of 50 Yalie signatures for a petition to repeal the First Amendment is a sad commentary on the present state of public opinion…This is a moment at which fundamental principles are under assault from both the left and the right.” - Bruce Ackerman (ConLaw Prof at Yale)