Shutting Up the Dissenters on Campus

[Adam's Apple]

Very interesting with lots of examples. Long article. Might want to print out to read.

Free Inquiry? Not on Campus
By John Leo, City Journal
Winter 2007

Remember when the Right had a near-monopoly on censorship? If so, you must be in your sixties, or older. Now the champions of censorship are mostly on the left. And they are thickest on the ground in our colleges and universities. Since the late 1980s, what should be the most open, debate-driven, and tolerant sector of society has been in thrall to the diversity and political correctness that now form the aggressive secular religion of America’s elites.

The censors have only grown in power, elevating antidiscrimination rules above “absolutist” free-speech principles, silencing dissent with antiharassment policies, and looking away when students bar or disrupt conservative speakers or steal conservative newspapers. Operating under the tacit principle that “error has no rights,” an ancient Catholic theological rule, the new censors aren’t interested in debates or open forums. They want to shut up dissenters.

for full article:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_free_speech.html

 

[William Joyce]

This was a big part of my own political evolution from high school liberal to college conservative. I am above all a free speech supporter, and what I noticed in college was that the liberals were the biggest censors. That just made me wonder what the conservatives were saying, and I started checking them out.

So censorship can backfire.

 

[Annie]

This was a big part of my own political evolution from high school liberal to college conservative. I am above all a free speech supporter, and what I noticed in college was that the liberals were the biggest censors. That just made me wonder what the conservatives were saying, and I started checking them out.

So censorship can backfire.

While I wouldn't go so far as agreeing with WJ, I will say that my first foray onto a college campus, pretty much switched me from very left leaning to working on Jim Thompson's campaign for governor. That was in the 70's and from what I've gleaned during master's, it's only gotten worse.

 

[DiogenesDog]

This was a big part of my own political evolution from high school liberal to college conservative. I am above all a free speech supporter, and what I noticed in college was that the liberals were the biggest censors. That just made me wonder what the conservatives were saying, and I started checking them out.

So censorship can backfire.

I do believe that you confused then and even now that a serious challenge from a professor or instructor for censorship when it was for the purpose of stimulating deeper thinking. You have mentioned law school, what school was that, Universidad Pinochet?

I AM

 

[William Joyce]

I do believe that you confused then and even now that a serious challenge from a professor or instructor for censorship when it was for the purpose of stimulating deeper thinking. You have mentioned law school, what school was that, Universidad Pinochet?

I AM

Dog, please. I can guarantee you that the University campus and its powers WERE NOT interested in "stimulating deeper thinking."

EXAMPLE: Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative-type, came to speak. The campus feminist brigade put flyers on every chair in the auditorium saying "Stop Rape" and "Dinesh D'Souza is a Rapist", etc., and stood outside near the line blowing whistles as loud as they could and screaming. Real great discussion, there. Meanwhile, I listened to the talk and I loved it.

Law School: I can assure you that law schools in America are just as hard-left as colleges and universities, with maybe 2-3 exceptions (for both). I was not a student at an exception school. It was very liberal, very Jewish and very much in the middle of New York. My Con Law prof was a Jewish near-Marxist who had worked for Legal Aid for most of his life, and he was actually pretty keen to discuss all angles... and was honest when he wasn't. When I was looking for a job, he talked to me about Legal Aid and recalled that the one case he couldn't defend was a black kid who'd shot two Holocaust survivors to death outside their bakery. "You don't survive the Holocaust and come to America to get shot like that," he said. Years later I thought, "Hey, why not an American vet who FOUGHT the Nazis?" Ah, never mind. Suffice it to say I've come to my pro-white views through the University of the Public Library, Internet, and Self-Directed Study, with tutorials from various radicals of the American right.

 

[glockmail]

WJ you're a radical man.

 

[Psychoblues]

Just what University were you attending, wj?

Dog, please. I can guarantee you that the University campus and its powers WERE NOT interested in "stimulating deeper thinking."

.

Were the basket weaving graduates and mud paint scholars too much for you to handle? Give me an institution of higher learning that does not challenge one to at least explain their perceptions or possibly create a new level of thinking is one that I do not believe should be accrediited.

Please, wj, share with us more on the ignorance as taught by your alma mater.

 

[Gunny]

Very interesting with lots of examples. Long article. Might want to print out to read.

Free Inquiry? Not on Campus
By John Leo, City Journal
Winter 2007

Remember when the Right had a near-monopoly on censorship? If so, you must be in your sixties, or older. Now the champions of censorship are mostly on the left. And they are thickest on the ground in our colleges and universities. Since the late 1980s, what should be the most open, debate-driven, and tolerant sector of society has been in thrall to the diversity and political correctness that now form the aggressive secular religion of America’s elites.

The censors have only grown in power, elevating antidiscrimination rules above “absolutist” free-speech principles, silencing dissent with antiharassment policies, and looking away when students bar or disrupt conservative speakers or steal conservative newspapers. Operating under the tacit principle that “error has no rights,” an ancient Catholic theological rule, the new censors aren’t interested in debates or open forums. They want to shut up dissenters.

for full article:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_free_speech.html

My tax dollars say that if students want to make political statements they cn take it to the nearest park or wherever they can get a permit to assemble. Public school campuses are NOT appropriate forums, IMO. Students are there to learn, not be immersed in, nor diseminate political rhetoric from either side.

 

[Psychoblues]

My tax dollars guarantee my freedom of speech wherever I might be but especially on a campus where my private dollars are spent whether subsidized or not by the US Government.

My tax dollars say that if students want to make political statements they cn take it to the nearest park or wherever they can get a permit to assemble. Public school campuses are NOT appropriate forums, IMO. Students are there to learn, not be immersed in, nor diseminate political rhetoric from either side.

You never went to anything beyond 7th grade civics, did you, gunny?

 

[Gunny]

My tax dollars guarantee my freedom of speech wherever I might be but especially on a campus where my private dollars are spent whether subsidized or not by the US Government.



You never went to anything beyond 7th grade civics, did you, gunny?

Kind of irrelevant to my statement, don't you think? You never made it to 7th grade reading and comprehension, did you psycho?

 

[CrpRavens30]

I graduated college a couple years ago and i remember i was usually the only vocal conservative in any of my classes.. Everytime one of my pinhead professors took an anti-american far left position i called them on it.. I learned very quickly that they have no patience to debate and only want to spout there views on others..

 

[pegwinn]

My tax dollars say that if students want to make political statements they cn take it to the nearest park or wherever they can get a permit to assemble. Public school campuses are NOT appropriate forums, IMO. Students are there to learn, not be immersed in, nor diseminate political rhetoric from either side.

Sad thing is that this even happens in Texas. Check it out.

My tax dollars guarantee my freedom of speech wherever I might be but especially on a campus where my private dollars are spent whether subsidized or not by the US Government.

You never went to anything beyond 7th grade civics, did you, gunny?

Uh, no sir. Actually the 1st Amendment only applies to the US Government unless there is a corresponding State Law. It especially doesn't apply on private property. The link I posted is a prime example about how it doesn't apply at a privately funded university.

 

[jillian]

Sad thing is that this even happens in Texas. Check it out.



Uh, no sir. Actually the 1st Amendment only applies to the US Government unless there is a corresponding State Law. It especially doesn't apply on private property. The link I posted is a prime example about how it doesn't apply at a privately funded university.

Well, yes...and no. It applies to privately funded universities IF they accept any government funding, State or Federal, if I recall correctly. It's why they can't push any one religion either.

 

[pegwinn]

Well, yes...and no. It applies to privately funded universities IF they accept any government funding, State or Federal, if I recall correctly. It's why they can't push any one religion either.

This is arguable. Why? Because the 1st Amendment doesn't say anything about taking money. In reality the law is read the way you mentioned it but that is because it has not been sufficiently challenged.