I think it is concerning, primarily because of what appears to be a persistently monolithic political culture on campus. In a system where the allowable opinions range from moderate democrat to liberal progressive, there are always going to be some who push the envelope. I just doubt that there are enough people with such extreme opinions, even on a college campus, to really force their opinions on others.
So, this begs the all important question: Did sponge bob SquarePants sign the petition or not?
The following is a Facebook post from one of the students featured in Mr. Horowitz’s video, which tells the story behind it differently. I am not a friend with this student - another parent whose kid is Facebook friend with the student sent me a screen capture, so I just re-typed to share his post here - I hope it is okay with him, but I absolutely think it is necessary to get his words out:
"This video just came to my attention, and my immediate reaction is outrage and frustration. i was asked about this petition and have been included in this video, but what Mr. Horowitz has presented is a blatantly false narrative of actually occurred. It is clear to me that this is an intentional misrepresentation, with the purpose of advancing a political agenda and narrative. When I was coming out of the dining hall, a friend and I were stopped by this man, who asked if we could spare a few minutes to talk. Both of us being in a rush, didn’t want to engage in a debate, so when he said he wanted to REPEAL THE FIRST AMENDMENT, I had absolutely no interest in being lectured by a crazy man in the middle of reading week and finals. So, thinking he was just a crazy guy with a clipboard and not a man with camera, I told him, “This is fantastic, I absolutely agree. I don’t agree with your approach however, but I appreciate what you are doing here. Good luck.” Then I walked away. My hope was that by showing tacit support for his position, he wouldn’t follow me or insist that I stay and debate him.
Now this is not what the video shows. Of course in the video, they have conveniently left out when I said I disagreed with his approach (i.e. to repeal the first amendment…). The editing of the video deliberately misconstructs what happened, and I am positive that Mr. Horowitz is very cognizant of this. In fact, it clearly seems to be his objective: to push his narrative. While I can only speak for myself, I am very compelled to believe that a similar twisting of the truth was done for the 3 second soundbites he has of the other people in the video… I am disgusted with the way that Horowitz has taken my words and negated my position just so he can rack up the views on a video and bait an audience into believing what he is selling. What I find most upsetting though, is that this video is featured on the FRONT PAGE of Fox News. How dare you, this is not only shameful, but false journalism".
I back in my day attended one of the most progressive universities in the country. I’m fairly conservative and was most certainly the odd man out on the political spectrum. What I see different today than back then is the absolute intolerance. Its my way or the high way. My voice was never silenced, I was not ridiculed and it meant class and outside of class made for interesting discussion.
This is not happening at crazy universities but rather mainstream. Harvard with the place mats, University of Missouri with the professor calling for thugs to remove the student reporter, and countless other schools. Everything is turning into a micoagression from hats to food. This atmosphere does not create for debate but rather to shut down ideas. So now many students are keeping their conservative ideas to themselves or to an inner circle of people, dividing campuses and this nation. The first amendment sadly is not protecting free speech for those who dissent. To speak up against what’s going on can easily put one front and center to a character assasination. Fear is now keeping opinions and ideas silenced.
Fear has always kept some opinions and ideas silenced, usually just not those of individuals in the dominant group. Please correct me if I am wrong, but free speech doesn’t mean someone has to politely listen to you. It just means you get to talk. Criticism and ridicule of your ideas is free speech. Yelling at you is free speech. Bad manners is different than free speech.
I may not have remembered Sponge Bob, but I have been thinking about Henny Penny the last few days. And what I am really interested in is how folks at the time knew Swift was writing satire and I have figured out some didn’t. I have no idea how many or if it matters in the scheme of things. Maybe my kids can give me the answer when they finally get here.
Free speech does not exist when you are afraid of losing your job for disagreeing, when your face is posted all over the internet for wearing a hat and calling you a racist because the hat was insensitive to someone’s culture. That isn’t just bad manners its far more than that.
Maybe Hunt will be around to explain free speech to us. He’s the expert. It is my impression that free speech never really existed for huge swathes of our population.
It occurred to me that the student in YaleDad2019’s post is supporting free speech with very nice manners. And he got burned. Of course I have no way to know if that report is correct, since obviously a lot of what is posted on the internet is not.
If he has no interest in being lectured by a crazy man, just ignore him and walk away. The idea that one would say “This is fantastic, I absolutely agree” in such a situation is unlikely. The idea that this happened 50 times in an hour is absurd.
It seemed like the people signing the petition to appeal the First Amendment and most willing to place controls on free-speech are also the same group of people busy chanting “Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism” circa 2003-2005.
“If he has no interest in being lectured by a crazy man, just ignore him and walk away. The idea that one would say “This is fantastic, I absolutely agree” in such a situation is unlikely. The idea that this happened 50 times in an hour is absurd.”
I agree it’s absurd to think all 50 were like this but I don’t think it’s absurd to say - yeah yeah whatever - to get someone out of your way when you’re in a rush.
I certainly sympathize with those living in a bubble, where their ideology is dominant or at least the most vocal, when they are confronted with the fact others find their ideology offensive. That can be a very uncomfortable situation.
I can imagine someone saying, “Yeah, yeah whatever” in order not to contradict a supposedly crazy person, but the student actually went ahead and signed the petition with a camera filming him do it. Would a smart person do that if he didn’t agree at least somewhat with the subject of the petition? After all, what did he mean when he said didn’t agree with Horowitz’s approach? That he does like the idea of limiting speech, just maybe not by repealing the amendment?
@scubadive I am always amazed at how different people’s interpretation of the same events can be. In particular, while you see microagressions as an attack on free speech, to me, it is the criticism of microagressions that is the attack on free speech. No one can bring up microagressions without people making fun of the idea, or at best, dismissing the idea that they are important enough to talk about. Somehow discussions about microagressions are shut down by supposed free speech advocates. And there are enough character assassinations to go around - just ask the “shrieking girl” from Yale.
Yep. I think most things that are microaggressions fall under “grow up already.”
^^^^ Statement of the month.
College students are immature and dumb; film at 11.
As I said on another thread, I’d like to see the signatures. It may be that SpongeBob and Seymour Butts were the primary signatories.
Put it this way: this is about the least scientific way possible of determining the attitude of Yale students toward the First Amendment.
I think most knew that Swift was writing satire because he dealt with a topic of the day in an exaggerated fashion. I think this has been the hallmark of satire since classical times. And yes, I am aware that there was allegedly a reaction to A Modest Proposal by people who assumed it was an actual proposal.
I don’t necessarily disagree that the intent of the video was satirical. I think however that the videographer’s point was to satirize the belief structure on display in the current spate of protests, rather than a complex double blind critique of people concerned about the protests. I believe that baiting social justice warriors into encapsulating their views in such a way as to seem shocking to “normal” people is classic satire. It is far harder for me to believe that several dozen college students somehow divined that the person asking them to sign a petition was in fact seeking to construct a situation so fantastical that no rational person could believe it, thereby shining a light on the irrationality of conservative critics of higher academia. To divine this, and then seamlessly play along with the narrative in a convincing fashion over and over again is to me fabulism (since we are in literary mode).
No, making fun of a freely expressed idea is the very definition of free speech for both parties.
"So you are drawing a distinction between a university and the town square? Or are you saying there is no obvious linkage between a professor saying she “needs some muscle over here” to remove a journalist from a public space, the attempted defunding of a student newspaper that runs an editorial allegedly critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, etc and the idea that some people on college campuses believe the First Amendment should be repealed? "
A journalism professor no less.