https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/1/24/steve-bannon-invited-university-of-chicago/
Ew.
If his ideas are truly contemptible, it should be easy for all those smart UChicago people to expose them, right?
You can’t argue people out of ideology like that.
Should be a very interesting test of the idea that the campus does not cancel invited speakers whose topics may prove controversial. It will also be interesting to see how the campus handles security for this event.
lol.
Finally, the left and Trump have a common enemy. This is a test of U Chicago’s integrity, as well as a test of Bannon’s courage.
U Chicago isn’t Berkeley. Doubt anything will happen.
If i lived there, I’d attend. I’d be the last person in the world to agree with Bannon but I would like to hear him speak. Where i have issues is when a person espouses hate-based speech…without value or perspective.
Not to get too political, but how does that not apply to Steve Bannon? Because he doesn’t explicitly “espouse” hate-based speech, he just tolerates it really enthusiastically? Because his toleration of hate-based speech isn’t without value or perspective (the value and perspective being that tolerating and fostering alliance with haters is a means to several ends, one of which is successful promotion of a specific policy agenda, and the other of which is successful promotion and empowerment of Steve Bannon)?
Same groups tried to ban Lewandowski from speaking at IOP last year. Spicer before that. It came to nothing. This isn’t really that much of a test. In the eyes of these incensed petitioners is Bannon any different than the other two, or just worse?
I can’t stand Bannon and think he has done a ton of damage to the country, but he would be an interesting speaker with a lot of real world experience in the political and “journalism” worlds.
Contrast this to white supremacist Richard Spencer, who wanted to speak at UChicago last year after . The University said “Yeah, well, we fully support free speech, but we don’t think you have anything useful to say, so no thanks.”
I think the University made the right call on both of them. I also understand why students would protest Bannon’s appearance, and I support that too.
During the 2016 election season, DD who is currently a 2nd year and a pretty standard progressive liberal, attended rallies to hear Bernie, Bill Clinton stumping for Hil, and Trump speak. Said she wanted to hear everyone herself.
Doubt she’ll try and go hear Bannon as she is busy with schoolwork, but if she had the time, would not surprise me if she attended the event, or conversely, protested the event (in a constructive manner of course).
Applaud UChicago! Free speech is a basic right.
I would support the protesters also, if they protest peacefully. If they are smashing windows and setting fire, then police should step in.
I’m surprised that Luigi, who like many Europeans have politics and economics the left of most Americans, is the one who invited him.
^^ He said he didn’t agree with him but wanted to hear what he had to say. Are you implying that lefties don’t want to hear other opinions?
No, just that there are other Econ professors who lean left of center that would have been less surprising
He’s a free-market conservative according to people who know him. Not sure how he leans politically.
The distinctive thing about the economists is that they have a diversity of political and even economic viewpoints. This makes them delightfully free of the echo-chamber that has enclosed most of the other social sciences (and practically all of the humanities).
Luigi Zingales’ facebook page:
Why I invited #Bannon at @ChicagoBooth to debate the issues of immigration and globalization
As a university our primary mission is to form new citizens of the world. As a business school our primary mission is to form new business leaders of the world. I can hardly think of a more important issue for new citizens and business leaders of the world than the backlash against globalization and immigration that is taking place not just in America, but in all the Western World. At the University of Chicago, we have some of the best economic minds of the planet. It is our civic duty to engage them in finding the causes of this backlash and in trying to address them. Whether you agree with him or not (and I personally do not), Mr. Bannon has come to interpret and represent this backlash in America. For this reason, I invited Mr. Bannon to a debate on these issues with our faculty. I firmly believe that the current problems in America cannot be solved by demonizing who think differently, but by addressing the causes of their dissatisfaction. Hate cannot be defeated by hate, but only by reason.
What’s fascinating to me is that people think that if you invite someone to debate you must agree with there ideology. Hmmm, that would make for a very boring debate.