It’s commencement speaker “season”, so I expect lots of stories, again, about hyperventilating students (and faculty) attempting to disinvite “hateful” speakers (or speakers who simply are not “diverse” enough…). Should be fun.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/29/debate-barnard-over-selection-commencement-speaker
@Gator88NE Scripps College recently announced that Madeline Albright will be the commencement speaker and has already received pushback that she is a “white feminist” with a “blemished record” and “embodies white feminism . . . which excludes and harms women of color.” http://tsl.news/opinions/5560/ FIRE, by the way, keeps a Disinvitation Database of speakers that are either disinvited or threatened with disinvitation. Albright has been on it before in 2000, getting criticism from the left at Berkeley and the right at GW. https://www.thefire.org/resources/disinvitation-database/.
We want our heroes (and apparently our commencement speakers) to be perfect, and I think this is especially true of young people. The truth is that most of our “heroes” are very flawed people who managed to do something noteworthy or praiseworthy despite those flaws.
Some political speech is hateful. But almost all political speech is controversial. The controversy is why the speakers are “famous.” If their message wasn’t provocative, there would be no audience, no book sales, no invitations to speak.
I’m okay with students protesting the controversial social or political critiques or whatever message they don’t like, as long as the protest does not slide into threats of violence. I don’t think the existence of such protests is a sign of suppression so I part company with FIRE on that grounds. Instead, it’s a sign that college kids are human. Protest is a natural and legal means to counter ideas you find harmful or hurtful or unfair. This is what we want all kids to do. Sticking up for your beliefs takes courage.
If Ben Shapiro is getting push-back, then he should wear it like a badge of courage. He’s provocation is working. And it will help him sell books. Ditto to Madeline Albright. They should leverage it to market their next book…e.g. “The ideas college campuses don’t want your kids to hear!” This is precisely the marketing gold that makes political movements successful. Win-win.
For a conservative/republican moderate, living with liberal democrats is hard enough already. Then you get called names and told that your concerns don’t matter because you’re white and a guy.
Liberals preach acceptance, unless you contradict them. Then you are a bigotted hateful privelaged person.
I personally am not full blown republican, I side left with some social issues. I am fairly left with social issues, abortion, pot, etc. However, I lean right because of fiscal matters. There are some republicans who are like me who are still labled like one of trump’s supporters. I personally would vote dem before trump.
Why can’t we be accepted too?
@PragmaticMom The students at the Ben Shapiro talk at Cal State LA weren’t simply protesting. They physically blocked other people from entering. The ones that did eventually get in to hear his talk had to slip in through a back door. The police didn’t prevent the protesters from blocking the front entrance.
The protestors at the Shapiro event also blocked the back door as soon as they realized people were trying to get in that way, and then pulled the fire alarm to prevent Shapiro from being heard. Again, someone should educate the protestors about the Streisand Effect.
Charles Krauthammer is speaking at Amherst college (again). Haven’t heard a peep.
I’m sure that’s because Amherst has it’s hands full, dealing with that horrible school mascot, Lord Jeff. One must have priorities! and purging Lord Jeff is at the top of the list…
“Charles Krauthammer is speaking at Amherst college (again). Haven’t heard a peep.”
Hadley Arkes is still teaching there as well, still asserting that gay marriage is an unconstitutional violation of “natural law” principles. Is such a thing even possible? Why, I’m sure Amherst will be burning down any day now.
Ben Shapiro certainly doesn’t need me to defend him, but whatever his faults, neither his style nor his political and intellectual philosophy bear any resemblance to those of Trump. Shapiro is actually a fierce opponent of Trump (see, e.g., http://www.dailywire.com/news/3867/shapiro-explains-trump-phenomenon-jewish-journal-hank-berrien and http://www.dailywire.com/news/3243/trump-explains-he-called-cruz-■■■■■-fight-ben-shapiro) which has made him a big target of Trump alt-right and other supporters (see, e.g., http://www.dailywire.com/news/3783/anti-semites-are-out-force-trump-ben-shapiro)
I think, the beauty of the college experience is well asserted in this excerpt: “In the humanities (where I teach), the seminar room is a designated space for intellectual exploration, and students must feel safe and encouraged to do just that. They are expected to take risks – moral, political and personal. Controversial ideas are aired, deliberated and contemplated from many angles. Sometimes these ideas are offensive”
I thought people on the right were opposed to “victim mentality.”
[xkcd on free speech](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/free_speech.png)
