Yeah–and it was her ACLU that used its donation money to actively volunteer to defend the KKK. I’m not on her side at all.
It’s not Nadine Stossen’s “side” to stand for free speech for all, including the KKK. It’s the ACLU’s side, and it’s principled, and why the ACLU and FIRE both find themselves defending speech they detest. https://www.aclu.org/other/hate-speech-campus.
While Alan Kors is conservative, FIRE’s other co-founder Harvey Silverglate is most decidedly not. While I would agree with you that they often end up advocating for conservative professors/students, I’d argue that has more to do with the irrational ideologues on campus being more numerous on the left than they are the right. Correspondingly, the Steven Salaitas and Ward Churchills of the world (FIRE has commented on both of these men as well) are comparatively relatively rare.
Thank you, @Corinthian , for copying and pasting that. People don’t get what we (the ACLU) stand for. Free speech is free speech, don’t care who is speaking or what they’re saying, provided they are not inciting violence. If you don’t agree, respond in kind. Explain why you are right and they are wrong. Convince others.
@fragbot - FIRE isn’t driven by its founders but by its funders.
As for the ACLU defending the KKK, well, of course the KKK has a right to free speech, but the ACLU makes the choice to use its donation money to defend the KKK, which it doesn’t have to do. I think that choice sucks and I’d like the ACLU a lot more if it didn’t waste its money actively choosing to defend racists, homophobes, and xenophobes.
If the ACLU selectively defended the First Amendment based on the politics of the person speaking, then they would be ignored as being just another biased political operation, in much the way many of you try and denigrate FIRE. The difference is that there would be reason to believe that, rather than the wishful thinking that is evident here.
@marvin100 you always post about FIRE’s funding sources and call them “astroturf” right wing activists. But do you have evidence to support your implied assertion that FIRE doesn’t defend the rights of lefties? I’m going to repost what I posted back at #29:
Regardless of where FIRE gets a lot of donations, its record shows that FIRE defends both liberals and conservatives.
https://www.thefire.org/censored-on-campus-fire-will-defend-you/ (The FIRE site gives hyperlinks for each category that link to specific examples of cases they’ve handled).
Recent examples of FIRE’s reporting on and opposing efforts to censor liberals/progressives:
https://www.thefire.org/minnesota-bill-targeting-boycotts-of-israel-risks-chilling-campus-speech/ (3/2/17)
https://www.thefire.org/victory-in-eighth-circuit-iowa-state-cant-censor-pot-legalization-t-shirts/ (2/13/17)
https://www.thefire.org/arizona-bill-eviscerates-academic-freedom-and-violates-the-first-amendment/ (1/16/17)
Some more:
https://www.thefire.org/independent-newspapers-crucial-for-students-in-tense-times/ (from 12/22/16 praising the surge in publications run by black students in order to address racial issues and incidents on campuses nationwide)
https://www.thefire.org/wisconsin-lawmakers-once-again-threaten-academic-freedom/ (from 12/21/16 regarding threat by lawmakers to withhold funding because of course on “The Problem of Whiteness”)
https://www.thefire.org/protect-the-flag-bill-undermines-core-principles-of-free-speech/ (12/9/16 conceming bill submitted in Congress to withhold federal funds from schools that permit students to take down or otherwise disrespect the flag)
https://www.thefire.org/rutgers-professor-detained-and-suspended-following-post-election-tweets-and-comments/ (11/22/16 saying professor’s anti-Trump tweets, while “hyperbolic” in threatening to run Trump supporters off the road and burn a flag inside his classroom, nonetheless protected speech)
By the way, all I’m doing is scrolling through FIRE’s monthly Newsdesk archives, and each month it’s easy to find situations where FIRE is condemning those colleges and legislatures that attempt to censor speech by liberals/progressives.
Also here is FIRE criticizing Jerry Falwell, Jr. for claiming that Liberty University “promotes the free expression of ideas unlike many major universities where political correctness prevents conservative students from speaking out.” FIRE points out that Liberty blatantly and openly censors students, which as a private university it is free to do but cannot then claim to value freedom of expression. https://www.thefire.org/liberty-universitys-values-and-jerry-falwell-jr-s-pro-free-speech-statements-dont-add-up/
This might help you understand:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20335967/#Comment_20335967
I’m not clicking all your links (thanks, though, for the capsule summaries in the second link-dump; they’re helpful), but a quick looks reveals literally nothing that’s actually leftist. Pot shirts? Burning flags? Those aren’t politically leftist positions at all–they’re literally nothing but free speech concerns with no real political content.
My thought too…“conservative” kids don’t smoke pot?
I beg to differ 
Indeed. One conservative I know who smokes and is for pot legalization works for Infowars. 
Libertarians love legalization, too, fwiw.
Perhaps this whole thread is a question of semantics…
Let’s flip this on it’s head. Can any of you think of a time when, in your opinion, liberal speech was being threatened on campus ( I assume it would be a pretty short list) and FIRE did not get involved?
I can think of plenty prior to say the late 70’s and early 80’s.
I’m ever grateful to the students who fought for a more inclusive and academically vigorous curriculum in the 50’s and 60’s (think UCB Free Speech Movement and the push to add Ethnic and Women’s Studies). There was significant pushback to their efforts but fortunately for us they persisted!
FIRE was only created in 1999.
Never claimed my statement was in reference to FIRE but a shout out to those predominantly liberal students who fought to make our educational system more relevant and accessible to a larger segment of our population. That was a very radical idea back then and was often decried as the end of “Western Civilization”. We now can see how silly those attacks were…
As I mentioned upthread, FIRE only looks at some private colleges. It doesn’t look at conservative religious colleges at all. Harvard, as a private institution, has just as much right to limit speech as Liberty University does. I’ve been critical of both, but FIRE isn’t.