Full Circle: Now We've Got The Anti Free Speech Movement
Sorry, Mario Savio...
Conor Friedersdorf writes at The Atlantic about the Amherst protests and how protesters were demanding that the college shut down the speech of those whose views they deemed wrong and insensitive.
As if that's not awful enough, they seek to have students punished for not adhering to the language they deem racially sensitive.
Here's one of their statements:
President Martin must issue a statement to the Amherst College community at large that states we do not tolerate the actions of student(s) who posted the "All Lives Matter" posters, and the "Free Speech" posters that stated that "in memoriam of the true victim of the Missouri Protests: Free Speech." Also let the student body know that it was racially insensitive to the students of color on our college campus and beyond who are victim to racial harassment and death threats; alert them that Student Affairs may require them to go through the Disciplinary Process if a formal complaint is filed, and that they will be required to attend extensive training for racial and cultural competency.
Elite college-going Americans who are clueless about what the Constitution says and why. (Free speech for me, but not for thee!)
As Friedersdorf puts it:
Protestors were trying to punish counter-protests with an extensive, compulsory racial-reeducation program. Perhaps the curriculum could be issued in a little red book.
Let's hope the administration of Amhearst advises the protesters that the counter-protesters' right of free speech needs to be respected.
One of the more hopeful (and frankly, idiotic) notions forwarded in the comments in this blog is that these students are in for a serious wake-up call once they make it to the outside world when they find that free speech applies to everyone, including those they don't like.
Wishful (and naive) thinking. These little tyrants will simply demand that the censorship they successfully applied to "insensitive" or "hate" speech in college be extended to the real world. And unless these college administrators put the brakes on it now, they will succeed. The First Amendment as we know it, will be no more. And "hate speech" will become a punishable offense.
Patrick at November 30, 2015 6:07 AM
Again, to disagree with the Regressive mind set means that you are not only wrong, but guilty of BadThoughts and thus also evil.
And Patrick is right: they will sooner than later seek to punish people in a more formal, legal setting.
The serious wake up call will be when civilization as we know it collapses, and we enter into a New Dark Age. At that point, no one will give a fuck how many gender studies degrees you got, special little snowflake, but how well you hunt, gather, sew, or screw.
So...I hope they know how to be very pleasant between the sheets. Oh, who am I kidding? they'll be the first to die.
I R A Darth Aggie at November 30, 2015 6:52 AM
Patrick: "These little tyrants will simply demand that the censorship . . . be extended to the real world."
Absolutely! These little tyrants, after causing a mess on campuses, will become "diversity trainers", "speech police", or any other petty busy-bodies that will be going off on their power-trips around the workplace.
Every major corporation will have (if they don't already) such positions on their payroll to monitor the working staff to "keep everyone in line."
charles at November 30, 2015 9:01 PM
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