@Crush Said
The
ACLU has also taken a stance against the attack on free speech on college campuses.
@Crush Said
Did you read the ACLU piece? They argued that free speech is indeed being censored, and this amounts to a violation of the first amendment when done at public universities.
That's the point, professors and others aren't free to speak their minds.
I have to ask again, are you reading what I link to, or even reading what I quoted in the previous posts?
The free speech zones are means to limit free speech. It's not about keeping people from protesting in a library or the mayor's office. It's about making it more difficult for people with unpopular opinions to speak their minds.
Yes, I read all of what you linked to. As well as the rebuttles to Schlosser. I just don't agree with him. He is free to argue whatever he wants, that does not mean I have to find his argument convincing. I think (and I'm not the only one) that the situation is more complicated in academia about tenure, budget lines, personality conflicts, work ethics, and developing coursework that the decisions to remove or retain an adjunct prof is based solely on the offending the feelings of a student. Academic culture is just more complicated than that.
The ACLU link also contains:
Quote:
The ACLU isn't opposed to regulations that penalize acts of violence, harassment or intimidation, and invasions of privacy. On the contrary, we believe that kind of conduct should be punished. Furthermore, the ACLU recognizes that the mere presence of speech as one element in an act of violence, harassment, intimidation or privacy invasion doesn't immunize that act from punishment. For example, threatening, bias-inspired phone calls to a student's dorm room, or white students shouting racist epithets at a woman of color as they follow her across campus -- these are clearly punishable acts.
and
Quote:
The ACLU believes that the best way to combat hate speech on campus is through an educational approach that includes counter-speech, workshops on bigotry and its role in American and world history, and real -- not superficial -- institutional change.
Universities are obligated to create an environment that fosters tolerance and mutual respect among members of the campus community, an environment in which all students can exercise their right to participate fully in campus life without being discriminated against.
Which in relevance to the Harvard prof Thernstom incident, ACLU would have supported thernstrom's alleged* racist speech AND the counter speech of his students to say that was offensive.
Personally, I don't think thernstrom was being racist, but that it became a poster child incident for how awful PC is, completely independent of the actual facts.