3 ms·

My campus leans a bit right compared to the usual, and I'm actually glad for that. We haven't lost intellectual diversity and free speech is alive and well. Hav

by Fej 10y ago

My campus leans a bit right compared to the usual, and I'm actually glad for that. We haven't lost intellectual diversity and free speech is alive and well. Haven't seen anyone in favor of censorship, but if there was they'd be laughed right out of the room. Not all colleges/universities have gone bad, and that's a good thing, because intellectual discourse is supposed to be the point of university, not (just) vocational training.

lobotryas 10y ago
>in favor of censorship That's because it's not called "censorship" any more. Instead, people will label a person whose speech they dislike as a racist, homophobe, Islamophobe, anti-semite, misogynist, etc. Sure, people with such views exist and we should debate how we, as a society, want to respond to such views. What is the problem is the unwritten expectation that, once identified as such by almost anyone, you are excluded, attacked, and told to "shut up". For a regular person it's often enough to be labeled in this way once for their social or work prospects to either be ruined or hurt. Worse, the label will still stick, even if later this person is exonerated.
- prutschman 10y ago
  What are you arguing for? Censoring the declaration of someone as a *-phobe? Censoring the criticism of people who say certain things? Censoring the cries of "shut up" leveled at them?
  - verroq 10y ago
    That is a strawman and you know it. He is not saying that people need to stop labeling others as *phobe. He is merely saying the consequences shouldn't be life ruining.
    - prutschman 10y ago
      The parent poster was explicitly drawing an equivalence between censorship in some unspecified traditional sense and widely communicated judgements and denouncements by a group. It came out as more flippant than I intended, but I'm being quite serious, and my real question is genuine: what can be done--other than suppressing communication about the judgement--to render the consequences other than life ruining?
nolepointer 10y ago
>My campus leans a bit right compared to the usual, and I'm actually glad for that. We haven't lost intellectual diversity and free speech is alive and well. Haven't seen anyone in favor of censorship, but if there was they'd be laughed right out of the room. Which university is this, if I may ask?

by Fej 10y ago

lobotryas 10y ago

>in favor of censorship That's because it's not called "censorship" any more. Instead, people will label a person whose speech they dislike as a racist, homophobe, Islamophobe, anti-semite, misogynist, etc. Sure, people with such views exist and we should debate how we, as a society, want to respond to such views. What is the problem is the unwritten expectation that, once identified as such by almost anyone, you are excluded, attacked, and told to "shut up". For a regular person it's often enough to be labeled in this way once for their social or work prospects to either be ruined or hurt. Worse, the label will still stick, even if later this person is exonerated.

prutschman 10y ago
What are you arguing for? Censoring the declaration of someone as a *-phobe? Censoring the criticism of people who say certain things? Censoring the cries of "shut up" leveled at them?
- verroq 10y ago
  That is a strawman and you know it. He is not saying that people need to stop labeling others as *phobe. He is merely saying the consequences shouldn't be life ruining.
  - prutschman 10y ago
    The parent poster was explicitly drawing an equivalence between censorship in some unspecified traditional sense and widely communicated judgements and denouncements by a group. It came out as more flippant than I intended, but I'm being quite serious, and my real question is genuine: what can be done--other than suppressing communication about the judgement--to render the consequences other than life ruining?

nolepointer 10y ago

>My campus leans a bit right compared to the usual, and I'm actually glad for that. We haven't lost intellectual diversity and free speech is alive and well. Haven't seen anyone in favor of censorship, but if there was they'd be laughed right out of the room. Which university is this, if I may ask?