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No-one asked the dormitory head to police Halloween costumes. What actually happened was the university sent out a letter students asking them to think about wh
by makomk 10y ago
No-one asked the dormitory head to police Halloween costumes. What actually happened was the university sent out a letter students asking them to think about whether their Halloween costumes were mocking other people, and he insisted that this was an attack on student freedom of speech because having to think about this might make them uncomfortable wearing certain costumes - and we certainly can't have student's thinking about viewpoints outside their own in ways that make them uncomfortable.
Because all the recent stuff about student freedom of speech and the importance of exposing students to viewpoints that make them uncomfortable is actually just a push by the right-wing to move universities to the right, the students who objected to this were the ones who were portrayed as being the ones who couldn't cope with views they disagreed with.
- TheLarch 10y agoErika Christakis' email https://www.thefire.org/email-from-erika-christakis-dressing-yourselves-email-to-silliman-college-yale-students-on-halloween-costumes/ https://www.thefire.org/email-from-erika-christakis-dressing... expresses an unwillingness to police costumes. I don't pretend to know much about the issue though. In my view the hostility to free speech on campus comes from the left, not from the right. Lots of people seem to think of authoritarianism as developing exclusively from the right only, but Stalin is a counterexample.
- wfo 10y agoDid you watch the videos? Read the articles? The wild screaming, incoherent rage and hate expressed in response to a thoughtful, respectful email from one of their /professors/? The incredulity that he dare have a different opinion, and the deep need to punish him for it? There's a strong need for students to be able to experiment and express themselves and say what they feel and think without being abused and crucified. Similarly with professors. There's a certain respect for thought that is inherent to a healthy academic culture. The left (of which I am very much a part) used to defend it vigorously, now I find we are the ones trying to destroy it.
- TheLarch 10y agoAyaan Hirsi Ali expressed the difference between classical and modern liberalism perfectly. Classical liberalism values freedom, whereas today's liberalism often favors justice. To take Islam as an example: the classical liberal response would be to strive for the the freedom of individual women, heretics, and homosexuals. Today's liberal response would be more along the lines of judging how justly society treats Muslims as a group. Identity politics is rife in modern liberalism. In Ali's view (and mine) freedom is a precursor to justice.