Where dissent, authority and virtue meet there are difficult dynamics for humans to work with. I had a professor who flirts with antisemetic ideology, and who j

Where dissent, authority and virtue meet there are difficult dynamics for humans to work with. I had a professor who flirts with antisemetic ideology, and who justifies violence towards western countries. While he is among the most controversial professors in the world and holds ideas that are entirely unacceptable... within the class room, when I protested, no one joined me in dissenting these ideas. I am not trying to portray myself as better than others, but I still cannot believe that fact about people. And that professor was the most vindictive, petty and insulting I had ever interacted with. If those ideas weren't unacceptable outside the classroom, then who would question or criticize him? Anyone? I guess it's always been the case that the Thomas Paines of this world will be dying alone. Dissenting views are still no great virtue in 2018 and can still be met with barbaric behavior just as they were in centuries past. For example, Lil Wayne said he was not a victim of racism and he criticized BLM, and he was shot and then made into a pariah for this. Speaking of classes on specific ideas, should this be one of the great lessons of history people should be learning of? I mean, the inability to question authority is exactly what tyrants like Hitler and Hirohito wanted. It was the most important thing to them. The only German child Nazis went to the trouble of formally executing (Helmuth Hübener) was the one who just wanted people to hear what British radio broadcasters were saying about the war. Yet who at Columbia learns of him? Perhaps the greatest injustices and most embarassing tragedies of men and women in history are made possible when you make dissent impossible.