4 ms·

The Rising Threat to Free Speech on Campuses

20 points by jseliger 6y ago

kingkawn 6y ago
if everyone were nearly as concerned about people as they are about defending abstractions the world would be a utopia
- slowmovintarget 6y ago
  All arguments about free speech are really arguments about what we're allowed to do to each other, especially in connection with what we say.
fabiofzero 6y ago
Do I need to read this to confirm it's the usual rightwing concern trolling?
satellite2 6y ago
I think it's a really American centered piece. Obviously the face of the Republican party drifted so far to the right that they are now a populist party. And it's only reasonable from academics to distentiate from populism as they are in the business of searching for truth. The fallacy here is to believe that the Democratic party is on the left. It's now composed of the economically concervatives, the center and the left (the us doesn't have a far left ideology even tough some ideas seems to be trending). The reasonable options for a concervative scholar would be to join the Democratic party and try to break it in three from the inside.
Mixtape 6y ago
While I'd rather not get caught up in whataboutism on this issue, this particular article's presentation of these results as indicative of a problem for only right-wing students feels biased. Speaking anecdotally as someone who's currently a part of the University system, the general consensus seems to be that there is more of a back-and-forth power struggle between ideologically different groups on campus to censor each other. Often the more left-leaning voice prevails due to a combination of youthful favoring of left-wing ideas and dismissal of faith-based arguments, but generalizing it to all campuses isn't a fair assumption in the slightest. For example, here's a video shared by the minority party of the University of Florida's student government that outlines a concentrated effort by right-wing speakers to influence campus politics in their favor: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLDCeSchEl9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLDCeSchEl9/?utm_source=ig_web_... (Apologies for the IG link) For context, the majority party (Gator) is predominantly affiliated with Greek Life groups on campus, which allows them to coerce voting in their favor by denying brothers/sisters meals at the fraternity/sorority house if they cannot present an "I voted" sticker on election day. Since the majority of Gator's candidates are Greek-affiliated themselves (different Greek orgs are promised different positions by party leaders on a rotating basis) the large bloc of voters persuaded to vote by Greek orgs is more likely to vote in favor of the Gator Party. Gator subsequently works to amplify right-wing voices on campus and limit the freedom of speech of left-leanjng individuals. In this way, social justice focused efforts have been fighting an uphill battle at UF for several years. My point in sharing this is not to imply that bias in academia is a balanced affair - the article makes clear that right-wing individuals are more likely to suffer from it. Rather, I want to emphasize that the opposite is true in some places, and that the movements on those campuses are growing. I'm not one to speak on the solution to the issue in either direction, but I fear that if one isn't found, we could quite easily witness the development kf more campuses where opposing right- or left-wing ideas aren't given the time of day.

20 points by jseliger 6y ago

kingkawn 6y ago

if everyone were nearly as concerned about people as they are about defending abstractions the world would be a utopia

slowmovintarget 6y ago
All arguments about free speech are really arguments about what we're allowed to do to each other, especially in connection with what we say.

fabiofzero 6y ago

Do I need to read this to confirm it's the usual rightwing concern trolling?

satellite2 6y ago

I think it's a really American centered piece. Obviously the face of the Republican party drifted so far to the right that they are now a populist party. And it's only reasonable from academics to distentiate from populism as they are in the business of searching for truth. The fallacy here is to believe that the Democratic party is on the left. It's now composed of the economically concervatives, the center and the left (the us doesn't have a far left ideology even tough some ideas seems to be trending). The reasonable options for a concervative scholar would be to join the Democratic party and try to break it in three from the inside.

Mixtape 6y ago

While I'd rather not get caught up in whataboutism on this issue, this particular article's presentation of these results as indicative of a problem for only right-wing students feels biased. Speaking anecdotally as someone who's currently a part of the University system, the general consensus seems to be that there is more of a back-and-forth power struggle between ideologically different groups on campus to censor each other. Often the more left-leaning voice prevails due to a combination of youthful favoring of left-wing ideas and dismissal of faith-based arguments, but generalizing it to all campuses isn't a fair assumption in the slightest. For example, here's a video shared by the minority party of the University of Florida's student government that outlines a concentrated effort by right-wing speakers to influence campus politics in their favor: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLDCeSchEl9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLDCeSchEl9/?utm_source=ig_web_... (Apologies for the IG link) For context, the majority party (Gator) is predominantly affiliated with Greek Life groups on campus, which allows them to coerce voting in their favor by denying brothers/sisters meals at the fraternity/sorority house if they cannot present an "I voted" sticker on election day. Since the majority of Gator's candidates are Greek-affiliated themselves (different Greek orgs are promised different positions by party leaders on a rotating basis) the large bloc of voters persuaded to vote by Greek orgs is more likely to vote in favor of the Gator Party. Gator subsequently works to amplify right-wing voices on campus and limit the freedom of speech of left-leanjng individuals. In this way, social justice focused efforts have been fighting an uphill battle at UF for several years. My point in sharing this is not to imply that bias in academia is a balanced affair - the article makes clear that right-wing individuals are more likely to suffer from it. Rather, I want to emphasize that the opposite is true in some places, and that the movements on those campuses are growing. I'm not one to speak on the solution to the issue in either direction, but I fear that if one isn't found, we could quite easily witness the development kf more campuses where opposing right- or left-wing ideas aren't given the time of day.