4 ms·

It sounds like he took a controversial opinion during a time of great fear and death, and wasn’t fired or in any way censored by his workplace. He continued to

It sounds like he took a controversial opinion during a time of great fear and death, and wasn’t fired or in any way censored by his workplace. He continued to enjoy substantial access to politicians and the press, and someone wrote and stuck up a mean poster about him (which he describes as a physical threat, but doesn’t seem to have actually been according to the description.) Academic freedom means the right to say unpopular things without losing your job. If you want to see what the opposite of that is, take a look at the McCarthy era or some of the professors who lost their jobs for saying unpopular things about US allies.

JamesianP 4y ago
Specifically a controversial opinion precisely within his academic field at a time when the topic mattered the most. Authoritarian societies will let you freely say non-controversial things too. He is not just complaining about students but also the administration not acting to defend him. The article directly claims censorship occurred. Perhaps they mean self-censorship due to fear. It does still count, though perhaps some few isolated threats may seem a lot worse to the target than they seem to others (go figure).
spfzero 4y ago
Or just take a look at all of the academics who have lost their jobs for saying unpopular things in the last few years. You don't have to go back to McCarthy, it's right here now.
- matthewdgreen 4y ago
  Could you provide a list just so I know who you’re talking about.
  - zsz 4y ago
    There's no list (comprehensive or otherwise), but FIRE's (www.thefire.org) work relates specifically to freedom of speech-related issues on college campuses that receive any sort of federal funding and are at least theoretically (i.e. by law) required to observe certain related standards. And I say "in theory," because if you take some time perusing their website, you get a good idea of how out of control academia in the U.S. is these days. To whet your appetite, here are just two of them: Mount Holyoke College: Event Hosts Must Recite Mandatory Land Acknowledgement as a Statement of Personal Beliefs (https://www.thefire.org/cases/mount-holyoke-college-event-hosts-must-recite-mandatory-land-acknowledgement-statement https://www.thefire.org/cases/mount-holyoke-college-event-ho...) -Quoting from the summary: "As the statement is written in the first person, it forces speakers to recite the land acknowledgement as if it reflects their own personal beliefs." Survey shows majority of college students feel ‘intimidated’ to share opinion, unlikely to disagree with professor (https://www.thefire.org/news/survey-shows-majority-college-students-feel-intimidated-share-opinion-unlikely-disagree https://www.thefire.org/news/survey-shows-majority-college-s...) -Quotes: -“More students are intimidated from speaking freely and more students are willing to intimidate others from speaking freely than at any time in the history of the survey.” -Almost half (48%) of students erroneously believe that the First Amendment does not protect hate speech; while 44% believe, correctly, that it does. This is the first time more students said that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment, and represents a 17% increase over the 31% of students who said this in 2017. -Disturbingly, almost half of them [students] said that in some circumstances the death penalty is an appropriate form of punishment for offensive expression [!!!].
musicale 4y ago
> which he describes as a physical threat, but doesn’t seem to have actually been according to the description So he, ah, "didn't feel safe" with others expressing their opinions? > “I started getting hate mail, I started getting death threats,” he said. “I started getting questions about my funding sources even though most of my money has come from the NIH for most of my life.” "Death threats" do sound like actual physical threats, but it isn't clear that those were in fact from Stanford students, faculty, or staff or just random lunatics on the internet.

JamesianP 4y ago

Specifically a controversial opinion precisely within his academic field at a time when the topic mattered the most. Authoritarian societies will let you freely say non-controversial things too. He is not just complaining about students but also the administration not acting to defend him. The article directly claims censorship occurred. Perhaps they mean self-censorship due to fear. It does still count, though perhaps some few isolated threats may seem a lot worse to the target than they seem to others (go figure).

spfzero 4y ago

Or just take a look at all of the academics who have lost their jobs for saying unpopular things in the last few years. You don't have to go back to McCarthy, it's right here now.

matthewdgreen 4y ago
Could you provide a list just so I know who you’re talking about.
- zsz 4y ago
  There's no list (comprehensive or otherwise), but FIRE's (www.thefire.org) work relates specifically to freedom of speech-related issues on college campuses that receive any sort of federal funding and are at least theoretically (i.e. by law) required to observe certain related standards. And I say "in theory," because if you take some time perusing their website, you get a good idea of how out of control academia in the U.S. is these days. To whet your appetite, here are just two of them: Mount Holyoke College: Event Hosts Must Recite Mandatory Land Acknowledgement as a Statement of Personal Beliefs (https://www.thefire.org/cases/mount-holyoke-college-event-hosts-must-recite-mandatory-land-acknowledgement-statement https://www.thefire.org/cases/mount-holyoke-college-event-ho...) -Quoting from the summary: "As the statement is written in the first person, it forces speakers to recite the land acknowledgement as if it reflects their own personal beliefs." Survey shows majority of college students feel ‘intimidated’ to share opinion, unlikely to disagree with professor (https://www.thefire.org/news/survey-shows-majority-college-students-feel-intimidated-share-opinion-unlikely-disagree https://www.thefire.org/news/survey-shows-majority-college-s...) -Quotes: -“More students are intimidated from speaking freely and more students are willing to intimidate others from speaking freely than at any time in the history of the survey.” -Almost half (48%) of students erroneously believe that the First Amendment does not protect hate speech; while 44% believe, correctly, that it does. This is the first time more students said that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment, and represents a 17% increase over the 31% of students who said this in 2017. -Disturbingly, almost half of them [students] said that in some circumstances the death penalty is an appropriate form of punishment for offensive expression [!!!].

musicale 4y ago

> which he describes as a physical threat, but doesn’t seem to have actually been according to the description So he, ah, "didn't feel safe" with others expressing their opinions? > “I started getting hate mail, I started getting death threats,” he said. “I started getting questions about my funding sources even though most of my money has come from the NIH for most of my life.” "Death threats" do sound like actual physical threats, but it isn't clear that those were in fact from Stanford students, faculty, or staff or just random lunatics on the internet.