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The offer demands that MIT 'prohibit anything that would “belittle” conservative ideas.' Can't conservative ideas compete in the Marketplace of Ideas without a

The offer demands that MIT 'prohibit anything that would “belittle” conservative ideas.' Can't conservative ideas compete in the Marketplace of Ideas without a boost from the government? What happened to absolute freedom of speech? Weren't we all broadly against censorship on campus just a few years ago? Why the about face?

taylodl 1y ago
It's not an about face. They believe they now have enough power to take off their masks and reveal who they really are.
- bediger4000 1y ago
  Wait, that implies that the (broadly conservative) demands for freedom of speech on campus were mere lies, shams assumed to fool the media and those who actually cherished free speech. I'm having trouble reconciling this.
  - taylodl 1y ago
    That's easy - they just want free speech for themselves, not anyone they disagree with. What their supporters don't realize is they don't speak with one voice, so it's inevitable the machine will turn on them too and suppress their speech.
  - quuxplusone 1y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18506429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18506429 "We don't have any problem with satire and sarcasm as such, but on a large public forum like HN, with everything a mile wide and an inch deep, they are nearly always associated with really low-quality discussion."
  - UncleMeat 1y ago
    They were lies. William F Buckley first got famous calling for professors at Yale to be fired for not being sufficiently conservative. And that trend has never let up.
mindslight 1y ago
"Conservative" is no longer anything more than a dishonest label for disguising a radical reactionary movement that fundamentally hates most of our modern society, and seeks to destroy it in some misguided idea that survivalist religious superstitions might be made to matter again. Seriously, go down a list of traditionally conservative values. They mostly apply to the Democrats with the current Trumpist agenda being directly opposed! The Republican party has bought into this backwards agenda hook, line, and sinker - supported by a cast of would-be business oligarchs who are eager to destroy our individual liberties as long as they might rule over the ruins. If there were anything conservative left about them, Trump would have been in prison after his first term of treasonous destruction.

taylodl 1y ago

It's not an about face. They believe they now have enough power to take off their masks and reveal who they really are.

bediger4000 1y ago
Wait, that implies that the (broadly conservative) demands for freedom of speech on campus were mere lies, shams assumed to fool the media and those who actually cherished free speech. I'm having trouble reconciling this.
- taylodl 1y ago
  That's easy - they just want free speech for themselves, not anyone they disagree with. What their supporters don't realize is they don't speak with one voice, so it's inevitable the machine will turn on them too and suppress their speech.
- quuxplusone 1y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18506429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18506429 "We don't have any problem with satire and sarcasm as such, but on a large public forum like HN, with everything a mile wide and an inch deep, they are nearly always associated with really low-quality discussion."
- UncleMeat 1y ago
  They were lies. William F Buckley first got famous calling for professors at Yale to be fired for not being sufficiently conservative. And that trend has never let up.

mindslight 1y ago

"Conservative" is no longer anything more than a dishonest label for disguising a radical reactionary movement that fundamentally hates most of our modern society, and seeks to destroy it in some misguided idea that survivalist religious superstitions might be made to matter again. Seriously, go down a list of traditionally conservative values. They mostly apply to the Democrats with the current Trumpist agenda being directly opposed! The Republican party has bought into this backwards agenda hook, line, and sinker - supported by a cast of would-be business oligarchs who are eager to destroy our individual liberties as long as they might rule over the ruins. If there were anything conservative left about them, Trump would have been in prison after his first term of treasonous destruction.