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Why is this sneering garbage on HN? Look, none of this is new. Universities have always been contentious places, students have always been belligerent and unin

Why is this sneering garbage on HN? Look, none of this is new. Universities have always been contentious places, students have always been belligerent and uninterested in hearing the views of their opponents. This is what it is to be young: to believe fully, with or without justification. A generation ago in the US, SDS would have barricaded themselves into the room with both these master debaters and held them hostage with a list of demands for the administration. The verbs have changed, but "We demand" has not. This is a screed from a man who is upset that he is not being handed a platform to speak. Yes, guy. People don't like you. That doesn't make this a free speech issue. No one invited me to speak at Oxford either. Just go home without your rattle.

mcphage 12y ago
> students have always been belligerent and uninterested in hearing the views of their opponents Agreed. But I don't know to what degree the school should accept the students' demands. > This is a screed from a man who is upset that he is not being handed a platform to speak. [...] No one invited me to speak at Oxford either. That's not what the author describes, though: they were invited to speak at Oxford, and students who didn't want that event to take place complained until it was cancelled. > That doesn't make this a free speech issue. It's not, I agree. But it's something, and not a good something.
morgante 12y ago
I don't think it's fair to say that nothing has changed. In previous generations, students absolutely would have protested. But administrations wouldn't have been so quick to give in to social outrage and to ban speakers. One of the unfortunate effects of social media is that allowing controversy of any sort has become much more dangerous. What might once have garnered a few feminist protestors outside a church (or evangelicals protesting outside a school) now elicits thousands of angry reactionaries on Twitter and Tumblr.

mcphage 12y ago

> students have always been belligerent and uninterested in hearing the views of their opponents Agreed. But I don't know to what degree the school should accept the students' demands. > This is a screed from a man who is upset that he is not being handed a platform to speak. [...] No one invited me to speak at Oxford either. That's not what the author describes, though: they were invited to speak at Oxford, and students who didn't want that event to take place complained until it was cancelled. > That doesn't make this a free speech issue. It's not, I agree. But it's something, and not a good something.

morgante 12y ago

I don't think it's fair to say that nothing has changed. In previous generations, students absolutely would have protested. But administrations wouldn't have been so quick to give in to social outrage and to ban speakers. One of the unfortunate effects of social media is that allowing controversy of any sort has become much more dangerous. What might once have garnered a few feminist protestors outside a church (or evangelicals protesting outside a school) now elicits thousands of angry reactionaries on Twitter and Tumblr.