Suppression of Free Speech in Academia

[Søren]

Absolutely none of anybodies business what polically incorrect sites he looks at.

White boy looking at racist material

Deimos: Eh, it's free speech. What's the harm? It's cool. What-evs.

Refugees trying to escape ISIS to create a better life for themselves

Deimos: Too dangerous, not my concern. What-evs.

Not comparible

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Monosyllabic.

Passive aggressive response.

[niam2023]

All too comparable.

[rageaholic]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8zdl7gSsrI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8zdl7gSsrI</a>

So we have another case in which some right wing asshole comes to speak at a college and students respond by being even bigger assholes.  Here they are trying to bully a reporter away who was trying to report on their protest (just like at Mizzou).  Their initial protest was trying to prevent Ben Shapiro from showing up.  Now, I don't like Ben Shapiro at all.  He is one of the most obnoxious twats out there, but these students are fucking crazy zealots. 

[Askold]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/student-accused-of-violating-university-safe-space-by-raising-he/

TL;DR version: She has been accused of raising her hand to point out that an accusation against her is false and for shaking her head while someone was talking to her. She believes these accusations were made because she had talked about her concern over anti-semitism.

Ms Wilson said she raised her arms in disagreement after being accused by another speaker of failing to respond to an open letter, despite in fact having made efforts to contact the letter’s authors.

A complaint was made against Ms Wilson, who was then subjected to a vote on whether she should be removed from the room.

Although the vote went in her favour, with 18 people voting to remove her and 33 voting for her to be allowed to remain, she was later threatened with another complaint after shaking her head while someone was speaking.

Ms Wilson said she believed that safe space rules banning gestures of disagreement, which were drawn up under the tenure of previous sabbatical officers, were “a little extreme” and had been used as a “political” tool against her after she spoke out against anti-Semitism.

“I totally do believe in safe space and the principles behind it,” she told the Telegraph. “It’s supposed to enhance free speech and not shut it down, and give everyone a chance to feel like they can contribute.

“Safe space is essential for us to have a debate where everyone can speak, but it can’t become a tool for the hard left to use when they disagree with people.”

She said: “At that meeting we were discussing BDS, the movement to boycott Israel. I made a long and passionate speech against us subscribing to this, on the basis it encourages anti-Semitism on campus. It was only after I made that speech that someone made a safe space complaint. I can’t help but think it was a political move against me.

“Later on in the meeting, someone threatened me with a second complaint because I was shaking my head – but when I was addressing the room about my worries about Jewish students, there were plenty of people shaking their heads and nothing happened.”

This is actually horrible that safe-space rules are abused like this. Although I also support boycotting Israel because of the things that country is doing but the anti-semitism fear is not completely baseless even if pro-Israel people have used it as an excuse to shut down legitimate complaints before.

[mellenORL]

Radflake Cancer. It turns universities into kindergartens by spewing cooties onto just about everybody.

[Askold]

Radflake Cancer. It turns universities into kindergartens by spewing cooties onto just about everybody.

Except that it may be more about harassing someone for their political beliefs than actually thinking that a person shaking their head is raping you.

[Ultimate Paragon]

Yeah, these "safe spaces" have a bit of a problem with anti-Semitism:

http://www.thetower.org/article/in-the-safe-spaces-on-campus-no-jews-allowed/