Posted on 06/09/2015 5:56:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
Kirsten Powers gets it. There is an assault on free speech in this country that is coming from the political left. But the people responsible for it are not liberals. They aren’t worthy of the title of liberal, which presupposes a degree of tolerance for opposing opinions. They are illiberal leftists and they are crushing the free exchange of ideas in this country. To make matters worse, they know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it. In other words, they are not ignorant of, or merely indifferent to, constitutional principles. They are at war with them.
You can see it on our nation’s campuses. Between 1987 and 2008, protests geared towards “disinviting” speakers with unpopular views resulted in 62 campus event cancellations. Between 2009 and 2014, there were another 62 campus event cancellations. In other words, over the last few years, campus protestors have become increasingly committed to silencing dissenting opinions. And the pattern is not random. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), conservative speakers are targeted for “dis-invitation” twice as often as liberal speakers.
It is no wonder that students are beginning to protest actively against the free exchange of unpopular opinions on campus. They are learning it from their professors. University of Pennsylvania professor Mary Frances Berry once admitted “There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans.” After the admission, she went on to defend making false accusations of racism as a means of quashing debate. She stated, “Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.”
That’s sums up the mindset of the illiberal left. Attack your opponents as a means of limiting political discourse. Next, declare victory. Finally, don’t forget to reaffirm your commitment to tolerance and diversity.
Predictably, the profound disrespect for free speech that is modeled by college professors like Berry eventually ends up bleeding into the larger society. In the 2013 annual First Amendment Center survey there was a significant increase in the number of people saying that the First Amendment goes too far in protecting individual rights. Less than one-fourth of those over sixty say the First Amendment goes too far. But nearly half of those between the ages of eighteen and thirty think it goes too far. This does not bode well for the future.
Unfortunately, college administrators are increasingly backing these illiberal leftists. At Marquette University, an instructor named Cheryle Abbate banned any speech questioning same-sex marriage from her classroom. It is worth noting that Marquette is, or once was, a Catholic university.
Marquette political science professor John McAdams justifiably criticized Abbate in a blog post. Rather than firing Abbate for her assault on free speech, the Marquette administration relieved McAdams of his teaching duties. Thus, an orthodox Catholic view on marriage came to be ruled outside the bounds of discourse at a Catholic university. Welcome to the inverted world of higher education where the illiberal left prepares future generations to function in the marketplace of ideas.
Sometimes the assault on free speech is literal. Dr. Mireille Miller-Young is a feminist studies professor at the University of California – Santa Barbara (UCSB). She actually physically attacked a sixteen-year-old pro-lifer who was handing out anti-abortion literature on campus. Her crime? She offended the feminist professor who was pregnant at the time and who also teaches reproductive rights.
After physically attacking a minor for opposing violence toward unborn children, she told police she had a “moral right” to do so. But when the case went to trial, the jury had a different view. She was convicted of theft for stealing the teenager’s anti-abortion sign and also battery for attacking her.
But her fellow professors stood up and condemned her, right? Wrong. Twelve professors sent letters to the judge vouching for her character and describing her as “open-minded.” One lauded her “kindness combined with her commitment to justice.”
Even though UCSB is a publicly funded institution, no one in the administration ever apologized for Miller-Young’s literal assault on free speech. Elevating arrogance to a Zen art, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael D. Young sent a letter to students noting, “During the last few weeks, UCSB has been visited by various anti-abortion crusaders.” After lamenting the fact that they were creating unrest on campus, he called them “provocateurs.”
In other words, the pro-lifers provoked the physical attack. They deserved it.
When they are not resorting to physical violence to quash debate, campus leftists are claiming that they feel “unsafe” whenever they encounter a dissenting opinion. This explains the recent popularity of trigger warnings, which are used to warn people of the “danger” of encountering constitutionally protected speech. I’ll cover that in the next installment. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
In the meantime, please pick up a copy of Kirsten Power’s new book, The Silencing.
Obama himself has often publicly decried the Constitution as an obstruction to government “Progress”. Cuidado!
It’s an excellent read by someone who’s apparently seen the light. I don’t see Kirsten self-identifying as “liberal” for much longer. Reality is hard to ignore.
They criticize your free speech and call it hate. They collude, demonstrate, litigate and plot. They enlist sympathetic ears in media and politics - and in the entertainment industry. They all condemn, then clamor for ill-reasoned legislation with vote threats to the weasels that pander to them.
Your words then become harmful weapons to them - the helpless victims who suffer miserably from them. Your antiquated ideas of freedom become weapons of mass destruction, and you are deemed subversive and radical.
Your numbers will be counted and you will be logged and sorted and listed. When you become too much of a problem, you are indicted and tried and sanctioned because ideas are hard to kill.
Eventually, they will imprison you all and if that doesn’t work they’ll kneel you beside a ditch and blow out your brains because you don’t ‘feel’ like them.
Reality is easy to ignore. The consequences of doing so are impossible to ignore.
Also the subject of Mary Katherine Ham’s new book, “End of Discussion”.
So the old lefty race-hack found herself a nice academic position after getting kicked out of the federal government. Professor of what I ask?
Well-put, Gaffer.
The silence of the lambs BUMP!
Do not allow them to silence you. Refuse to be silenced; say what you want to say, when and where you want to say it. You have an unassailable right to do so—avail yourself of that right. They can only succeed if we refuse to oppose them.
Because there is a reason for it, for the speech that comes from the conservatives is the TRUTH.
The left never wants the truth. That is only for the all knowing, all powerful leaders. For them, the truth is what they choose to feed to their sheep. To speak otherwise is heresy and a crime against consensus that must be quashed at all costs.
.....And yet the TRUTH STILL GETS OUT, thanks to the INTERNET!
Have you read the recent talk about reason.com?
No.
Some court case....judge has directed site to deliver all information about commenters on a particular thread about one of his/her decisions. Witch hunting and retribution.
It is starting for reals now.
She is looking more and more uncomfortable on Fox any more. I only watch Fox occasionally now. It used to be a monitored channel here in the bunker, but they are so light on news and so heavy on analysis now that it isn’t worth the aggravation.
Bob Beckel leaving, actually, didn’t help. He was another one who was seeing the light.
Seems like every firebrand, lifelong liberal they bring on finds Christ and then starts to question everything, which is very good.
What liberal USED to be was a belief in the power of government to effect good in the world. Sometimes, you just need something big and powerful to kick good over the wall and on to the next obstacle. I know quite a few current D’s like that, still clinging to that naïve paradigm.
What liberal means today is the following:
People who advocate on people they don’t care about to control people they oppose, or outright hate.
National socialism, and Germany’s blood and honor laws came from its universities. The tactics being used today by the left are similar, if the ideology is different in form, but not in aim. (control)
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