Free Republic

Today's counter-revolution against liberty is being fought on a number of fronts in American society. One is on college and university campuses across the country, where the ideology of "political correctness" is strangling freedom of speech and smothering intellectual controversy and debate. Critical to this campaign is the capture of language. It is through our language that we think about ourselves, our relationships to others, and the social order surrounding us. Words do not merely delineate objects, individuals, events or actions. Words also create mental imageries, emotions, attitudes, and beliefs that color how people see themselves and the world around...

The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday apologized for President’s Trump’s politically charged speech to kids at the youth organization’s gathering this week. “I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent,” Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh wrote on Scoutingwire. “The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition that has been extended to the leader of our nation that has had a Jamboree during his term since 1937. It is...

What’s everybody’s big problem with small talk? There are memes about hating small talk, articles about dodging potential landmines in casual conversation and a move to end the practice altogether. With a new season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on the horizon, the biggest hater of small talk, Larry David, is inspiring pieces on how to avoid it altogether. David has said on the show that he tries “to elevate small talk to medium talk” and he’s really not a fan of the “stop and chat” with an acquaintance. He’s not alone. This month Cosmopolitan UK described people who would “rather...

Dear UNC President Spellings:For years, my opposition to UNC diversity initiatives has been a source of controversy across our seventeen-campus system. Many have assumed that my opposition has been a function of personal prejudice or insensitivity to the needs of various “disenfranchised” groups. In reality, it is a function of my belief that people should be judged according to individual character traits, not group stereotypes. However, despite years of opposition to UNC’s victim centered diversity movement, it appears that my side has lost. Accordingly, I write to you today with an offer to join the war against white privilege and...

As someone who fights on the side of free speech, I’m the first to tell ya, we do have a tendency to strawman political correctness. You may have heard things like “them snowflakes just don’t like being ‘fended” or “they want to suppress the truth!” and though I agree in PC cultures worst form all these things are true, those aren’t the actual arguments they make. So let me arm you with the intellectual tools you need to successfully contribute to the discussion! And if you’re PC, listen with an open mind- maybe I can change it. One argument they...

President Trump called for an end to political correctness when discussing terrorism following Saturday night's attack in London that left seven dead and almost 50 injured. " We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don't get smart it will only get worse " — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017 "We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don't get smart it will only get worse," Trump tweeted. He then slammed London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who...

New look at the new Trek incarnation. Overall it looks like a PC mess. White men are almost an after-thought. An overtly gay man on the bridge. Set a decade before TOS. Of course, CGI is many iterations ahead of what has come before and it looks gorgeous. Said to be broadcast worldwide on pay-for-TV CBS offshoot. May explain why the characters are World Government types. Show was due January 2017. Then summer, 2017. Now -- who knows? The original show runner quit and show has been turned-over to others. Casting reportedly still incomplete. Like other Trek fans I am...

When the College Republicans chapter at Maryland’s Hood College decided to put up a temporary display honoring prominent conservatives, the group wanted to promote the free exchange of ideas. “We just wanted to provoke thoughtful discussion,” said club president Christopher Gardner. “We have done that.” In reality, the young Republicans accomplished even more by exposing how close-minded many of their fellow students have become.

A leading Church of England vicar yesterday condemned the words of one of the country’s best-loved hymns as obscene, offensive and unfit to be sung by Christians. The Reverend Gordon Giles, one of the Anglicans’ leading authorities on hymns, declared that I Vow to Thee My Country should be rewritten if it is to be sung by modern congregations. His verdict was delivered in advance of the remembrance weekend when the hymn, which is especially valued by military families, will feature in thousands of services across the country and the Commonwealth.

MADISON, Wis. — Still fighting for his speech and contractual rights two years after Marquette University drove him out of the classroom, Professor John McAdams will receive a top national academic freedom prize Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. McAdams will be awarded the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Award for Academic Freedom for his outspoken criticism of political correctness on college campuses. “Professor McAdams is a fearless defender of free speech and open inquiry, and a martyr to political correctness,” said Richard Graber, president and CEO of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which supports the Kirkpatrick Award. “His dismissal from Marquette University...

Trinity College Dublin is to remove the bible from its crest, it has been there since 1592. They will also change the color scheme on the ancient crest to avoid a clash with Ryanair’s corporate image. The world famous college is set to be rebranded as ‘Trinity College, the University of Dublin’ in a strategic plan to be launched next year. The Irish Times reports that it is not only the name that will change at the university, home to the Book of Kells. Religious symbolism has also been removed from the college’s ancient crest at a cost of almost...

The American military under Obama received less focus about preparing to fight wars than as a laboratory for social engineering. The military was ordered to integrate Homosexuals and transgenders into the ranks. The armed forces had to place its war fighting training on hold in order to adopt the “politically correct,” liberal agenda of the far left. As a result, the military has begun to lose its fighting spirit and forgotten its heritage and history. The Obamas Regime’s “inclusive approach” has managed to minimize the expression of religion in the ranks. Officers and enlisted alike have been disciplined for displaying...

The U.S. Mint has unveiled a commemorative $100 gold coin that features an image of Liberty as a black woman. The 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin shows the woman’s head in profile with a crown of stars. […] The mint says it’s the first in a series of 24-karat gold that will also depict Liberty in designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Indian-Americans. …

Sixty years ago, Chief Justice Earl Warren warned our nation that we had a choice. Either “teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate,” or “our civilization will stagnate and die.” There was no third option. Today, we face this choice again. Recent attempts to shame professors for unpopular views and to curtail the due process rights of those accused of misconduct are cause for alarm. Especially when academic freedom is endangered at places such as Yale — long celebrated as a leader on freedom of expression — we know that the erosion of...

As day follows day and January 20 approaches, my colleagues and students experience something along the lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 60: "Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore, / So do our minutes hasten to their end." As far as they're concerned, the ascent of Donald Trump spells D-O-O-M. It is easy to understand why they believe it. Professors and administrators at the best universities in the land have gone so deeply into identity politics that they can only regard him as an atavistic clod. They have raised the ordinary frictions of daily affairs into a melodrama of...

Go to the source for examples of persecution within European countries. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9525/europe-illegal-criticize-islam Here's a summary: First, understand that prosecuting and sanctioning people who criticize Islam has become more common in Europe. This explains the seemingly pitiful willingness of the Europeans to silently watch their countries fill with muslim refugee-settlers. They are now prosecuted for free speech. The "cutting out the tongue" or "imprisonment" policies for criticism of islam was once restricted to only sharia law -Muslim countries where it is 100% forbidden. Now the European courts are submitting to islam and taking cues from sharia law. European governments are deliberately...

We are in the heart of Christmas season, so that means it’s time for the tolerance Grinches to come out of their closets once again. And, despite its dumpster fire excesses, it is only fitting that the year 2016 close with the memory of these recent incidents and examples of America’s perennial War on Christmas. 1. No to “religious-themed” displays of Santa deity An Oregon school district instructed staff to sacrifice Christmas symbols at the altar of “diversity.” According to a memo sent by the Hillsboro School District, school staff could still decorate their offices, but were asked to “be...

Days after an Oakland Mills High School student was disciplined for posting a racist photo online -- some students are staging a walkout this morning.

“Comrade, your statement is factually incorrect.” “Yes, it is. But it is politically correct.” The notion of political correctness came into use among Communists in the 1930s as a semi-humorous reminder that the Party’s interest is to be treated as a reality that ranks above reality itself. Because all progressives, Communists included, claim to be about creating new human realities, they are perpetually at war against nature’s laws and limits. But since reality does not yield, progressives end up pretending that they themselves embody those new realities. Hence, any progressive movement’s nominal goal eventually ends up being subordinated to the...

Is political Islam in America’s best interests? This question should be central to our strategy of fighting ISIS and Islamist terrorism in general. Yet it’s one that many political leaders would rather not answer, because of our politically correct climate. But since Trump’s transition team announced last week that it’s considering retired Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense, this reluctance might fade. In a speech given at the Heritage Foundation last year, Mattis spoke about America’s position vis à vis political Islam. Rather than equivocating on the matter in order to avoid saying something uncomfortable or politically incorrect, Mattis...