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As a professor, I’ve seen woke and MAGA censorship. Which is worse?
The Washington Post ^
| 10/18/2025 6:30 a.m. EDT
| Crispin Sartwell
Posted on 10/18/2025 11:18:14 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Both attacks on free speech are devastating for academia, but in different ways.
Crispin Sartwell retired as a philosophy professor in 2023. His most recent book is “Beauty: A Quick Immersion.”
It didn’t take long for professors to point out that the right-wing wave of
restrictions on expression, spurred by the Trump administration, is far worse than those characteristic of “the woke era.” After all, the woke restrictions were primarily internal, a matter of academic practice, as students, administrators and professors tried to eliminate any shred of skepticism toward diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. It was annoying — and devastating if you were fired or publicly shamed. In my view, it led to a dramatic decline in the quality of research.
But MAGA restrictions appear far more serious, as the
administration threatens to withhold federal funds on ideological grounds, attempts to make colleges pledge themselves to Trumpian orthodoxy, drives
university presidents from their jobs and vilifies the work of professors or students in a way that shames or even endangers them. This is direct governmental free-speech suppression, which is just what the founders of the American republic wanted to prevent: The First Amendment prohibits the government but not, say, private universities from restricting speech.
The classic picture of censorship involves a government crackdown. The Constitution’s fundamental purpose is to prevent that kind of suppression, which the founders had experienced at the hands of the British Empire. And a government crackdown is a different sort of beast than an atmosphere of social and professional pressure: The president of the United States can employ weapons, surveillance techniques and internment facilities of which (dare I say it) university vice provosts can only dream. A government’s oppressive power exceeds that of any private institution, and the dangers to...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: books; crispinsartwell; crispinthecommie; dickinsoncollege; epluribusrino; waposedition; zot
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To: God luvs America
21
posted on
10/19/2025 4:02:39 AM PDT
by
blitz128
To: E. Pluribus Unum
As a Realtor, I’ve seen some stupid asses. But this boob take the cake
22
posted on
10/19/2025 4:04:03 AM PDT
by
albie
To: E. Pluribus Unum
When an article starts out as “As A Professor” and published by WaPo, I’m confident it’s pure propaganda.
23
posted on
10/19/2025 4:13:55 AM PDT
by
redfreedom
(They’re AWFUL...Affuent White Female Urban Leftists)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
MAGA Censorship? Does not pass the smell test.
24
posted on
10/19/2025 4:24:41 AM PDT
by
VRW Conspirator
(How it started: Covfefe - - - - - How it is going: COVFAFO)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
Any ‘professor’ writing for the post is a sorry-assed professor indeed.
To: E. Pluribus Unum
“...withhold federal funds...”
Hey WaPo and retard/libtard professor, there is no such thing as “federal funds” as there are only two things that the feds feed off financially: Usurping OUR dollars off our income or piling on our soon to be $40,000,000,000,000 debt.
Well there is a third one but not real cash, printing money causing inflation.
26
posted on
10/19/2025 4:50:22 AM PDT
by
quantim
(Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
attempts to make colleges pledge themselves to Trumpian orthodoxy Trumpian orthodoxy? You mean pro-American values held by normal people. Sounds like the author has retired, but is still living in his academic fishbowl.
27
posted on
10/19/2025 4:50:57 AM PDT
by
Bernard
("Nothing is as expensive as that which the government provides for free." - Ronald Reagan)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
the woke restrictions were primarily internal/
Utter bullshit.
Any one who said anything they didn’t like was and is endlessly bashed nationaly on LEGION network media, doxxed, debarked, de platformed, kicked off YouTube, sued and SHOT.
UTTER BULLSHIT it’s internal
SPIT.
28
posted on
10/19/2025 4:55:07 AM PDT
by
cuz1961
To: E. Pluribus Unum
So,What he’s saying here is that Save The Whales (The US Government) must continue paying the Japanese whale harvest industry (the universities)? Did I get that right?
29
posted on
10/19/2025 4:57:05 AM PDT
by
mistfree
(Fear Destroys Freedom)
To: cuz1961
This urinalist studiously ignored the most recent declaration by the wicked queen of the Democrats Pelosi who told a reporter
SHUT UP !!!
30
posted on
10/19/2025 4:59:54 AM PDT
by
cuz1961
To: E. Pluribus Unum
You can stop after the word “professor”.
L
31
posted on
10/19/2025 5:02:22 AM PDT
by
Lurker
( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.l)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
So if a college has a global warming skeptic on staff they still got all of their research grants? If they didn't celebrate homosexual pride month sufficiently the government just ignored it? If they said restrooms and locker rooms were based on genetic sex and not how you felt for the day they didn't get crushed with expanded Title IX rulings?
The difference between the two parties are that the Democrats were forcing the universities to do what most wanted to do anyway and the Democrats were more subtle about their orders.
32
posted on
10/19/2025 5:06:26 AM PDT
by
KarlInOhio
(I pray that the sleeping giant has finally awakened and been filled with a terrible resolve.)
To: Rockingham
Ask Jewish students about universities embracing “ free Palestine” wokists…..
33
posted on
10/19/2025 5:14:54 AM PDT
by
silverleaf
(“Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out” —David Horowitz)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
"Whose dictator do they belong to - yours or mine?"
-- nameless idiot professor
34
posted on
10/19/2025 5:21:30 AM PDT
by
larrytown
(A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
Imaginary censorship is always the scariest. MAGA censorship = projection
35
posted on
10/19/2025 5:25:37 AM PDT
by
AppyPappy
(They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
To: Rockingham
Speak all they want, just don’t expect to live in a lavish jet set and attend meetings throughout the world.
36
posted on
10/19/2025 5:32:24 AM PDT
by
healy61
To: E. Pluribus Unum
My senior year philosophy professor ripped the veneer off the mystery of philosophy. I had just received an A on my first assignment, though I said the complete opposite of what my classmates wrote.
In answering my confusion, he laughed and said, “with philosophy, it’s not what you say, but how you say it. You must understand that philosophy is nothing but a bunch of bull$hit.”
That lesson has served me well for nearly 50 years.
37
posted on
10/19/2025 5:38:32 AM PDT
by
Night Hides Not
(Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It! I’m )
To: Rockingham
Federal government doesn’t have to fund the sedition against it.
38
posted on
10/19/2025 5:39:59 AM PDT
by
virgil
(The evil that men do lives after them )
To: E. Pluribus Unum
Free speech airs out
Woke suffocates
To: Rockingham
40
posted on
10/19/2025 5:45:44 AM PDT
by
DoodleBob
(Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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