What academics who control these universities are doing, however, is something quite different: they are attempting to squelch free speech, not by invoking the doctrine that to incite violence is not protected free speech, they say quite the opposite, that the violent reaction of the listener in opposition to the speaker justifies withdrawing the constitutional right of free speech. This is quite a different matter. It moves the test away from an attempt to find a rational and objective standard for the protection or the suppression of speech, in this case the context which insightful speech is uttered, to an irrational and subjective standard, in this case the presumed subjective reaction of the listener.
Once the test becomes the real or even presumed subjective feelings of the listener, we have Ferguson Missouri on our nation's campuses. All the listener has to do is wax indignant and the utterer loses his right to speak. Objectivity is surrendered to militancy.
I have been complaining about this tendency in this forum for years. It is particularly dangerous in the hands of leftist school administrators who are manipulating vulnerable children.
