“The ugliness being displayed on college campuses where protesters have become violent or threatened violence because of the conservative views of speakers would be disturbing in any context, but is especially so when it occurs on college campuses that should be havens of free speech.”
Yes. It’s long past time to drain the swamp of American academia. Public universities and colleges must cease to be indoctrination centers for the hard-Left, and ensure that dissent from the Leftist line is not censored and the dissenters brutalized, or they should receive no taxpayer funding of any kind, and required to include in all promotional literature a statement to the effect that they don’t receive any public funding because of their intolerance of all intellectual dissent. If they are private universities or colleges, they should be required to include a warning label on all their promotional literature: “Warning: this institution does not tolerate views that deviate from the mainstream Leftist line. Enroll at your own risk.”
“Editorial: Rude behavior at conservative’s speech drags UB students into bad company,” Buffalo News Editorial Board, May 5, 2017 (thanks to Rachel):
The ugliness being displayed on college campuses where protesters have become violent or threatened violence because of the conservative views of speakers would be disturbing in any context, but is especially so when it occurs on college campuses that should be havens of free speech.
Lately, student protests against conservative speakers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Middlebury College have grabbed headlines. It is disappointing that the University at Buffalo would earn a dishonorable mention.
This is America. Freedom of expression and ideas is one of this nation’s hallmarks. It sets us apart from nations where citizens risk jail or worse by speaking out.
Someone sharing conservative viewpoints on a college campus – invited to speak by a group of like-minded students – should not be shut down because the other side does not like what he or she has to say. What is more un-American than that?…
And now, UB?
Controversial speaker Robert Spencer found himself being shouted down and heckled at the podium, according to an article by News staff reporter Jay Tokasz. The topic: “Exposing Radical Islam: The Dangers of Jihad in Today’s World.”
A couple of hundred people showed up, many of them intent on making clear their opposition to Spencer’s viewpoint on Islam. Another 100 or more people were kept outside the room by university police because of fire code limits inside. This did not go over well with protesters. While the situation did not turn violent, it was rude and reflected the kind of intolerance that many protesters cite as their motivation.
Despite using a microphone during his talk, Spencer was frequently drowned out by shouts and chants to let more students inside, according to the article. Some students called him a Nazi, and others just yelled for him to shut up.
It is well within the students’ right to disagree or even to protest outside the hall. But Spencer was invited to talk. He is part of a speakers bureau organized by the national Young Americans for Freedom Foundation, and frequently speaks on college campuses at the invitation of local chapters. He was invited by the chapter that formed on the UB campus in February.
This is not unique to campus liberals….
Yes, actually, it generally is.