Category Archives: freedom of speech

The pushback against free speech begins

October 19, 2020 – 10:00 am

A while back I predicted—though I’m not sure it was here—that, just as college students are questioning free speech, so the Left-wing media would also begin questioning it, eventually calling for an end to “hate speech” or “fake news.” After all, it’s not called the Authoritarian Left for nothing, and their goal is not to […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in First Amendment, freedom of expression | Comments (195)

Facebook considers Holocaust denial as “hate speech”, removes it from the site

October 13, 2020 – 11:00 am

Facebook’s Vice-President for Content Policy has posted a new notice saying that, as part of the firm’s fight against “hate speech,” they’re removing any content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust.” Click on the screenshot to see the full announcement: An excerpt: Today we are updating our hate speech policy to prohibit any content that […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in "hate speech", anti-semitism, censorship, freedom of expression | Comments (87)

Nick Cohen on a creepy case of cancel culture

October 9, 2020 – 10:30 am

Like me, every once in a while Nick Cohen has to display his bona fides and assert that no, he’s no right-winger. That’s because—also like me—his interest is largely in identifying and decrying the excesses of the Left, which he considers damaging to our side. And so, in September, he wrote a piece in the […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Cancel Culture, freedom of expression, sex and gender issues | Comments (28)

CUNY anti-Semite defended by University for assaulting student wearing an IDF tee-shirt

October 6, 2020 – 11:30 am

Nerdeen Kiswani, a student of Palestinian descent at the City University of New York (CUNY) Law School, is a nasty piece of work. According to articles in the New English Review and stopantisemitism.org, Kiswani, as President of the anti-Semitic organization Students for Justice in Palestine, has celebrated terrorists who killed Israeli civilians, herself celebrated the death […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in anti-semitism, Colleges acting badly, freedom of expression | Comments (27)

U of C President clarifies and affirms University’s refusal to take official stands on political, ideological, and moral issues

October 6, 2020 – 9:45 am

For a while I’ve been dismayed by the posting of statement after woke statement on departmental websites of the University of Chicago, all espousing doctrines adhering to Critical Race Theory or the Black Lives Matter movement, and often castigating their own group for a past history of racism in a University department or school—a history […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities, freedom of expression | Comments (12)

College free speech rankings: best and worst (n.b.: U of C is number one)

September 29, 2020 – 1:00 pm

Over at RealClearEducation, we see the results of a new survey of free speech on campus, which ranks 55 American colleges from best to worst in their free-expression policies and atmosphere. The novel thing about this survey is that the rankings were the results of polling the students themselves—20,000 of them. The survey was sponsored […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Colleges acting badly, colleges and universities, freedom of expression | Comments (10)

Wesleyan University president purports to comport intellectual diversity with “hate speech” ban; the result is still censorship

September 20, 2020 – 9:45 am

A friend affiliated with Wesleyan University sent me the New York Times article below, saying that I should be aware of the school’s efforts to “encourage a diversity of opinion in public debates on campus while barring hate speech and so on.”  Intrigued but doubtful, I read the article by Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in "hate speech", Colleges acting badly, colleges and universities, freedom of expression | Comments (18)

“Silence = violence” leads to the demonization of the silent and the compulsion to utter certain words

September 2, 2020 – 9:00 am

Until recently, those on the Left who were not sufficiently “progressive” were criticized for their words: not saying the right thing. Now, according to the article below, you get damned for your silence. Or, if not that, you’re compelled to say certain words and phrases.  In part, says author Jonathan Turley, this change comes from the […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in freedom of expression | Comments (78)

Hofstra students demand “zero tolerance for hate speech”

August 21, 2020 – 9:00 am

Hofstra University is a private school on Long Island with about 5,000 undergraduates.  As a private school, it’s not legally obliged to follow the First Amendment by permitting free speech on campus.  The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which has rated 450 colleges and universities for their adherence to Constitutional protections, doesn’t list Hofstra. […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in college students behaving badly, colleges and universities, freedom of expression, racism | Comments (36)

Greg Lukianoff of FIRE outlines how colleges should commit to freedom of speech

August 3, 2020 – 10:30 am

Here’s a short video of Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), outlining five actions people can take to ensure free speech on college campuses. These are, he says, things that people should demand of all college presidents.  I’ll give a short list of What Is To Be Done, but watch the […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities, freedom of religion | Comments (5)