The Cato Institute, as I mentioned yesterday, conducted a poll (along with YouGov) of 2300 Americans on their attitudes toward free speech and related issues. Their report, “The state of free speech and tolerance in America“, is now online, and it’s a gold mine of data, even if the sample size is a bit small. While I summarized the results (as published in The Atlantic) in two separate posts yesterday, there are some results I didn’t mention, and some graphs that might be useful to those who gives talks on this stuff. Here are a few results I didn’t mention yesterday; the Cato Institute’s words are indented:
65% Say Colleges Should Discipline Students Who Shut Down Invited Campus Speak
Two-thirds (65%) say colleges need to discipline students who disrupt invited speakers and prevent them from speaking. However, the public is divided on how: 46% want to give students a warning, 31% want the incident noted on the student’s academic record, 22% want students to pay a fine, 20% want students suspended, 19% favor arresting students, and 13% want students fully expelled.
Democrats take a softer while Republicans take a harder approach to handling disruptive college protestors.
This of course depends on the nature of the infraction and whether it’s repeated. I think students should always be removed when disrupting event, but only disciplined formally if it happens more than once. Now, on to the Halloween costumes, about which I’ll post later today:
Americans Don’t Think Colleges Need to Advise Students on Halloween Costumes
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the public say colleges shouldn’t advise students about offensive Halloween costumes and should instead let students work it out on their own. A third (33%) think it is the responsibility of the university to advise students not to wear costumes that stereotype racial or ethnic groups at off-campus parties.
A majority of African Americans (56%) believe universities should intervene and advise against offensive costumes. Conversely, a strong majority (71%) of white Americans and a majority of Latinos (56%) believe that college students should discuss offensive Halloween costumes among themselves without administrator involvement.
This is the general public, of course, but I’m heartened to see that most people save African-Americans think that colleges should stay out of the issue. Since I haven’t seen any costumes making fun of blacks, I attribute that difference to a heightened sensitivity among African -mericans, which is of course understandable.
I don’t think that, in general, people should be fired for expressing views on their own time that don’t affect their job. (There are exceptions, but I won’t detail them here.) In this case Republicans are more punitive, especially when the speech of a “business executive” impugns “American values”:
What Beliefs and Expression Should Get People Fired?
Americans tend to oppose firing people for their beliefs or expression. However, Democrats and Republicans differ on what beliefs or expressive acts they believe are fireable offenses:
-
Republicans (54%) are more likely than Democrats (38%) to say a business executive should be fired if she or he burned the American flag during a weekend political protest.
-
Republicans (65%) are far more likely than Democrats (19%) to say NFL players should be fired for refusing to stand for the national anthem before games.
-
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say a business executive should be fired if he or she believes:
-
transgender people have a mental disorder (44% vs. 14%)
-
homosexuality is a sin (32% vs. 10%)
-
psychological differences help explain why there are more male than female engineers (34% vs. 14%)
The contentious issue of “Nazi punching” (realize that many people think “Nazis” are “any extreme right winger”):
Is Violence an Appropriate Response to Hate Speech?
51% of Strong Liberals Say It’s Morally Acceptable to Punch Nazis
Most Americans (68%) do not think it’s morally acceptable to use physical violence against Nazis, while 32% say it is morally acceptable.6
However, strong liberals stand out with a slim majority (51%) who say it’s moral to punch Nazis in the face. Only 21% of strong conservatives agree. The survey found liberals were more likely to consider upsetting and controversial ideas “hateful” rather than simply “offensive.” This may help partially explain why staunch liberals are more comfortable than the average American with using violence against Nazis.
Strong liberals’ approval of Nazi-punching is not representative of Democrats as a whole. A majority (56%) of Democrats believe it is not morally acceptable to punch a Nazi. Thus, tolerance of violence as a response to offensive speech and ideas is found primarily on the far Left of the Democratic Party.
This saddens me, even the 1/5 of “strong conservatives” who think physical violence is morally okay. “Strong liberals”, however, are beyond the pale:
This saddens me too; note that there’s not much of an effect of age, but a large effect of politics, as Republicans are less likely to consider hate speech as violence. So do blacks and Hispanics compared to whites. This is one of the few datasets they have that’s broken down by age.
Hate speech is not violence, and thinking it so gives you a lame excuse to both ban it and retaliate with physical violence when you hear speech you don’t like. Remember, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Well, they can hurt you emotionally, but there’s a big difference between offending someone and breaking their nose.
People who don’t understand the First Amendment:
Including many Democrats!
The red bars are the censors and minorities, but of course the question is a bit dicey, as what does “create a difficult learning environment” really mean?
More on Pecksniffery:
Bias Reporting System
51% Oppose Bias Reporting System; 68% of Current Students Support It
A slim majority (51%) of Americans oppose while nearly as many (48%) support the idea of a confidential reporting system at colleges through which students could report people who make offensive comments about a person’s race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability status.
This “bias reporting system,” as it’s often described, is highly popular among current students. More than two-thirds (68%) of current college students and graduate students support it while less than a third oppose (30%). However, 63% of those who have already graduated from college oppose a system to allow students to report bias on campus.
Lots of people support this, especially Democrats. Note, though, a bit of age-related data: current students are much more likely to support a bias reporting system than those who have already graduated from college:
You can get the whole report as a free pdf here. Sadly, I don’t see much of the data broken down by age save the “hate speech” table above, so our questions about age and attitudes toward free speech are generally unanswered. UPDATE: See the first comment below; there ARE tables that break down the data by age of respondent.
