By Mitchell Blatt
Friday, November 13, 2015
When Chinese President Xi Jinping talked about
strengthening “democracy” in a speech to Australian parliament in 2014,
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was so floored he praised Xi extensively.
Of course, when 2015 came along China kept shutting down
protests and arresting activists, including five feminists in one high-profile
case who were imprisoned for a month for trying to pass out information about
sexual harassment. This is the language in an authoritarian regime that
continues to insist it is advancing down the path of communism by implementing
market reforms.
Thus it was at a “safe place” on the University of
Missouri campus that a journalist was assaulted while trying to photograph a
public protest. Universities are becoming more threatening for students,
professors, public intellectuals, and free thinkers, but it is the politically
correct social-justice fascists who are the most to blame.
That ‘Dimwit White
Person’
At universities from coast to coast, speakers have been
silenced, films have been banned, and student journalists have been cowed or
fired. Just Google “Bill Maher” or “Ayaan Hirsi Ali.” One liberal professor
even wrote at Vox (under a pseudonym) that he was “scared of his liberal
students.” And he has good reason to be. After the administrators at Mizzou
were forced out, professor Dale Brigham resigned for planning to hold exams as
usual despite a racist shooting threat posted to a social network. The poster
has since been arrested.
One activist (who referred to Brigham as a “dimwit white
peon”) was quite clear about intents to start a social media mob: “I have over
185,000+ followers on the social network Vine, and I will be posting your email
… If you continue to express opposition you WILL BE EXTORTED OF YOUR FUCKING
CAREER.” (Where’s the United Nations to talk about online intimidation now?)
This controversy over exams reflects that after Officer
Darren Wilson was not indicted in the shooting death of Michael Brown (a
decision that a review by the Obama Justice Department found to be the right
one), students at Oberlin, Georgetown, and Cornell Law School tried to get
exams canceled or delayed. Indeed, according to a timeline created by Slate,
the Missouri protests started after the shooting. Protesting at a university
over an unrelated shooting that ended up being non-criminal (though many still
cling to the unsubstantiated “hands up” narrative) makes little sense, but
neither does calling for the university president’s dismissal because of
individual student actions.
There Is No
‘Discourse’ on Campus
When two Mizzou students spread cotton balls in front of
the black student center in 2010, they were arrested and suspended. The
university took action. Contrast that with the University of Michigan’s lack of
major response to the vandalism of the apartment of a columnist who mocked PC
culture, done by the same left-wing activist who called for banning the showing
of “American Sniper.”
If student journalists don’t feel free to express their
thoughts on complex issues, where will the next generation of journalists come
from? Will those whose views are at odds with the party line be cowed into
silence or decide not to pursue it? How will student newspapers be able to
cover issues fairly knowing that the student government might cut their
funding, as happened to the Wesleyan University student paper?
The PC paramilitary police aren’t just after student
journalists. They do the same to professional pundits. Sam Harris says
discussions about Islam are being stifled.
The effects of trigger warnings and the limiting of
teaching materials aren’t just being felt in academia—where, according to The Atlantic, law school professors are
apprehensive about teaching rape law lest a student thinks it will trigger
someone—it could also cause mental health problems for the students themselves,
who are conditioned to feel distressed for every “microaggression.”
Feelings Versus
Free Speech
Free speech, free press, respect for opposing opinions,
stringent academic standards, straightforward language, and primacy of the
truth are all necessary ingredients for a strong democracy.
The very reason students can protest their administration
is that they enjoy free speech rights—rights that should apply to their opponents
as well as to them. When someone else’s feelings are given primacy over
another’s freedom of speech, you deny that person’s rights.
When feelings are given primacy over facts, there’s no
way to evaluate the truth, which is necessary for making sound policy. How can
one say Donald Trump is wrong that Mexico is “sending” the United States
illegal immigrants if the truth doesn’t matter now? And didn’t he “feel”
offended when Rich Lowry said Carly Fiorina emasculated him? Why not call for
Lowry’s firing or a Federal Communications Commission fine?
When “safe spaces” are places where pushing and verbal
abuse take place, when reality is based on the race, gender, or sexuality of a
speaker, when words like “rich,” “poor,” “senior,” and “American” are considered
“problematic,” reality ceases to exist and words have no meanings.
The biggest problem with PC culture is it destroys the
basis for a functioning democracy.
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