Comments on: College codes limit free speech

By: Alex Bensky

Alex Bensky — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:30:32 +0000

I suppose it would be a violation of the code at Penn State to read Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift aloud. Swift might offend Irish or English, depending on how you take “A Modest Proposal.” And Twain…good lord, he used the n word to describe Jim and the caricatures of Southern whites are downright nasty.

I guess that a drama club putting on “The Man Who Came to Dinner” would likewise be banned…or to put it better, verboeten. After all, it’s about a vain, egotistical person who has no regard for the viewpoints or needs of other people, selfishly concentrating on what he likes, and Penn State aministrators would likely find it aimed at them.

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:47:10 +0000

Ben Stein reports that Richard Nixon was actually quite funny.

By: SuperSub

SuperSub — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:40:16 +0000

“what makes people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert clever and funny?”

Because they’re labelled that by those who feel the same way. I bet plenty of Germans thought Hitler was funny. Being ‘funny’ is by no means a defense for being close-minded.

“what makes people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert clever and funny is that they *don’t* resort to stereotyped character assassinations based on personal attack or innuendo ”

They do something other than stereotyped character assassinations? Is Jon Stewart on another show besides the Daily Show that I’ve missed?

By: Dave J

Dave J — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:09:42 +0000

“It is unfortunate that such a large percentage of the population does not know the difference.”

It is unfortunate that you’re incapable of recognizing that sufficiently vague language ALWAYS invites arbitrary and selective enforcement, especially when (as in the case of college speech codes) that’s exactly why it’s written that way to begin with.

Oh, and Mrs. Lopez, being Canadian does not excuse this degree of willful blindness. Differences certainly do exist in the details, but free speech is not a uniquely American concept.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:40:48 +0000

How dare they be intolerant of intolerance! According to your logic Margo/Mom you are discriminating if you speak out against discrimination.

My biggest problem with FIRE is that they only protect the right to speech that they agree with.

That is absolutely wrong. They will take on any free speech case whether the person is on the left or the right of the political spectrum. They even defended the free speech rights of Ward Churchill.

By: Quincy

Quincy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:46:43 +0000

They have used terminology very similar to that quoted (demeaning, ridiculing, defaming, stigmatizing, intimidating, slandering )in their call for universities to halt such things as diversity training, socio-political viewpoints that challenge white heterosexual males, etc.

I do hope that the difference between individual students’ actions and the actions of an educational institution are clear to everyone else here. FIRE does not go after the leftist actions of individual students on campus, only after the actions of campus employees that are descriminatory or restrictive. Since most of these actions are left-wing in nature, FIRE comes out looking like a right-wing group. If you puruse their archives over the years, you will find that they have stood up against discrimination or restriction of a right-wing nature on campuses when it is brough to their attention.

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:09:41 +0000

My biggest problem with FIRE is that they only protect the right to speech that they agree with. They have used terminology very similar to that quoted (demeaning, ridiculing, defaming, stigmatizing, intimidating, slandering )in their call for universities to halt such things as diversity training, socio-political viewpoints that challenge white heterosexual males, etc.

By: Bandit

Bandit — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:52:00 +0000

what makes people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert clever and funny is that they *don’t* resort to stereotyped character assassinations based on personal attack or innuendo

That’s a joke right? A better question is

what makes people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert clever and funny?

The answer is nothing. Jon Stewart is an ignorant hater.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:35:24 +0000

That should have said “Evan, you ARE correct.” Next time I will use preview first!

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:29:09 +0000

Evan, you correct. In addition, at a public university, these speech codes are in violation of the First Amendment. The last time I checked I could not find in the Bill of Rights the right not to be offended. The whole purpose of having a First Amendment is to protect a person’s right to speak, whether or not what they say is deemed to be offensive. Clearly, if only inoffensive speech was protected, then there would not be a need for the First Amendment. In is sad that the supposed bastion of Free Speech, the University, goes around censoring students. Unfortunately, too many universities are far better at re-education than education.