No compromise in free speech debate

[HarperCons]

I’m a prof at Wilfrid Laurier University who supports free speech.


I’m not the only one. I’m part of a group who, in the wake of the Lindsay Shepherd affair, launched a petition calling on Laurier to adopt the “Chicago Statement”— a policy that ensures maximum freedom of expression on campus. In response, the university announced the formation of a task force to recommend a policy on freedom of expression. I decline to serve on that task force because it will fail and its members’ time will be wasted. I view the task force as ill-conceived, or worse, democratic window dressing.
It will fail because one side cannot compromise and the other side will not.


Compromised free speech is simply the negation of the right itself, and so an impossible concession. The other side, social justice advocates, are not interested in free speech as it is conventionally understood. Rather, they are engaged in a revolution to tear-down established hierarchies. This is evident if you have been following the campus free speech debate over the last two years (i.e., Yale, Missouri, Evergreen State, etc.).


American social scientist Jonathan Haidt concludes that a major change has occurred. Many universities no longer view the pursuit of truth as their primary goal; instead, the social justice goal of protecting victim groups has become the priority. He argues that the two goals are incompatible. There is no compromise: Universities must choose one or the other.


The senior university leadership has clearly indicated their allegiance. When announcing the formation of the task force, the WLU president purposely tempered her support by warning that commitments to free speech must be balanced against “our institutional values of diversity and inclusion.”


Notwithstanding this institutional bias, the premise of the task force is flawed. You cannot combine free speech and social justice advocates on a task force and expect a compromise. As Mark Steyn likes to say, if you combine ice cream and feces, the mixture is apt to taste more like the latter than the former.


And to be clear, the free speech position is already a compromise. The Chicago Statement prohibits speech that “violates the law, is threatening, harassing, or defamatory, or invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests” and acknowledges that the university may regulate speech so that it is not disruptive. Any further qualification just restricts what can be said.


The social justice perspective will not compromise because it isn’t interested in free speech as a means of discovering truth. This is clear from the public statements of the justice advocates. In the leaked Shepherd audio, her professor is heard to say that some ideas are “not up for debate” and the neutral airing of both sides of an argument “is kind of the problem.” The Rainbow Centre at Laurier went straight to ad hominems and accused free speech advocates of being transphobic. A Laurier sociologist wrote that he wants to know who is abusing free speech — as if it is a tool of the oppressor.


When it comes to the task force on free expression, does my university president truly believe a compromise will be reached if both perspectives are allowed equal representation? I think she knows better.


She need only look to the example of UBC. Faculty there spent the fall crafting a statement on free expression. The last sentence is key: “Freedom of expression can only thrive constructively when accompanied by other rights, including the equality rights of equity, diversity, and inclusion.”


My university top brass knows that this task force is doomed to fail. That is, they know it won’t lead to any changes in the status quo. I suppose that’s their hope; it’s certainly the hope of many of my colleagues who feel censorship is a noble principle.


If real change is to come to my campus, it will likely have to rely on students to push the issue — students who are willing to follow the example of Lindsay Shepherd.


OPINION: No compromise in free speech debate | Toronto Sun

it seems like people with really horrible opinions act like they have no free speech and are being shut up, interesting!

 

[DaSleeper]

it seems like people with really horrible opinions act like they have no free speech and are being shut up, interesting!

Just responding to a bag of hammers like you is an exercise in futility .......but what the hell!

 

[pgs]

it seems like people with really horrible opinions act like they have no free speech and are being shut up, interesting!

Yea he posted that anonymously because of free speech and all that . What is your iq again ?

 

[petros]

9 ee

 

[HarperCons]

Yea he posted that anonymously because of free speech and all that . What is your iq again ?

sounds like a little bitch

waah people don't like when i say racist, transphobic and misogynist shit waahh my freedumbs is being taken away

 

[Hoid]

Interesting, you complain that you aren't able to debate anything, and yet, once again, you don't address a single point that Colpy has made.

is that what I claimed or is that what you understand me to have said?

i am not the one to talk about pronouns - although I could just refer to you all as it or her and you might get an idea of what I think the debate is actually over - its about people like y'all referring to transgender people by the wrong pronoun?

sound about right, missy?

You are deluded.It is the extreme left that hates and fights against free speach.

in fact there is no comparable left wing movement at all, that is just you believing what you want to believe.

there is no left wing organisation that lists Canadian teachers and professors who are unacceptable in their beliefs. That is so far strictly the righties

 

[Colpy]

it seems like people with really horrible opinions act like they have no free speech and are being shut up, interesting!

What?

You think you have no free speech and you're being shut up?

There is no worse opinion than promotion of Marxism.

 

[Jinentonix]

sounds like a little bitch

waah people don't like when i say racist, transphobic and misogynist shit waahh my freedumbs is being taken away

*sigh*. If that were only the case. Let me elaborate. "Wahhh, I don't like it when people won't engage me in my delusions. Wahhhh my freedumbs to be whatever idiotic thing I want is being taken away".

If you're a male who identifies as a female or vice versa, I'll be decent and use the gender-specific pronoun you'd like me to use. If you're some f*cktard who wants to be addressed by some made-up, bullshit "this-is-what-I-feel-like pronoun", sorry about your luck but you can go f*ck your hat.

Here, let's play that stupid game now. I feel like I'm the King of Canada. From now on I want you to use the term "Your Majesty" when you address me. Sound good?

 

[JLM]

*sigh*. If that were only the case. Let me elaborate. "Wahhh, I don't like it when people won't engage me in my delusions. Wahhhh my freedumbs to be whatever idiotic thing I want is being taken away".

If you're a male who identifies as a female or vice versa, I'll be decent and use the gender-specific pronoun you'd like me to use. If you're some f*cktard who wants to be addressed by some made-up, bullshit "this-is-what-I-feel-like pronoun", sorry about your luck but you can go f*ck your hat.

Here, let's play that stupid game now. I feel like I'm the King of Canada. From now on I want you to use the term "Your Majesty" when you address me. Sound good?

You just have to face the fact..................some people's candles flicker from time to time.

 

[HarperCons]

What?

You think you have no free speech and you're being shut up?

There is no worse opinion than promotion of Marxism.

decades of fear-mongering McCarthyism hasn't made Marxism the most acceptable idea in america. couple the fact with how dumb the average american is and how Marx isn't the easiest to understand and you have demonized ideas you don't even begin to understand.

 

[petros]

Psssst. That's a Hindu symbol not a swastika it's backwards.

 

[HarperCons]

*sigh*. If that were only the case. Let me elaborate. "Wahhh, I don't like it when people won't engage me in my delusions. Wahhhh my freedumbs to be whatever idiotic thing I want is being taken away".

If you're a male who identifies as a female or vice versa, I'll be decent and use the gender-specific pronoun you'd like me to use. If you're some f*cktard who wants to be addressed by some made-up, bullshit "this-is-what-I-feel-like pronoun", sorry about your luck but you can go f*ck your hat.

Here, let's play that stupid game now. I feel like I'm the King of Canada. From now on I want you to use the term "Your Majesty" when you address me. Sound good?

are you straw-manning again? what are you even talking about?

Psssst. That's a Hindu symbol not a swastika it's backwards.

yes i'm pretty sure that's the hindu symbol this "white british patriot" thinks he has on his arm...

 

[Angstrom]

decades of fear-mongering McCarthyism hasn't made Marxism the most acceptable idea in america. couple the fact with how dumb the average american is and how Marx isn't the easiest to understand and you have demonized ideas you don't even begin to understand.

Marx and stupidité go very well together. A match made in heaven

 

[JLM]

You and Flossy should just accept that you're wrong and that you hate freedom of expression. Then you both (along with the Trumpites) can move along and let the adults have a discussion

And in the meantime what are you doing?

 

[Cannuck]

*hug*

 

[JLM]

*hug*

Don't be a troll!

 

[Cannuck]

*hug*

 

[Dixie Cup]

you will not get anyone in academia to go anywhere and debate this topic on the pro side.

the alt right has made sure of it

that is what freedom of speech as all about. its about shutting down the opposition.

Excuse me but you have it wrong - it's the "alt left" that is heading this up!

 

[Angstrom]

Excuse me but you have it wrong - it's the "alt left" that is heading this up!

Apparently its the left who has been pushed to retreat to their safe spaces on their Training wheel decked government issued bicycles.

 

[Hoid]

Excuse me but you have it wrong - it's the "alt left" that is heading this up!

that is just you believing what you need to believe.

there is no left wing organisation that tries to identify and get rid of teachers who do not teach their point of view.

that is, so far, strictly a right wing thing.