Ari Herbert (Texas): Can We Still Talk Things Out? A Case Study of Campus Hate Speech Regulations at the University of Texas. Suzanna Danuta Walters on academe’s poisonous call-out culture. Bari Weiss on when the Left turns on its own. How to make a queer scene: Ramzi Fawaz on a feminist and queer pedagogical model he calls “affective curation” as a strategic response to the rhetoric of trigger warnings in contemporary humanities classrooms. How microaggression training could harm minority students. On political correctness: Power, class, and the new campus religion. The “Shut It Down” Left and the war on the liberal mind.
On the same day Charles Murray was shouted down at Middlebury, Franklin & Marshall hosted a speaker opposed by some Muslim students and others; they protested, but didn’t disrupt — and he spoke. Charles Murray getting attacked is an outrage, but a liberal professor gets threatened? Silence. Where is the outrage for Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor? Don’t expect liberalism to come to the defense of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Are students at elite colleges more likely to protest controversial speakers? The new hysteria over campus speech: “The notion that the behavior of a handful of idiot undergraduates at one event at one hyper-elite college is a true harbinger of an authoritarian future — as opposed to say the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States — is dangerous nonsense”.
Even in fascism’s heyday, anti-fascists on campus were controversial. Michael Munger writes in praise of safe spaces on campus. What “snowflakes” get right about free speech. Why colleges have a right to reject hateful speakers like Ann Coulter. There’s a well-funded campus industry behind the Ann Coulter incident. Stephanie Saul on the conservative force behind speeches roiling college campuses. How liberal colleges breed conservative firebrands: Life on the defensive can curdle into reactionary politics. The only conservative scholar on campus: Right-wing philosopher Daniel Bonevac on how a minority of students can shut down debates and intimidate lecturers — and why he backs Trump.
Why should college students let their enemies speak? Naked self-interest. Free speech as battleground: Censorship used against our enemies will soon be used against us. Fordham University’s suppression of pro-Palestinian views shows why liberals should fight for free speech. Why walking out is better than shouting down. The most important free speech question: Who decides? Jeannie Suk Gersen on how Trump has stoked the campus debate on speech and violence.
