This post collects four April 2022 articles on free speech issues that might be of interest to readers of this blog.
(1) “My ACTA "Hero" acceptance speech,” Heterodox Stem Substack, Dorian Abbot (April 8).
“The help of alumni and the public will be necessary to effect this solution. Although faculty can and should form academic freedom lobby groups, many faculty are so focused on their research that they will not participate. Even worse, there seem to be entire departments full of faculty who are antagonistic to free expression. So ironically we can’t count on the faculty to robustly defend their own academic freedom. Administrators often have incentives that are not aligned with the university’s mission, and cannot be relied upon either. In contrast, alumni are already forming groups to withhold donations and pressure universities to defend academic freedom and academic excellence. This should be continued, encouraged, and supported. Additionally, the public provides massive funding for universities through tuition and research grants. Conditions should be put on this funding, requiring that institutions which receive it adopt and enforce the principles outlined here. Finally, all of us who care about universities need to speak openly, including to journalists of all types (including scary conservatives), about the danger they are in, so that word gets out to alumni and the public, who are most likely to solve the problem. Although this is uncomfortable for many academics, including me, it is absolutely necessary.”
(2) “Terrifying moment female conservative University of Buffalo student is 'hunted down' by woke mob screaming 'no justice, no peace,' after she invited prominent black Republican to speak,” The Daily Mail, 11 April 2022.
“West, 61, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, was escorted out of the event surrounded by police - but was met with even more protesters.
Purcell, who was with West, said there were hundreds of protesters screaming at them and she quickly became separated when the mob got in between her and the police who were protecting West. She said that's when she decided to turn around and walk peacefully back to her car. But the mob began to target her, urging one another to 'capture' her.
Purcell said the mob moved on to hunt down other members of the club and claimed they physically assaulted one of the board members by kicking and punching him.
(3) “The Yale Law School Protest and Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance,” Substack, Eric Rasmusen, April 5.
“What Popper means by intolerance is closing your ears to opposing arguments and shutting down argument by force ... What the Wokefolk want to do is close their ears to opposing arguments and shut them down by force. Thus, by Popper's Paradox of Tolerance, it is Bethany Scott and the Wokefolk who should be shut down. Applied to the Yale Law School situation, Popper is suggesting that it might be acceptable to expel the entire group of protesters and and ban the student groups who organized the protest.
(4) “I’m a Conservative Professor Who Opposed Safe Spaces. I Was Wrong,” New York Times, Jon Shields (April 7, 2022).
“Statements of abstract principle — like the liberal tradition from which they spring — neglect the concrete social norms necessary to facilitate and regulate the collective search for truth in college classrooms ... All of us who teach controversial subjects are struggling to identify and cultivate these norms ... Students lobbied for a version of the “Vegas rule” since they worried about their comments spilling out into social media land. So, I told them: “What happens in Government 137B, stays in Government 137B.”
... I have to confess that in asking students to maintain our classroom as a place of private deliberation I am asking them to keep quiet — and all in the name of open and free expression.
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