Campus Speech Debate: The Nightmare of the Nineties is Alive
On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to attend a very engaging debate at the Comedy Cellar in New York City. Organized by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and…
Posts by tag
Free Speech
22 posts
Mad Online; Or, The Enemy of My Enemy
In The Fragile Absolute Slavoj Zizek wrote of the Balkans that they’re “always somewhere else, a little bit more towards the southeast. . . .” Pundits seem part of a parallel…
Freedom of Speech and the Fallacy of Demanding to be Heard
There is a troubling misunderstanding of the principle of freedom of speech gaining momentum right now. It fundamentally misunderstands two central concepts of the principle — individual freedom and the…
This Is Why We Need to Talk About Diversity
We simply cannot address any issues productively if we cannot talk about them.
The Case of Lindsay Shepherd and What It Teaches Us about How Learning Occurs
People with real power over someone else often use the excuse that they are defending “victims” to engage in the most shameless bullying.
On Campus, A Minority, and Reflecting on Free Speech
A while back, I was profiled for the Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf about my thoughts on the campus culture wars in a piece titled “Left Outside the Social-Justice Movement’s Small…
The Moral Contamination of Free Speech
We find ourselves living in an age where free speech is considered by many as a concept that only right-wingers care about. “You think free speech is important?” I’m asked.…
What Charlie Hebdo Can Teach Us About the Nature of Satire
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is once more at the center of a storm of controversy over the cover cartoon they posted in response to the recent Houston floods.…
If It’s OK to “Punch a Nazi,” Then It’s OK to Punch You
There’s a meme circulating on the internet which righteously urges everyone to “Punch Nazis.” Promoting this phrase has become a virtue-signal in certain circles of the left, and even among…
Evergreen College, Free Speech, and the Meaning of Social Justice
“Identity politics” rises on all sides. Identity politics are commonly attributed to the political left, where they are a response to the original, historical identity politics – male, and, in…
Why I Am a Free Speech Absolutist
I was recently reading an article by Ulrich Baer, in the New York Times, entitled “What Snowflakes Get Right About Free Speech.” The author defended the actions of students who disrupted recent…
The Progressive Case for Free Speech
It’s a paradox: The ability to communicate, spread and access information freely across borders and barriers has never been more readily available to people around the globe. Yet the belief…
Who Teaches Students That Words Are Violence?
Last week, Ulrich Baer, a vice-provost and a professor of English at New York University, made an astonishing case against free speech in the New York Times. Baer framed the debate as…
Shut Up for Free Speech
Freedom of speech, it is said, is our most essential freedom because it reinforces and safeguards all other rights. People will go to great lengths, including dying, to defend this…
On Blasphemy Laws
Walaiha Irafat did not know why they came for her. In Pakistan, during March 2012, she was arrested for allegations of “spitting and sitting on the Koran,” and also “tearing…
The Virtues of Free Speech
Free speech must include the right to offend. Granted, there are limitations upon free speech which do serve valuable and necessary functions — such as the prohibition against incitement to violence,…
The Salman Rushdie Fatwah, 28 Years Later
When Salman Rushdie wrote the sentence, probably some time in 1987, in The Satanic Verses, “Now there was no demand for satires — the general fear of Mahound had destroyed the market…
