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from the when-the-First-Amendment-isn't-clear-enough dept.
On college campuses, outrage over provocative speakers sometimes turns violent.
It's becoming a pattern on campuses around the country. A speaker is invited, often by a conservative student group. Other students oppose the speaker, and maybe they protest. If the speech happens, the speaker is heckled. Sometimes there's violence.
In other cases — as with conservative commentator Ann Coulter at the University of California, Berkeley last week — the event is called off.
Now, a handful of states, including Illinois, Tennessee, Colorado and Arizona, have passed or introduced legislation designed to prevent these incidents from happening. The bills differ from state to state, but they're generally based on a model written by the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Arizona.
The model bill would require public universities to remain neutral on political issues, prevent them from disinviting speakers, and impose penalties for students and others who interfere with these speakers.
The author of the model bill argues that the neutrality stipulation is necessary for public institutions funded by tax dollars, "who shouldn't be forced to subsidize speech that they disagree with." In response to the legislation, a Democratic North Carolina legislator criticized the bill as an unnecessary "regulation of a constitutional right." The story also mentions that "Critics say this kind of legislation could hinder a university's ability to regulate hate speech on campus," but the bill author responds that hate speech is "not well-defined in the law."
Although the proposed legislation varies by state, the model bill linked above recommends a number of initiatives, from clear campus policies on protecting free speech to severe disciplinary actions for students who interfere with that right. Perhaps the strongest section of the model bill would require that "Any student who has twice been found responsible for infringing the expressive rights of others will be suspended for a minimum of one year, or expelled" (Section 1.9).
In other free speech news, USA Today reports that the FCC is launching an investigation into an "obscene" joke by Stephen Colbert concerning Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which caused a Twitter firestorm and led to a trending #FireColbert hashtag. While the joke was sexually explicit, the offensive word was bleeped in broadcast. CNN has argued that the FCC is merely doing its job in investigating "a number" of complaints, but Slate notes the high legal threshold that would be necessary for a fine in this case, given the late hour of the broadcast and the three-pronged test for obscenity.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:31PM (15 children)
The discussion in the summary uses a lot of wishy washy talking about controversy as though every campus discussion about GPL v BSD or linux v BSD or vi v emacs or point nine repeating equals one (or not) is resulting in bloodshed.
The reality is violent leftists are using violence against right wingers plus some caught-in-crossfire middle of road along with sudden outbursts of tactical nihilism.
Its a long standing cycle in a system with left wing academia and journalism, see Germany in the 20s / 30s or any number of 3rd world-ish dictatorships. Sure as sunset follows sunrise, left wing agitation only increases with academia and journalist support until the right and the general population have had enough, then out come the ovens and helicopter rides and camps. Then just as sure as sunrise follows sunset the retcon will be that the right "always wanted to do that" which in some cases is true but most vanilla normies go along with the camps, helo rides, and ovens because they're sick of school and media supported violence. Asking the question as a normie, why should my kid die for some meaningless political signalling, when the people causing the innocent deaths would fit perfectly well in that oven over there...
Leftists seem to have a suicide complex because there's only two historical outcomes. If the revolution comes, the soviet model shows the abrasive intelligentsia will be liquidated faster than even the capitalist pigs, and if the revolution doesn't come the ovens are now in pre-heat, the helicopters are getting their pre-flight, the FEMA camps are getting built... Its like the only thing more cowardly than meaningless suicide is doing the antifa thing for awhile because too scared to actually do it, maybe a nice camp guard will pull the trigger...
Something that always bothers me about leftists is they ruin stuff and abandon it while demanding other places become ruined. I mean, if Rhodesia, Detroit, and Haiti had to be destroyed, why not move there instead of trying to bully the rest of the world into similar self destruction? I can see why people refer to it as the "progressive death cult". I can respect people who ruin things and live in it or fix it themselves. But not leftists. "I pooped my pants and its a really awful way to live; you better do the same in your pants or else you're a racist so you'll have to be liquidated on the altar of multiculturalism, so start squeezing you deplorable"
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:59PM (1 child)
"I pooped my pants and its a really awful way to live;
Ted? Ted Nugent? Is that you? My Gawd, man, the draft and the Vietnam war have been over for years, you can stop doing that now! http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/nugent.asp [snopes.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 08 2017, @12:24AM
He told me one would fail the test for opiates if one ate a poppyseed bagel the morning of the exam. He also said that eating Jerusalem artichokes would make you fail the blood test.
I have no clue if he's correct but that's what he said.
He later grew Jerusalem Artichokes in our garden. They're a close relative of sunflowers, but you eat the root. Once you get those things growing in a garden you can't get rid of them - they're as bad as blackberries
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:27PM (6 children)
Pro tip: using the pejorative "leftist" means your argument will get ignored. The adults in the room will just move right on by after seeing that you're unable to string a sentence together without name-calling.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:39PM (3 children)
Spoken like a true leftist.
Maybe you can cry to mommy, or your professors, or make a real difference -- a change.org petition to hack into the SN database and remove all instances of the word "leftist" so that your widdwle feewings won't be hurt.
And if all that doesn't work out, you can gather up a bunch of Soros-funded prescription-drug-and-iPhone-lobotomized tantrumites and go burn down Linode's data centers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @10:13PM (2 children)
Eth, you're out of your league, man. Adults are talking here. Talking about extreme juvenile behavior on the part of Republican legislators, but still, adults talking. Now that you have had your outburst, please just go back to your lego blocks, so the adults can have an actual discussion.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 08 2017, @02:35AM
Eth isn't allowed Lego since that time he swallowed an entire miniature set of them and started shitting Lego-man heads. It's Duplo only now. No Tinkertoys either; apparently he got "ideas" about where some of the longer pieces go...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @02:39AM
He doesn't play with Legos, they are an ideological tool of socialist Denmark!
This is more to his liking: Little White Dragon toys [smosh.com]
Now you know why he drinks ethanol, he needs it to pose like a real fire breathing dragon but it is just a cheap trick from a damaged individual.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday May 08 2017, @03:07PM
How is "leftist" a pejorative? It literally means "one who identifies with the left." Or are we not allowed to use "left" and "right" now?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 08 2017, @03:41PM
Strongly Disagree.
That is not true when one becomes president. People will have to pay attention to the president. Even if he is illiterate and unable to form complete sentences without name calling. The incomprehensible sentences with infantile name calling will be recorded as part of history. After all this is the product of his education at a prestigious school for rich people. The words should be required to be part of the presidential library.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by https on Monday May 08 2017, @01:11AM (3 children)
Pfft. You hear that? That's me stifling a derisive insult. Your understanding of "leftists" is sad, a poorly drawn caricature.
When your position obviously results in people consistently murdered for no other reason than the colour of their skin (or the shape of their nose, mutatis mutandis), you fucking well deserve violence done upon you if you start espousing it to other people. Having a platform and megaphone denied you? Count yourself lucky.
There are some ideas that have no place in civil discussion. You know what they are, or it takes a small amount of thinking to figure out what they are. Some of them are well documented in history. Debating why they are not up for discussion is a trap - if someone takes the bait, those extremely non-civil ideas infect the discussion.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Monday May 08 2017, @01:04PM (2 children)
When your position obviously results in people consistently murdered for no other reason than the colour of their skin (or the shape of their nose, mutatis mutandis), you fucking well deserve violence done upon you if you start espousing it to other people.
I'm glad we stand arm in arm together in defense of the white people of Europe, South Africa, USA inner cities, and Zimbabwe...
(Score: 2) by https on Monday May 08 2017, @05:44PM (1 child)
Ethanol-fueled? Is that you?
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 08 2017, @05:56PM
Great minds think alike, observed reality has an inherent right wing bias, left wing has an inherent anti-white bias, etc...
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday May 08 2017, @08:21AM (1 child)
A recent example: Professor Allison Stanger ended up in a neck-brace after being assaulted by 'leftist' thugs. [theatlantic.com]
See also this podcast episode [samharris.org] in which Charles Murray (the other target in the incident, but who wasn't injured) discusses what happened.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @09:44AM
Yeah, tell it to Martin Luther King, Jr. You racist! You misanthrope! You scum and villiany in a hive!