Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
With Governor Roy Cooper (D) taking no action on the bill, the state of North Carolina has enacted the Restore Campus Free Speech Act, the first comprehensive campus free-speech legislation based on the Goldwater proposal. That proposal, which I [Stanley Kurtz (Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center)] co-authored along with Jim Manley and Jonathan Butcher of Arizona's Goldwater Institute, was released on January 31 and is now under consideration in several states. It's fitting that North Carolina should be the first state to enact a Goldwater-inspired law.
[...] The North Carolina Restore Campus Free Speech Act achieves most of what the Goldwater proposal sets out to do. It ensures that University of North Carolina policy will strongly affirm the importance of free expression. It prevents administrators from disinviting speakers whom members of the campus community wish to hear from. It establishes a system of disciplinary sanctions for students and anyone else who interferes with the free-speech rights of others, and ensures that students will be informed of those sanctions at freshman orientation. It reaffirms the principle that universities, at the official institutional level, ought to remain neutral on issues of public controversy to encourage the widest possible range of opinion and dialogue within the university itself. And it authorizes a special committee created by the Board of Regents to issue a yearly report to the public, the regents, the governor, and the legislature on the administrative handling of free-speech issues.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/450027/north-carolina-campus-free-speech-act-goldwater-proposal
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @02:25PM (11 children)
Idiotic views need airing more than any other kind so that people can thoroughly understand why they are idiotic.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @04:10PM (2 children)
Using that logic, we should broadcast Hitler's speeches from dawn to dusk. Then we'll all be enlightened about the wrongness of Nazism?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @04:27PM
They should absolutely be taught in school, yes. Anything else is dooming yourself to repeat the whole tragic affair.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @06:42PM
Those who don't learn of history are doomed to repeat it. Seeing people speak warnings of the Nazis while simultaneously pushing increasingly radicalized far left agenda is interesting. Of course we learn that the Nazis were far right, so there's no danger there... Yet it's interesting how little left or right ultimately mean, isn't it?
It's bizarre how completely reasonable that sounds when I did little more than change the pronouns in a paragraph that was describing underlying ideology of what we now view as one of the most fanatical groups in history. Of course they had their Jews, yet do those of the groups described today not have their 'while males' to blame for all the problems of society? And the turn to overt violence only happened after many years of building up hatred and blame for the Jews.
(Score: 2, Troll) by aristarchus on Friday August 11 2017, @04:51PM
Oh Minty Brisket of the Thick Skull!
People already do understand that they are idiotic, that is why they are protesting such idiocy being brought to campus and given a podium of legitimacy!
(Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Friday August 11 2017, @06:17PM (6 children)
You say that, but the way that such idiotic views gain traction in the first place is because their arguments are phrased to sidestep logic. It would be great if people were perfectly reasonable but even smart people can be drawn into fallacies and emotional appeals.
-Love, ants_in_pants
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @07:02PM
Then that would be their problem for being foolish. Don't de-platform speakers merely because some people are irrational and especially susceptible to bad arguments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @07:08PM (3 children)
And who gets to decide what is or is not an "idiotic view?"
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday August 11 2017, @08:04PM (2 children)
Simple: the institution that's providing the venue. Their venue, their decision.
It's the same in my house. It's my house, my rules. If I want to invite someone to visit, that's my prerogative. But no one has a right to come hang out at my house unless I want them there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @09:40PM
You're saying the campus is private property. However, the topic is the University of North Carolina, a public (state-owned) university. Even though it mentions Congress, the First Amendment has been held (Everson v. Board of Education) to apply to state governments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @05:31AM
You obviously do not think your private residence is in any way an appropriate comparison to a public speaking venue that is specifically there for organizations and individuals to reserve and use as they deem fit. The lack of logic you're espousing here is indicative of cognitive dissonance. I think you know that what you're saying is inappropriate, but nonetheless want to support it. It leads to illogical and inappropriate arguments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @07:28PM
I'm gonna stick with "freedom" thank you very much. I'd rather not slide into tyranny and oppression by trying to stop tyranny and oppression.