How Free Speech Died On Campus

theodp writes "The WSJ catches up with FIRE's Greg Lukianoff and his crusade to expose how universities have become the most authoritarian institutions in America. In Unlearning Liberty, Lukianoff notes that baby-boom Americans who remember the student protests of the 1960s tend to assume that U.S. colleges are still some of the freest places on earth. But that idealized university no longer exists. Today, university bureaucrats suppress debate with anti-harassment policies that function as de facto speech codes. FIRE maintains a database of such policies on its website. What they share, lifelong Democrat Lukianoff says, is a view of 'harassment' so broad and so removed from its legal definition that 'literally every student on campus is already guilty.'"

Comments

Could the summary possibly be more slanted?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's see. Highly biased summary, source is the Murdoch-owned WSJ. Who wants to bet this is bellyaching about "liberals"?

Re:Could the summary possibly be more slanted?

[Stiletto]

Turns out grandparent poster is right. From the article:

The latest was last week at Fordham University, where President Joseph McShane scolded College Republicans for the sin of inviting Ann Coulter to speak.

Conservatives and libertarians are especially vulnerable to such charges of harassment.

It's basically a bunch of crybaby Republicans whining about how unwelcome on campus their harassment of women, minorities, gays, muslims, any anyone else not like them is.

Re:Could the summary possibly be more slanted?

[Runaway1956]

"All persons should be sensitive"

Complete and utter hogwash. Sensitive is a feminine trait, it's been adopted by gays, and it's a weapon against anyone who produces testosterone. Pure shit, I say. And, when language is even a little bit vague, there will always be someone who tries to use the language to punish a person like myself.

I refuse to be part of the collective mind, and I refuse to be sensitive. I won't go out of my way to cause someone pain, grief, or anxiety - but if you're offended by something I say, then it's YOUR problem, not mine. Don't expect me to be "sensitive" to your problems.