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National Coalition Calls for Campus Censorship of "Offensive" Speech (washingtonpost.com)

schwit1 writes with this opinion piece from Eugene Volokh, who teaches free speech law at UCLA School of Law, about the push to ban "offensive" speech and censor websites on campus. He writes: "A large coalition of advocacy groups has asked the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights to pressure colleges to (1) punish students for their speech and (2) block student access to certain Web sites — especially sites such as Yik Yak, which allow students to anonymously post their views..... Yet another example of today's Anti-Free Speech Movement for American universities — unfortunately, one that fits well into the Education Department's attitudes. Fortunately, courts have firmly rejected these kinds of calls to restrict college student speech, though the OCR and the college administrations it pressures can get away with a lot of restrictions until the lawsuits are actually brought."

42 of 585 comments (clear)

  1. Dear National Coalition by istartedi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    STFU. What was that? Rights. Well...

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  2. Re:Censoring speech... by myowntrueself · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... how very European of them.

    Next thing you know the USA will have anti-holocaust denial laws (for the Nazi holocaust) and anti-holocaust assertion laws (for the Native American holocaust).

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  3. Leftists are insane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't understand how they can function.
    If they don't like free speech they should leave the country and go live in north korea.

  4. Liberals by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Liberals are all about freedom, expression, tolerance, etc. until you do or say something that they don't like.
    Tolerance and acceptance only apply to those they tolerate and accept. Everyone else gets branded a bigot hate monger, racist, misogynist, etc. the instant they exercise their own right to speak their mind or utter any un-PC truths. This behavior by liberals, of course, is the very definition of bigotry.

    1. Re:Liberals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wish there was a party for me.

      I don't want to see people down trodden by the system living on the streets with no food shelter or medical care. In this country of ours there should be plenty for everyone to have those basic needs met. (For those especially that are truly unable to meet those needs.)

      But the freedoms of speech, religion(and from religion), and arms are in our god damned constitution. You don't fuck with that shit, quit trying to make exceptions to them. I also want to see people that freeload off the system to have to do community work. At that point welfare becomes wages. It would be nice if we had a new civilian conservation corp. We have bridges, roads, national parks, etc that need attention and that could be provided by those unable to find otherwise gainful employment.

      I also wish both parties would quit fucking with the right to be free from warantless searches and seizures. Do any of our politicians even know what is in the bill of rights? It seems not.

    2. Re:Liberals by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Citation please. Because I haven't heard any mainstream conservative groups try to restrict free speech; and almost every mainstream liberal group supports it (or fails to condemn their brethren who do).

    3. Re:Liberals by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just because you see some soi-disant "liberals" touting the political correctness line doesn't mean they're liberals.

      So Not True Scotsman's?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    4. Re:Liberals by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bullshit. This coalition is not "liberals", it probably covers a large range of political backgrounds

      They aren't "liberals" in the traditional political science or European sense. They are, however, "liberals" in the modern American sense, which means that they are a mix of progressives, right wing populists, and neo-Marxists.

    5. Re:Liberals by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Liberals, conservatives, moderates, libertarians...just labels.

      The right to free speech is universal, and especially the most offensive of it must be protected if it is to survive at all.

      Ideas and opinions are not your enemy, even, and especially, if you disagree with them.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    6. Re:Liberals by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      your point proves his point to a T

      ad hom attacks? - check

      nothing but rambling? check

      posting AC while shouting down others? - check

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    7. Re:Liberals by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bullshit. This coalition is not "liberals", it probably covers a large range of political backgrounds.

      Umm, dude ... look at tfa, there's a list of organizations that signed the petition at the bottom. It's a list of organizations that you can tell are almost certainly squarely on the left side of the US political spectrum just by their names.

      Now, to the know-nothings thinking of responding: no, the organizations don't usually explicitly say they're liberal in their names, and some appear at first glance to be single-issue orgs, like "End Rape on Campus", but here's what's going on: the way they want to end rape on campus is probably by gutting the due process rights of those accused of rape (who are members of the patriarchy, so they don't deserve rights) and expelling anyone who makes jokes they don't like ("no means yes, yes means anal"). And for good measure probably also disciplining people who protest by holding up posters of aborted fetuses on the campus lawn for being disruptive -- they're obviously at war with women for doing that -- while allowing protests which involve carrying a mattress with you to all your classes, because that's of course not at all disruptive. These are not nonpartisan things to advocate.

      None of this has much to do with actually ending rape on campus -- I'm pretty sure not wanting people to be raped is a nonpartisan cause -- but if you think organizations with names like "End Rape on Campus" aren't liberal, and organizations with names like "True Americans for Growth" and "Patriots for Law and Order" (I just made those up) aren't conservative, you haven't been paying attention to US politics for at least, oh, 10-15 years.

      In short, if you can at all hear the dog whistles of US politics, the orgs in the list are all whistling "liberal" very loudly.

      --
      vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
    8. Re:Liberals by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Liberals are all about freedom, expression, tolerance, etc. until you do or say something that they don't like.

      Democrats are Opposite People. Whatever they are saying is always the opposite of what they actually do in practice. Hell, look at what they were saying about health insurance and then look at what they did to health insurance. 100% opposite. Then look at who they blame for what they did to health insurance and how the House and Senate votes actually went. 100% opposite.

      Its true for every single topic. These are the least generous of the two parties complaining about how selfish the other party is. They are the party that focuses on skin color while calling the other party racists. They are the party of womanizers complaining that the other party is sexist. They are the party of tax cheats complaining that the other party dodges taxes. They are the party that continually insisted that there wasn't a housing bubble and then blamed the other party for the housing bubble when it burst. They are the anti-vaxxers complaining that the other party is anti-science.

      They are completely despicable.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    9. Re:Liberals by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Not anymore. Now libertarian means a shittier version of a republican.

    10. Re:Liberals by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      if thats what you honestly believe, it seems the democrats and republicans have done a good job of fooling you

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    11. Re:Liberals by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      we should let them have what they wish... on the grounds that their speech is also restricted

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    12. Re:Liberals by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Democrats are Opposite People. Whatever they are saying is always the opposite of what they actually do in practice.

      Sort of like how Republicans for smaller government?

      You can bash democrats all you want. They probably deserve it. What I can;t stand is the implication that republicans are somehow better. And this goes for republican bashing as well.

      If you think either side of the republicrat party is any good, you need to have your head examined.

    13. Re:Liberals by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What I can;t stand is the implication that republicans are somehow better.

      There was no such implication, therefore we know something about you.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    14. Re:Liberals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yup,

      Gamergate of all things has shown me this. If you're not on the side of the militant PC brigade, you're INSTANTLY labelled a misogynist racist homophobic piece of shit who is "against them" for not towing the groupthink line.

      You don't need to say anything offensive, you need only ask questions. Even a rational, reasonable simple thing which is questioning them, means you're branded, labelled and evil.

      I've always been a left leaner, my whole life, but the militant left,.. I think they might actually frighten me more than the militant right.
      Thank the fucking gods for SouthPark season 19 this year, laying shit down on these idiots.

      Posting anonymously, lest I be added to a list of naysayers and doxed (by the people who never dox you! only the "bad guys" do that)

    15. Re:Liberals by LongearedBat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes and no.

      Yes: For any society to survive and improve, anyone and everyone must be able to voice their concerns, any concerns. And anyone should be able to voice any angle for everyone to get a more complete view of the problem. Because the more complete our understanding is of a problem, the better our solution will be.

      No: Offensiveness for the sake of being offensive, will alienate people. This causes communication breakdown, and so people will cease to communicate constructively. I'm not talking about offensiveness due to ignorance or oversensitivity of the reciever. I'm talking about malicious offensiveness.

      As to political correctness, I see three groups:

      1. The PC crowd. They fully embrace the No argument above, and use that to impose bigoted taboos. eg. In the US, black people can call each other nigga in mass media, but others can't even mention the word for fear of being branded racist. And don't call someone fat, unless you're even fatter. If those aren't bigoted taboos, then I'm the son af a llama.

      2. The "offensive" crowd. They fully embrace the Yes argument above, and in doing so inadvertently justify the PC crowd. Saying something that is clearly intended to upset someone and then saying "You have the right to not be offended" is a good way recieve a well-earned fist in the face. But, again, I'm not talking about inadvertently offending someone. Shit happens, cope with it.

      3. The "respectful" crowd. They understand both arguments, and insist that everyone should be allowed to say anything (Yes) but... without intentional malice (No). Malice of any kind is anti-social, and anti-social behaviour breaks down society. What the other two crowds need to understand is that it's not the choice of words that matter, it's the intent that matters. Once people begin to get used to the idea that hurtful things are seldom said or done maliciously, then they can get used to coping with that. Not that's not so easy when one is under actual attack. Please don't confuse this with PC.

      Ideas and opinions are not your enemy, even, and especially, if you disagree with them.

      Indeed. For example, last night my tenant was watching a documentary about homophobes in Russia, and I end up almost defending them even though I disagree with homophobia, because by actually listening to all angles I seem to have a better understanding and empathy. But being PC, he hasn't developed that ability.
      How can we possibly approach social issues contructively when people ridicule what is politically incorrect?

    16. Re:Liberals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's what I honestly believe because it's explicitly the Libertarian Party's platform. There's literally no other possible reason for wanting things like employment-discrimination laws to be removed.

      Oh, and by the way, comments of the "if you don't believe me then you're brainwashed" category come exclusively from those who are themselves thoroughly brainwashed.

      A Libertarian is a Democrat is a Republican is a Libertarian.

    17. Re:Liberals by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

      left leaning political views are very often more tolerant than right leaning views

      Nope. Ideological extremity is usually what breeds totalitarianism. This barrier between moderate and extremist is most easily defined as the point where the ideology matters more than facts, truth, or rational argument. I think this 'coalition' is a datapoint among many suggesting we'll reach that point soon.

      In the last century, there have been far more examples of socialism running amok than fascism (USSR, DPRK, nazi germany, maoist china, argentina, and yes, even sweden, which favors the cloth covered iron fist even today). In the US, the neo-right used christian dogma to drive their statist cultural package, and the left positioned themselves as the ones who'd fight back, which sounded great to the 20something generation at the time. By the 80s, the religious right lost its prestige, and now, after 20 years of political dominance, we're seeing the left show its true colors. eg: they're attacking the youth culture their 60's era 'counter culture' bootstrapped ('free love' --> 'rape tribunals'), and protection of rational criticism against religious belief has been replaced with babblings about atheist/christian 'bigotry' towards muslims. Black lives matter? No. All lives matter. A misbehaving state affects all of us. Don't let the propaganda redirect your attention.

      Enough. I'm sick of the bullshit multilayered double standards. The whole left wing pantheon is based on these fixed hierarchies, defining which group is more oppressed than the other. It's just a smokescreen to compel these cross-sections to fight among each other. The left wing calls this 'intersectionality,' and you can major in this stuff at your local university, just like a real science degree! Anything, as long as no one pays attention to the marxists behind the curtain.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    18. Re:Liberals by judoguy · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Please stop writing. Everyone who read your post is a little dumber now.

      All the libertarians that I know merely want to reduce the role and power of government over the lives of citizens. Reduce, not eliminate entirely.

      My mind continues to be boggled by the assertion that a government that doesn't forcibly transfer goods and services from one citizen to another "shits on people who don't have money". That's the same inane argument that the government not paying for peoples abortions is the same as outlawing abortions. Stupid, stupid stupid.

      For sure, elements of society want to eliminate a woman's right to make that choice but a government that doesn't take money from woman A against her will to pay for woman B's abortion is NOT shitting on woman B.

      I will never understand the concept that a vast government bureaucracy is more compassionate and wise than the individuals of a free society who still have the ability and responsibility to make choices in their own lives.

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
  5. Free Speech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Free speech only means anything if it's the freedom to say things that are dangerous or unpopular.
    It shouldn't mean the freedom to only say what is benign, acceptable, trivial, or politically correct.

  6. Campuses Used to be Free Speech Havens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    During the 1960s college and university campuses were the birth places of free speech for students. Times have certainly changed with students demanding censorship.

  7. As a Speaker Of TRUTH by laurencetux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    political correctness offends me.

  8. Re:Censoring speech... by Alypius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why not? There are already folks who get all misty when they talk of censoring/criminalizing global warming skeptics.

  9. OMG, if we let people say whatever they want by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OMG, if we let people say whatever they want, they might say something that conflicts with my worldview and gives me a boo-boo or a tummyache.

    Wah Wah Wah!

    SJWs, please help protect me from hearing anything I don't like!!

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  10. Kind of like vaccination... by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You know, I was just struck with how like vaccination this whole thing is - these students grew up in a much more 'free speech' era than, say, the 1960s. As such, they aren't used to seeing the harm that anti-free speech laws and regulations cause.

    Much like anti-vaxxors today who feel free to refuse vaccination because they haven't experienced the outbreaks and plagues that happened in history.

    I mean, I understand because I'm old enough to have a grandfather who was permanently affected by polio. So I grew up with that. But those much younger than me?

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  11. Re: Censoring speech... by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are we to ask them who was killed when they migrated across the land bridge from Asia? Or about internecine warfare prior to the coming of the white man? It seems that they're as much immigrants here in the Americas as are the Europeans; the only difference is they got here before the Europeans did. There's no evidence humans evolved on this continent at all.

    What's always been surprising to me about the politically correct take on the Native American's situation is that it pays absolutely no mind to just how vicious and evil the Indians were to each other -- varied by tribe and time, of course, but still, they were all about conquer and murder and etc. before Europeans ever arrived here. Look at how the Aztec managed things, for example. You just haven't lived until you've seen the carved-out skull of a virgin, I tell ya.

    Every taking of land -- ever, I suspect -- was done by some fairly active stomping of the locals into the ground or enslaving them, abusing them, etc. by the stronger and/or more technologically sophisticated party (but I repeat myself.)

    Characterizing our Native Americans as innocents to whom evil was done doesn't seem to be even close to an accurate representation of history.

    Finally, there's only just so much worship of "traditional ways" you can pursue before you've gone and shot yourself right in the foot. That's as much of a problem -- a self-inflicted one -- as anything that actually makes the news. But of course, you can't really say that without coming under some pretty heavy criticism. Not that such a thing could happen here on slashdot, of course. :)

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  12. Re: Censoring speech... by TWX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Kind of hard to talk about something that hasn't happened yet.

    The vast majority of the Syrians that have fled their country have ended up in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Kind of hard to holocaust White Europeans from there...

    Besides, this isn't Camp of the Saints . Pre-war, Syria had one of the best educated and least religious populations of the nominally Islamic nations. The Syrians would be much better able to integrate into the workforce to actually contribute to the countries they resettle in, and not simply drag the economy down. This isn't some mass of rural-villagers or subsistence farmers, there was an actual economy and education system in Syria before the civil war.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  13. Re: Censoring speech... by r1348 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, you're saying that the technologically superior has the right to exterminate the inferior, especially if the latter is not as ethically immaculate as some positive racist (albeit outdated) narrative tells us?

  14. Re:That coalition isn't that large, really by tomhath · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Noticeably missing from that list are some of the bigger civil rights organizations like NAACP. It looks like mostly feminist SJWs tilting at windmills again.

  15. Re: Censoring speech... by greenguy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let me see if I can provide an analogy to your argument... "I knew that my neighbor beat his wife sometimes, so I was totally justified in burning their house to the ground."

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
  16. Re: Censoring speech... by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's more apt to say that they tend to destroy or assimilate the inferior.

    It's a rather hard moral dilemma whether or not to interact with technically inferior civilizations, often you can help them in many ways but the mere exposure tends to start the assimilation process.

    --
    No sir I dont like it.
  17. Re: Censoring speech... by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What holocaust? The one that's never happened and never will, but liars cling to to justify their condemnation of others? If all the refugees were to go to Germany today, I read that the Islamic population would go from 3% to 4%. So your assertion is that 4% of the population would be able to holocaust the 96% with impunity? I question your logic, but your illogical racist position has already thrown your logic into question.

  18. I remember.. by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember when it was the religious right that was trying to impose its values on society using the government (eg: abortion rights). The left was positioning itself as supporting the live and let live attitude, especially concerning sex. Now, today's left is all about campus 'rape tribunals' that model soviet show trials and pushes out tons of fear-mongering propaganda to create neurotic behavior in young people (mostly men) about sex. Now this 'coalition'... I guess like the neocons censored for jesus, the New Left censors for marx. Yay for big statists!

    How about we just let individuals speak their minds and deal with the fact that not everyone will agree? That is a required cornerstone of learning, right? Free thought? Free expression that includes criticism? What a bunch of pissant crybabies this society's become.

  19. Re:How is this not harassment? by epyT-R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It may not be, but when it's super easy to expand the definitions of 'harassment' to include criticism, suddenly the law becomes a tool to censor speech.

  20. Logic Implosion by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    STFU.

    So what you are saying is that you find this idea highly offensive and would like to have the people who suggested it censored. ;-)

    Mind you I think you have hit on by far the most educational response to this request which is to immediately censor the idiots who made it. This would of course trigger a huge backlash from them against the injustice of them being silenced which would be the perfect time to point out that you found their ideas highly offensive and were just giving them exactly what they asked for.

    Hopefully that would teach them a valuable lesson on the importance of free speech but sadly I doubt it if they were stupid enough to come up with the request in the first place.

  21. Re:Offensive, but so is this article by Howitzer86 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't like it, but honestly I feel like they should be able to say what they want so long as they don't get in my face about it. Most people are jerks anyway, so it makes sense that Yik Yak would be used to release all that pent up jerk-steam anonymously. Being a gentlemen in public, but a racist backwoods hick on your own time? That's fine by me. You can even have your little pseudo-intellectual conversations about it on Storm Front, call yourself a European American, and a "Paleo-conservative". I don't care. I'll defend your right to be a jerk and to have your online discourse come back to haunt you when you fail to be anonymous about it one day.

  22. Re: Censoring speech... by frazamatazzle · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Indians were wiped out over the course of a couple hundred years, not the thousands it took them to colonize the Americas. And then you state they wiped out peoples as they settled (no evidence), and compare this thousands of years of settlement to a couple hundred years? Native Americans killed each other sometimes so Wounded Knee and the trail of tears are cool with you? What kind of logic is that?

  23. Re:Well? by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    fight stupidity with more stupidity

    It seems like you've already started

  24. Re: Censoring speech... by Charcharodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the US we already have less than 90% of the crime being perpetrated by less than 10% of the population. I can see why they might be upset with a 1% bump nearly made entirely of Muslim males from shit holes and failed states in the Middle East, in their teens and twenties, who are particularly notorious for their bad behavior.