Here in Ottawa last week a student group erected what they called a free speech wall at Carleton University. Two days later it was torn down by another student, a gay rights activist who considered it to be a threat even though no hate speech had been written on it. You can read his rationale here. Quoting from it: I can't understand the kind of persecution he and others like him have suffered in our society (I saw some examples of it when I searched online, pretty despicable). But has it really reached the point where free speech itself is a threat? Again, nothing hateful was written on the wall. How is it a moral imperative not just to fight hate speech, but also any potential means by which it could be expressed? Edit to add - the details are here.
A lot of student activists, i think, tend to want somebody to enforce their "liberation." But, civil rights laws are never passed through isolated good will from governments, they are demanded by communities that are oppressed to the point that the government feels enough pressure that it has to act. But to demand that people not speak because the speech will continue the oppression? That's stupid. Prohibiting speech never helps out an oppressed group. It's like when Blizzard banned a GLBT guild in WoW because they used the word "gay." Blizzard did it for their own good, but the people who ended up suffering were the people Blizzard was trying to protect. Canada does have laws against hate speech, however. And they're used oddly, imho. I'm on my phone, but I'll look for links later.
Perhaps Mr. Smith should spend more time trying to graduate and less time being a "student activist".
Libertarians just don't get things sometimes. This "attack on our free speech wall" happens literally every year. spoiler for big image
No people get things more fundamentally wrong with more self-assurance and passion than longtime students.
Thank you for being a true hero. Unlike most of us who talk a good game but often don't put our money where our mouths are, you recognize that it is not words but deeds that effect true change, and you have risked everything to destroy the tools of oppression wherever you find them. To think, if it weren't for selfless martyrs like you who are willing to risk it all in the name of what's right, we might still have a piece of paper hanging up on a college campus on which people could write stuff. Your noble sacrifice has brought a tear to my eye, sir; truly, this world needs more brave men and women like you.
and then: and also: le sigh Brief article about the incident here for those who don't want to log in to FB to read the OP's link: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/0...by-tearing-down-universitys-free-speech-wall/
I wish "pseudopoliticalperson" were an established concept like "pseudointellectual." Stopping to define the low-stakes "political" efforts of both sides here as "masturbatory trivia pretending to be activism" takes valuable time away from scathingly derisive dismissal.
I think "pseudoactivist" is both descriptive and understandable. I'm willing to start kicking that term around if you are.
Oh professional student unions reps and/or trust fund kids, is there any sort of douchebaggery you're not up to?
Someone want to explain to me what the point of a free speech wall is? It might make sense in a society without free speech, but in one with it.. it's just a whiteboard in a hallway? We called those whiteboards when I was in college and wrote funny or insightful-when-drunk shit on them then, too?
