On the surface, this sounds like a positive development:
Carol T. Christ, UC Berkeley’s 11th chancellor and the first woman to lead the nation’s top public research university, unveiled plans Tuesday for a “Free Speech Year” as right-wing speakers prepare to come to campus.The article further details upcoming visits from Milo Yiannopolous, whose earlier foray into the cradle of the Free Speech Movement was met with violence, and Ben Shapiro, among others.
Christ said the campus would hold “point-counterpoint” panels to demonstrate how to exchange opposing views in a respectful manner. Other events will explore constitutional questions, the history of Berkeley’s free speech movement and how that movement inspired acclaimed chef Alice Waters to create her Chez Panisse restaurant.
“Now what public speech is about is shouting, screaming your point of view in a public space rather than really thoughtfully engaging someone with a different point of view,” Christ said in an interview. “We have to build a deeper and richer shared public understanding.”
So it's Free Speech Year. Great. What happens next year?
7 comments:
Who's gonna stop the violence when Milo gets there?
Who's gonna stop the violence when Milo gets there?
Article says there will be more cops around. If those cops stand down like the cops in Charlottesville did, it's going to be ugly.
Tom Lehrer is still alive. Perhaps a tune on "National Free Speech Year"?
It would take some guts to do it, and I don't know that the current President has them, but it strikes me that Powerline noted that standing down and letting people get beat up is a federal felony. Such a prosecution could put the fear of God into a lot of left-leaning mayors and police chiefs, I dare say.
not gonna happen, Bubba... Cops have every right to use every discretion, or to use none at all...
The cops may, but mayors don't have the right to tell them to stand down--not since the Civil Rights movement. Prosecution may or may not be wise, but it's definitely possible.
Didn't this "free speech year" last something like 6 hours? Sort of like Baltimore's "nobody shoot anybody" weekend?
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