If you ever wonder why you don't see many conservative speakers on college campuses, the recent example of David Horowitz and UC Santa Barbara is illustrative. Frontpage Magazine has an update on the hassles Horowitz faced trying to speak at UCSB.
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/27/san-francisco-chronicle-reprints-ucsbs-lies-about-viewpoint-discrimination-against-horowitz-event/
UC Santa Barbara, you may recall, is where professor William Robinson, a radical guy, stirred a fuss by e-mailing his students material that reflected his own hatred of Israel. Some students complained about the indoctrination*, but the university eventually ruled that he was exercising his freedom of speech. Meanwhile, students who want to hear people like David Horowitz have to fight to have the right to hear him speak while radical students and university officials haggle about diversity, inclusiveness and all that other rot.
* Don't think I am talking about Robinson behind his back when I talk about his indoctrination. I have told him to his face.
Well, if students object to Robinson's rants, why don't they deluge him with email informing him in meticulous detail what an uninformed bigoted old curmudgeon he is? The answer to bad use of free speech is more speech, not less.
ReplyDeleteNone of that explains why you don't see more conservatives speaking on college campuses. When I was a child, students at a campus where my father taught invited George Lincoln Rockwell to speak. There's a real right winger for you. The faculty respected the students' decision, and picketed his appearance. The students weren't swayed. They just wanted to hear what this well known nut case would sound like. He said "You can't fight communism if you don't understand that it is Jewish."