Thursday, March 20, 2008

Free speech smothered, not enough ideas exchanged

Remember when college was about the free exchange of ideas and challenging pre-existing worldviews? Me neither.

There has been a disturbing trend in academia for the past few decades, and MSU is a prime example. In the name of so-called tolerance, people and groups in opposition to entrenched moderate liberalism are suppressed. When Chris Simcox of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps spoke on campus, opponents made a scene and got themselves arrested. When Nazis spoke in Lansing, massive amounts of people counterprotested. When someone’s dry-erase board bears homophobic graffiti, a serious meeting is called instead of getting out the eraser.

I love immigrants and gay people, hate Nazis and especially love gay immigrants. However, the Constitution does not include a right to not be offended. The excuse given is that the First Amendment doesn’t protect speech intended to incite violence. That is an important distinction to be made, but I think that as a group of adults MSU should be mature enough to make it. Either respectfully pay attention to all views or ignore the offensive ones. Wouldn’t you rather be entertained by a crazy YAF-er or other wingnut than be bored by the 50 millionth ineffectual Democrat?

Published on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 in the State News

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