Coulter speech cancelled because of protestors

[Caliga]

I'll say this for her: as a troll, she could teach Jaron some tricks.

Well duh... she's a professional troll.  Jaron is a mere weekend warrior.

[Malthus]

I'll say this for her: as a troll, she could teach Jaron some tricks.

Well duh... she's a professional troll.  Jaron is a mere weekend warrior.

I figure trolling is sorta like sex - something that the amatuers sometimes do better than the professionals, because they put more heart into it. 

[crazy canuck]

In short, Coulter (or her supporters) has taken a bunch of incompetent bumbling by the university admin, and the usual bullshit from student protestors, and successfully manufactured an issue out of it in which she emerges as a hero of free speech. The university admin (and students) are at fault for handing her the ammo, to be sure.

The thing that catches my attention about all this is the actions of the students.  I think you are downplaying their role in trying to disrupt the talk by calling it the usual bullshit.  It isnt usual.  It is a recent trend that is worrying - at least to me.

Back in the time before time, when I was an undergraduate, Canada was going through a very intense debate over free trade.   Whenever a proponent of free trade came to campus to speak there were huge demonstrations protesting against free trade (the NDP and Liberals were very much against the deal if you recall calling it a betrayal of Canadian sovereignty).  But I cant remember a single time when anyone actually attempted to prevent the speaker from speaking.  Back then there was a very strong commitment to free speech among the student body and an attempt to try to shut someone up because their ideas just wasnt on.

Large numbers of students now appear to think that they have some kind of responsibility to silence other points of view.  Its a troubling trend.

[PRC]

The thing that catches my attention about all this is the actions of the students.  I think you are downplaying their role in trying to disrupt the talk by calling it the usual bullshit.  It isnt usual.  It is a recent trend that is worrying - at least to me.

Back in the time before time, when I was an undergraduate, Canada was going through a very intense debate over free trade.   Whenever a proponent of free trade came to campus to speak there were huge demonstrations protesting against free trade (the NDP and Liberals were very much against the deal if you recall calling it a betrayal of Canadian sovereignty).  But I cant remember a single time when anyone actually attempted to prevent the speaker from speaking.  Back then there was a very strong commitment to free speech among the student body and an attempt to try to shut someone up because their ideas just wasnt on.

Large numbers of students now appear to think that they have some kind of responsibility to silence other points of view.  Its a troubling trend.

I've definitely noticed that.  During a Federal election campaign awhile back I was riding home after midnight one night and came across some UVic students who were vandalizing a big Conservative party sign someone had on their lot.  I slowed and asked them who they were voting for and they said Green Party...

Edit > Hit post by accident..

I asked them if the Green Party supported the vandalism of political opponents signs and the stifling of political discourse and they told me to fuck off..

Then I just gave them a fuck you back and rode off.

[Malthus]

The thing that catches my attention about all this is the actions of the students.  I think you are downplaying their role in trying to disrupt the talk by calling it the usual bullshit.  It isnt usual.  It is a recent trend that is worrying - at least to me.

Back in the time before time, when I was an undergraduate, Canada was going through a very intense debate over free trade.   Whenever a proponent of free trade came to campus to speak there were huge demonstrations protesting against free trade (the NDP and Liberals were very much against the deal if you recall calling it a betrayal of Canadian sovereignty).  But I cant remember a single time when anyone actually attempted to prevent the speaker from speaking.  Back then there was a very strong commitment to free speech among the student body and an attempt to try to shut someone up because their ideas just wasnt on.

Large numbers of students now appear to think that they have some kind of responsibility to silence other points of view.  Its a troubling trend.

I dunno - when I was going to university the 'authoritarian left' in its various manifestations was no more respectful of free speech -- one of the reasons I found them unpleasant (and no doubt vice versa). The late '80s was I thought a sort of pinnacle of political correctness, with various methods used to silence people with 'unacceptable' views.

I'll admit, the acts of students at some universities to use actual violence to silence the 'unacceptable' is disturbing, and particularly manifest when Israelis are invited to speak. I remember one particularly evocative pic of some student kicking out a window to demonstrate what he thought of the idea of allowing the other side to state its case.

OTOH, what actual 'violence' took place here? Did it amount to any more than chant-y demonstrations, and some joker pulling the fire alarm? None of the articles are very specific.

Again, the most hilarious aspect of this was the university writing that letter. It was tailor-made to cause them trouble.

[crazy canuck]

Again, the most hilarious aspect of this was the university writing that letter. It was tailor-made to cause them trouble.

Oh, I agree with that.  I have no idea what they hoped to achieve by sending that letter.

[AnchorClanker]

As revolting and ignorant as she is, she needs to be debated, not stifled.
Repression only feeds a sense of grievance, and contributes to a martyrdom complex.

[Martinus]

In short, Coulter (or her supporters) has taken a bunch of incompetent bumbling by the university admin, and the usual bullshit from student protestors, and successfully manufactured an issue out of it in which she emerges as a hero of free speech. The university admin (and students) are at fault for handing her the ammo, to be sure.

The thing that catches my attention about all this is the actions of the students.  I think you are downplaying their role in trying to disrupt the talk by calling it the usual bullshit.  It isnt usual.  It is a recent trend that is worrying - at least to me.

Back in the time before time, when I was an undergraduate, Canada was going through a very intense debate over free trade.   Whenever a proponent of free trade came to campus to speak there were huge demonstrations protesting against free trade (the NDP and Liberals were very much against the deal if you recall calling it a betrayal of Canadian sovereignty).  But I cant remember a single time when anyone actually attempted to prevent the speaker from speaking.  Back then there was a very strong commitment to free speech among the student body and an attempt to try to shut someone up because their ideas just wasnt on.

Large numbers of students now appear to think that they have some kind of responsibility to silence other points of view.  Its a troubling trend.

Well these two are hardly comparable. Being for free trade is not the same as calling groups of people (who are students at the college), traitors, murderers, deviants or wanting to ship them off to Gitmo.

[Malthus]

As revolting and ignorant as she is, she needs to be debated, not stifled.
Repression only feeds a sense of grievance, and contributes to a martyrdom complex.

I'll take "ignore" or perhaps "laugh at". 

[AnchorClanker]

As revolting and ignorant as she is, she needs to be debated, not stifled.
Repression only feeds a sense of grievance, and contributes to a martyrdom complex.

I'll take "ignore" or perhaps "laugh at". 

That's fine as well.  My point is that a gagging order is not all that.

[The Minsky Moment]

As revolting and ignorant as she is, she needs to be debated.

I disagree; debating people like that is pointless because they don't accept the rules of reasoned discourse and they are not interested in persuasion in the first place.  The best response is to ignore them and marginalize them.  In that sense, the decision to invite her was unfortunate; the protest reaction was even more unfortunate because it transformed what otherwise would have been an irrelevant college club meeting into the three-ring circus that is her favored venue.

The same issue came up with that fake Cherokee professor, Ward Churchill or the 9-11 "truthers", the equivalents to Coulter on what I suppose could be termed the left.  There is nothing to be gained by engaging in debate with such people.  it only gives credence to their frauds and outrages because implicit in the decision to debate is that the ideas they are presenting are debatable in the first place (like free trade vs. protection), as opposed to nonsense designed to titillate and provoke. 

[AnchorClanker]

MM, I can agree with your stance, again, I fear gagging people strengthens them... and that is to be avoided.

[MadImmortalMan]

The more she talks, the more damage she does to her cause. We should be inviting her to speak every day. Seems like the students are themselves among the Coulter equivalents on the left.

[Malthus]

MM, I can agree with your stance, again, I fear gagging people strengthens them... and that is to be avoided.

Yup, attempting to gag such folk merely gives them some sort of spurious legitimacy. In this case it's more than a bit of a stretch, since she's acting like actual gagging has taken place when as far as I can understand it that isn't the case ...

[Martinus]

I think there is a fine line somewhere. Again, the university is not a street corner - it's a community of professors and students, and I think it is important they feel welcome there.

If a lunatic comes to say that CIA orchestrated 911 or that the government is dominated by the lizard people, you can just consider this a lunacy and move on. On the other hand, if someone came to teach that, say, Jews are dirty and greedy and untrustworthy, or that blacks are lazy and stupid or that gays spread diseases and are deviants, this goes beyond mere lunacy, but targets entire groups of people - this is certainly note helping Jewish, black or gay students feel welcome in the community, when you have to "engage in a debate" with a hate monger to justify your existence like this.