The Campus PC Panic In A Nutshell
Roger Kimball, as is his wont, inadvertently gives up the game:
A huge amount of attention and public anxiety has been expended on the plight of free speech on campus. Every season the situation seems to get a little worse. Guest speakers are routinely shouted at, de-platformed, or disinvited. Students and teachers alike are bullied into silence or craven apology by self-appointed virtue-crats in college administrations and among designated victim groups among the students.
But the issue isn’t really, or not only, free speech. Bret Weinstein, a former biology professor, was hounded out of Evergreen State College when he objected to a “Day of Absence” rally that insisted that all whites stay off campus for a day.
Since then, he has been frequently invited to talk about free speech on college campuses. But he notes that the real crisis in education isn’t about free speech. Rather, it is about “a breakdown in the basic logic of civilization.”
“Speech is being suppressed everywhere on campuses. Consider Bret Weinstein, who resigned in exchange for a golden parachute after being subject to protests at an extremely unrepresenative liberal arts college, who, uh, is able to make a living giving speeches on college campuses. In conclusion, free speech is a land of contrasts.”
Fellow “free speech” warrior Jordan Peterson is even less subtle:
Jordan Peterson makes common cause with Viktor Orban in the war on poltical correctness. His ally in the global struggle for open-mindedness has forcibly exiled its best university, installed minders in every college, and steers research grants to cronies. https://t.co/zbkJCOSJO2— Franklin Foer (@FranklinFoer) June 1, 2019
Virtually none of the campus PC panic is about “free speech.” It’s about “reactionaries should be able to speak and everyone else has the right to shut up.”
UPDATE:
Conservatives: Political Correctness is destroying Western Civilization.
Also Conservatives: We'll push for the destruction of academic disciplines that are thousands of years old rather than risk one undergraduate reading Toni Morrison. https://t.co/gsHwQbUCTY— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) June 2, 2019