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Why Only Free Speech Gives Safe Space To The Oppressed
Submitted by Dan Sanchez via TheAntiMedia.org,
Social justice protests have been roiling American universities, even causing administrative heads to roll. To a significant degree, these campus uprisings have been characterized by an impulse to restrict speech and expression for the sake of creating “safe spaces” for marginalized groups. However, speech restriction is a double-edged sword that can just as easily injure the very people campus activists seek to help.
The turmoil at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) in particular was sparked by racial incidents. And the protesters are closely aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement, which combats police brutality against black Americans.
However, cops themselves have recently sought to restrict speech and expression in order to insulate that very brutality from criticism.
As William N. Grigg wrote last year:
“The NYPD has now added its name to the roster of Officially Protected Victims by filing ‘hate crimes’ charges against 36-year-old Rosella Best, who had tagged police vehicles and a public school with anti-NYPD graffiti. Among the entirely defensible sentiments inscribed by Best are ‘NYPD pick on the harmless,’ ‘NYPD pick on the innocent,’ and?—?in a display of familiar but increasingly justified hyperbole?—?‘NAZIS=NYPD.’ (Assuming that Ms. Best used only ‘public’ property as her canvas, it’s difficult to identify an actual victim in this case.)”
And earlier this year, the Fraternal Order of Police demanded that Congress extend such special protection to the federal level.
Many critics of the police have been arrested and charged over Facebook posts. Matthew Townsend of Meridien, Idaho was prosecuted as a felon for a Facebook post warning of a “non-violent and legal shame campaign,” which was treated by the authorities as a “terroristic threat.” Thomas Smith of Arena, Wisconsin was arrested and charged with “unlawful use of a computerized communication system” for throwing nothing more than F-bombs and accusations of racism at local cops on Facebook. And there was a whole wave of arrests last year over fierce anti-cop online rhetoric following the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and subsequent murders of police officers.
In addition to arrests and prosecutions, cops have been orchestrating campaigns to have their social media critics shunned and fired. See the cases of restaurant workers Ashley Warden and Shawn Peterson.
High profile cops from Wisconsin to Georgia have characterized Black Lives Matter as a “hate group,” and called for a crackdown on its “incitement.”
Police (including the U.S. top cop, FBI Director James Comey) are also blaming the increase in violent crime in some cities on “the YouTube effect,” claiming officers are holding back from “proactive” (aggressive) policing for fear of having recordings of their violence go viral.
Thus, ostensibly for the sake of “officer safety” (the blue brotherhood’s version of “safe space”), legislation has been proposed to make it a crime for ordinary people to point cameras at cops.
Given these assaults by cops on the rights of individuals to combat police brutality through speech and the use of media, it is deeply troubling that allies of Black Lives Matter at Mizzou should have reacted to journalists trying to photograph their rally with threats of violence, and even police violence.
While a crowd of protesters was physically forcing student photographer Tim Tai out of a public space on campus, one of the activists warned him, “They can call the police on you.”
After Tai was driven away, the journalist who video recorded the incident remained. Faculty member Melissa Click demanded that he leave, too. When the journalist refused, Click tried to enlist fellow activists to physically remove him, saying:
“Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here!”
This was a “progressive” assistant professor of mass media calling for “muscle” to be deployed against a journalist in a public space!
In addition to Black Lives Matter, the Palestine solidarity movement is yet another just cause championed by the campus left that is imperiled by threats to speech. Moreover, these threats are emerging on university campuses and are being justified on “social justice” grounds. Like the cops, defenders of the Israeli occupation of Palestine are seeking to restrict speech on an “anti-hate” basis in order to insulate the occupation’s brutality and atrocities from criticism. As Nora Barrows-Friedman recently reported:
“A member of the University of California’s governing body has called for the expulsion or suspension of students for expressing their views about Israel, under the guise of combating anti-Jewish bigotry.
“This comes as Israel lobby groups, flush with huge new injections of cash, are stepping up their efforts to silence the Palestine solidarity movement on campuses nationwide.
“During a 17 September meeting of the University of California (UC) Regents to discuss a ‘statement of principles against intolerance,’ Richard Blum also threatened to have his wife, US Senator Dianne Feinstein, publicly criticize the university if it did not enforce penalties against perceived bigotry.
“Feinstein’s criticism could put the university system under federal scrutiny.
“Another regent, Hadi Makarechian, agreed, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, saying that without punishment, ‘we’re just stating a lot of stuff on paper.’
“Blum and other regents, backed by Israel lobby groups, are pushing the university to adopt policies that free speech advocates warn could violate the First Amendment.
“The Board of Regents had been due to vote on whether to adopt the US State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism as university policy at its meeting in July.
“That definition is based on a ‘working definition’ of anti-Semitism once considered by a European Union body but later dropped.
“Palestine solidarity and free speech advocates point out that the government definition conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry. A key strategy of Israel advocates, they say, has been to urge university administrators to treat criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism as one and the same.”
Just as the cops are blaming Black Lives Matter and viral videos for “inciting” violence against police, the hard-right Israeli government and its champions throughout the world have similarly been accusing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and the online dissemination of documented Israeli brutality, of being “incitement” for terrorism against Israel. They are pushing to have such “incitement” restricted.
And they are succeeding. In October, France’s highest court ruled that advocacy of BDS is illegal “incitement” and “hate speech.” And as Glenn Greenwald wrote in The Intercept:
“In May, CBC reported that Canadian officials threatened to prosecute BDS activists there under ‘hate speech’ laws, and after those officials denied doing so, we obtained and published the emails proving they did just that. The February Haaretz article described this troubling event in the U.K.: ‘In 2007, the British University and College Union said it would drop plans to boycott Israeli institutions after legal advisers said doing so would violate anti-discrimination laws.’ In 2013, New York City officials joined an (ultimately failed) Alan Dershowitz-led campaign to threaten the funding of Brooklyn College for the crime of hosting pro-BDS speakers.”
Again, restricting speech is a double-edged sword. As the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned:
“Free speech rights are indivisible.
“Restricting the speech of one group or individual jeopardizes everyone’s rights because the same laws or regulations used to silence bigots can be used to silence you. Conversely, laws that defend free speech for bigots can be used to defend the rights of civil rights workers, anti-war protesters, lesbian and gay activists and others fighting for justice.”
Many campus activists have lashed out in frustration at “free speech purism,” which they regard as misplaced in the context of institutionalized oppression. But it is extremely short-sighted to sacrifice universal principle on the altar of identity politics for the sake of marginalized groups.
Once you accept the infringement of universal rights as an acceptable political weapon, it will be wielded more effectively by oppressors against the oppressed (cops against blacks, Israeli occupiers against Palestinians, etc.), and not the other way around. Authoritarian restriction is a game much better suited for the mighty than for the marginalized.
If you replace the power of principle with the principle of power, it is the relatively powerless who will get the worst of it.
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Actually, most of the so-called oppressed are privileged parasites whose antics would not be tolerated for ten minutes in a free society.
Those of us who have to pay for their privileges are the ones who are ostracized and blacklisted from employment and even jailed if we dare complain too loudly.
The awful truth is that the only "speech" our oppressors are likely to actually listen to is the credible threat of lethal force.
(Girls? Enough with your "no means no." "No" means "convince me." Blowing off half the head of the would-be rapist means "no." You want to take back the night, you'll have to be prepared to kill rapists to do it.)
See about restoring the people's right to keep and bear arms. The right to freedom of speech and petitioning the government for redress of grievances will come back with it.
Racism, to include any religious affiliation, will not be tolerated in ANY FORM on this site, including the disparagment of people in the comments section.
hugs,the people in the comments section
Safe spaces are not about protecting those people. It's about silencing white/European people's criticism of their behavior and demands.
It's a racial attack, simply to silence whites as the multi-cultural horde invades and tries to take everything by force.
Racism won't be tolerated? Who the fuck are you? Some multi-culturaist priest?
There are no safe spaces. Life is 100% terminal. For everything else, there is only the natural right to defend your life, and perhaps the lives of others.
Exactly.
Unlike CFR boy above me, I don't buy the bullshit. Racism is at the core of this topic. I have dealt with these safe spaces people firsthand. Can't trust any of them.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/zerohedge.com
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Keyword Percent of Search Traffic 1. zero hedge 11.40% 2. zerohedge 3.01% 3. guitar center 2.12% 4. cnbc 2.09% 5. zero 1.42%I seriously doubt that the people who want this safe space bullshit really care about racism. I think that they just want to feel special.
Either way, if they start causing problems on a university campus near me, I'm going to go there and troll the fuck out of them. My niece goes to the local university, and I asked if she wanted me to do something like that if the opportunity ever arose. Watch the following commercial and look at the mom's face when the guy asks if she wants him to run her son through the car wash, because that's the same look my niece gave me.
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7dW0/chevrolet-oil-change-soccer-player
I attend classes three nights a week. One of my classes is in the Social Sciences building. I have seen it first hand. It's to shut up whites. Predominantly white males. White women who disagree with them are told that they are acting out due to their patriarchial opression from white males. If you are white male, they will talk shit about whites in front of you to get you to respond so they can attack you and then later put the blame on you. The shit I have heard in that particular class is simply insane.
Like that all Germans eat raw meat when they have a meal, and that is the nicest thing they have said.
If they even find out that you're a not pro-Jewish, or pro-multiculturalism, good luck. They freak out, and often it's violent. Don't let them think you are not sexually attracted to even the ugliest women either...
They are already on the campus near you. These people are everywhere.
Got any fun stories about any interactions with them?
PS: If any of the chicks literally get violent and start hitting you, I won't think any less of you for knocking their danmed heads off. Just make sure you have video of it so that you can claim self defense when the cops get there.
I had (1) incident of this nonsense with a female - not 'on-campus', but in a public place. However, there's an irony of sorts at play here. This woman had no compunction whatsoever to assault me and I think a large part of her motivation and follow-through lends itself to the fact that I was very 'gentlemanly' about the overall situation - up to and including subduing her once the physical assault commenced. The rabid Feminoids know that well-mannered males are not inclined to physically 'handle' a female, and they take advantage of these rules - thinking that they're going to intimidate their opposition into either submission or humiliation both.
I figure that if we truly are 'equal' - as the Feminoids think we should be, then that equality should extend into the area of defending oneself against attack - with a 'gender-neutral' approach... Stated differently, snapping a radial or tibia bone comes just as easily in confronting a female as it does a male. Thankfully, for both me (lawsuit) and her (health), I submitted to my 'cowardly paternalism' and simply brought the situation to a quiet - albeit uncomfortably awkward for her, close and carried on with my day.
I can tell you this much Vaq, when across-the-board economic hardship finally comes to this nation, the 'PC' nonsense will wash away down the storm drain of hard reality. Even in the face of everything else, I'll consider that a blessing...
Even most of their stories about rape are packs of lies designed to attract attention or money from men they think can afford to give them a payout to go away.
Outside the prison system rapes by white men (of people of any race) are so rare as to be almost unheard of. To the extent there is a problem at all, open carry would make short work of it. A woman crying wolf would have to explain to the jury why she didn't have her gun on her and why she didn't think to use it against the rapist.
If she couldn't do that, the court's time would be freed up to look over non-frivolous cases.
The Social Justice Warrior phenomenon is about "class control"...nothing more. Safe Spaces are about creating an area where Free Speech does not apply.
A Safe Space SJW is saying they find you offensive and a threat and they need a Safe Space to protect them from your existence. In that space you are not allowed Free Speech, you are only allowed the kind of speech that they approve and agree with.
The SJW's are PC Socialists on steroids. It is the opposite of Libertarianism. The best way to fight SJW's is through Libertarianism. If you try to fight them on their own front of "(Conservative force) vs (Socaialist) force" you will lose. Force vs force is...what? State sponsored force vs whose opposite force?
The fact that the SJW movement is in existence is proof you've already lost the force of the State's protection of your rights. The fact that the State dithers on trying to figure out what to do about them is proof of this.
How did the Soup Nazi put it? "...no soup for you!" The SJW's want to take away your soup, your power, your freedom...is that why our Grandfathers fought WWII?
.
Exactly. The "oppressed" are society's losers. The stupid, the talentless, the lazy, the mediocre, the lame, the perverted. They want to continue in their delusions and demand now that everyone share them.
One would think the burden of enforcing the First Amendment on campus would fall to a College or University Administration which at least is dependent upon Federal Grants and Loans for their researchers and students.
Otherwise it would appear they condone and support Sedition.
Hypocrisy championed as righteousness, oppression championed as freedom, ignorance championed as intelligence... these are the pillars of our 'society,' or perhaps they have always been there that way.
After all, Socrates was charged by The State for corrupting the youth.
Yes, since language (and its underlying logic) is such a powerful tool that can spread ideas like a forest fire, it makes sense that the oppressing classes always mess with our ability to correctly apply language and logic.
It's easy to sabotage language by inducing into society all the known fallacies and logic traps there are.
Only solution is for people to learn how to recognize those fallacies.
Liberals hate free speech. Trump tells it like it is and liberals get mad amd try to call him Hitler. It's pathetic.
Z/H is about charts.
And " Pre Junking".
How does a comment get JUNKED before it's posted?
There is only one explanation: Algos, man. Algos. *boo*
edit: Yen, I used to love looking at all the charts on ZH and reading your dialogues with fonz and kito re. "talking shop." Nowadays it pains me to look at any charts at all. Hopefully some day in the future, charts will matter again. Boy do I love some good chart porn (that actually matter or reflect some semblance of truth).
I'll be posting some charts in January.
Credit is due. The Tylers have been kicking ass every N.Y. close with their wonderful/beautiful charts and synopsis.
The Tylers are perfectionists, and wonderfully brilliant.
Best wishes
Agreed, amigo. ZH and Tylers have its/their ups and downs, but the daily synopsis provided (used to read daily, now once in a while) here is unmatched. If there is one place left to get any sort of factual information in the finance world, it's still here.
Cheers, and look forward to your charts in Jan.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-protects-it...
http://www.hangthebankers.com/israeli-jailed-6-months-for-burning-baby-a...
The above is a single incident. There are many like them - generally unreported.
I get that it is 'anti-semitic' to object to racist, supremacist Jews born in Brooklyn terrorizing Palestinian kids, or the quotidian brutality to the Occupation itself which IDF soldiers have criticized
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il
I get it. really. Its 'hate speech.'
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/16/israel2
And the above was purely "defense."
But when muslims backed by the us and its allies commit acts of terror, its still okay to express hatred of all muslims and arabs, is that right?
I guess its all about who you're criticizing, eh?
Or advocating genocide against:
http://www.radicalpress.com/?page_id=3854
I guess folks now realize there is only one rule on this planet, the "strongest" survive until another "stronger" purvails. Whether it's bacteria or a "black lives matter" extortion, they all have they're success until they don't. This is he result of multi-generational placation of the black community and they realize that, by and large, accepting the the Federal Government surrogate parent failed to do shit for them. They'r angry that they've they realized they're admitted to schools because they're black and not because they're qualified. They're angry that they can't complete the standard curriculim because they're at 4th grade level math, reading, science, etc. They're angry that they're at the 4th grade reading level and can't possibly keep up with anything requiring reading. So they demand the expand the African American studies to be expanded so that more and more black students and maintain grades to remain in school. That they can have a major which can minimize the classes which provide the most applicable skills to the economoy such as math, science and engineering, but allow them to be apart of the school like African American Studies. My question is how well has African American Studies treateed the black population in the last 30 years.
Safety Razors... tee hee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPJUP-Ry7d0
Dust Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSpqObhK4Rw
I looked at hippies as a little frivolous, but their generation was being drafted into a very questionable military action (congress never even declared war).
Now these little snots are mad and they can't even tell you why. They go into ridiculous amounts of debt for leftwing brainwashing and degrees that you can't make any real money using. They can't even run their own lives and they think they know how to fix the world.
If you want to know who controls you...look at who you are not allowed to criticize.
There is no truth or freedom without free speech? Its very simple and the powers we have in control are fucking stupid.... They want you to give them total control, DONT DO IT!
redacted
"Authoritarian restriction is a game much better suited for the mighty than for the marginalized.:
Damn right. That "Birkenstock Betty" who called for 'some muscle' to oust the reporter would do well to remember that. That 'muscle' can someday be used against her to shut her down when she offends someone else. And the ones WITH the muscle can use it in ways she never thought of when she was so carelessly calling for it.
Be careful what demons you summon. No matter how badly you think you can use their help, they WILL turn on you too in the end.
Let fury have the hour
Anger can be power
If you know that you can use it
- Joe Strummer (he was singing about the brownshirts, but Birkenstock Betty fits here too.)
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/11/fred-reed/bad-american-universities/ On Campus at U.PE: The University of Practically Everywhere
The value of Free speech (free press etc.) is to allow the public to have a voice in their governance, to be knowledgeable about the workings of their society and government, and to curtail government from oppressing citizens merely for their beliefs.
Unfortunately, in today's world, partly because of government and corporate secrecy, and their control of public information and disinformation, we are thwarted from having a voice, knowledgeable citizenry, and curtailment from surveillance and oppression.
A while back, one of the radical thrusts for change was dubbed the "Free Speech Movement". The contention was that the best way to oppose the prevalent social and political censorship was to allow people to say what they thought, whatever it may be.
Many, if not most, of our social limitations are self-imposed. New censors imposing a new censorship will not be a solution.
Bertrand Russell was said to remark that when he found himself becoming especially angered by another's argument it was typically because he had no effective rebuttal in hand. Because whenever he did have an effective response, he typically found the other's argument much less annoying, and his own response much more satisfying.
The best way, (certainly I think in a university), to oppose establishment myths and lies is to develop effective refutations to them. That requires some work, some alternative ed forums & teach-ins perhaps.
Instead of demanding new censorship on individuals, the demand ought to be instead to end the official and establishment censorship going on everywhere.
A campus activist group that wants to conduct its meetings without media presence is completely within its rights. Self-constituted groups, whether formally or informally, want to deliberate and make decisions among themselves. What do you think would happen to a media reporter or photographer who insisted on attending a meeting of Goldman Sachs' Board of Directors? The muscle would be right there, in unform and having power of arrest.
Good god, Luther. These are not "campus activist groups." They are fucking crybully mobs. They enjoy the unique pleasure of lashing out (in some cases physically, as noted above) and bringing the pressure of the mob to bear, without any of the associated guilt . . .after all, they are "victims"!
Who do you work for, Luther? Tell me you didn't have a hand in providing any of these crybullys with an "education."