Speech Coders

The price of free speech:

Yes, it has come to this. After decades of hard-left domination of our academic institutions, even just disseminating ideas that depart from the leftist line constitutes “harassment.” Never mind whether or not those ideas are true. A Davidson apparatchik wrote to the chairwoman of Davidson’s YAF chapter, reminding her that “a priority at Davidson College is to provide a holistic student experience focusing on students’ well-being and college success.” This apparently involved sheltering students from unwelcome thoughts: “My office received information that, if accurate, may indicate that you violated the Code of Responsibility and thus go against this priority.” The official went on to speak of what happened as if a crime had been committed: “The information is regarding an incident that occurred on or around Sunday, October 6, 2024 at approximately in or near Davidson College campus.” The official then kindly went on to detail the nature of the crime: “The Dean of Students has received several complaints that leaders of the student organization Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) distributed a pamphlet entitled ‘The Five Myths About Israel Perpetrated by the Pro-Hamas Left’ which allegedly includes misinformation that promotes islamophobia.” Now, Hunter Biden’s laptop taught us all we need to know about what it means when the left starts claiming that something is “misinformation,” and “Islamophobia” is another propaganda word that is designed to shut down speech about Islam that the left dislikes. And so all that Davidson actually established was that the YAF chapter had done something it didn’t like, and was going to be punished as a result. The Davidson official went on to say that YAF had also shared a post “speculating [about] the gender/identity of Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, which allegedly includes misinformation that promotes transphobia.” (Spoiler alert: he’s a dude.) And so now, Spencer Brown explained, “as a result of the YAF students' wise refusal to go along with the Left's ‘Newspeak’ at Davidson, they were given two untenable options: 1) falsely admit guilt and waive appeal rights or 2) go before a campus kangaroo court and accept whatever ‘accountability plan’ is assigned.”

You stil can't agree to disagree on campus...