# Obama on colleges and universities **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 19, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718 "2015-09-19T00:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/21 "2015-09-20T04:23:40Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Bernie Sanders got a polite hearing at Liberty University, after all. The speech was mandatory and the administration does not tolerate liberal style protests. Just like the Cruz speech. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/22 "2015-09-21T00:22:53Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > I completely agree. Protesting a speaker’s arguments is one thing, but protesting their very presence with a view to ‘No Platforming’ them is quite another. It’s deeply stupid and counter-productive, for a number of reasons. > > For one thing, if you don’t know your enemy, you can’t defeat them. If, for example, you want to challenge the arguments of, say, an anti gay marriage demagogue, you _need_ to know what his specific arguments are. The best way to learn them is to hear them directly. > > For another, to paraphrase Tyrion Lannister “If you cut a man’s tongue out, you only succeed in convincing everyone else that you’re afraid of what he has to say.” Inviting a homophobic/racist speaker to campus and protesting his _arguments_ rather than his _presence_ shows that you’re _not_ afraid of his point of view. > > And thirdly, history has proven time and time again that, when it comes to bigots, sunlight truly is the best disinfectant. I remember when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at the Oxford Union. When questioned on Iran’s barbaric and primitive anti-gay legal system, he was forced to say, I shit you not, _that there were no gays in Iran._ Like, none whatsoever. > > You could hear the laughter on the fucking moon. Ahmadinejad didn’t exactly have a stellar reputation in England to begin with, but that one remark turned him overnight from a threat into a walking punchline. > > So there are plenty of reasons why protesting the _presence_ of speakers is a stupid, shitty idea. Very well said, **Tithonus**. I especially like the quote from Tyrion. It’s too bad he’s dead. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/23 "2015-09-21T00:30:06Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Respect (and disrespect) for opposing viewpoints can be found on both sides. Bernie Sanders got a polite hearing at Liberty University, after all. I think it’s more a matter of one’s level of zealotry than of left vs. right. You’re absolutely right. I admire Bernie for going there, and Liberty for hosting him. It’s an embarrassment to mainstream and/or liberal schools, if they’re more afraid of “the enemy” than Liberty. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/24 "2015-09-21T01:14:48Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I entirely agree with the quote from Obama. On the other hand, his defense of free speech on college campuses would be more praiseworthy if it weren’t [his own administration that was responsible for much of the censorship on college campuses](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/06/campus-censorship-is-the-feds-fault.html). That’s something that neither he, nor the media, bother to mention very often: > So yeah, if Obama wants to solve the problem, he could start by removing his own appointee so that she doesn’t keep causing the problem. I read your article and the connection between the OCR and the supposed limits of freedom on campuses are not clearly established. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/25 "2015-09-21T01:31:16Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > The speech was mandatory and the administration does not tolerate liberal style protests. Just like the Cruz speech. Which is kind of ironic. Sanders gets a polite hearing at Liberty, but the thing is that for practical purposes\* the audience had no choice but to give him one\* once management greenlighted the event? At least the Liberty students got to see a living, breathing leftist in the flesh. However I do agree with **iiandyiiii** that very often what we see are examples of simple \*cowardice \*on the part of college administrators. As said they are scared that someone will file a Title IX complaint regardless of lack of merit, just so it’s not on the record that one was filed. They are also ever more often scared that if at the commencement speech people stand and turn their backs, or there is a picket on the other side of the street as parents drive up, and though at that I would normally say “anyone attempting to actually \*\*\*disrupt \*\*\*the event will be dealt with, but if someone decides to walk out or hold up a placard, just let them,” in those cases _then_ you’ll have one faction saying “I did not pay all this money to to have to sit through or leave the room to avoid some bigoted wingnut’s rants at [my/my child’s] commencement, he should have never been there” and another faction saying “I did not pay all this money to have to hear some whiners’ tantrum to get through [my/my child’s] commencement, it should not have been allowed”. So the brass rather make it so that \*nothing \*happens. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/26 "2015-09-27T16:22:16Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I entirely agree with the quote from Obama. On the other hand, his defense of free speech on college campuses would be more praiseworthy if it weren’t [his own administration that was responsible for much of the censorship on college campuses](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/06/campus-censorship-is-the-feds-fault.html). That’s something that neither he, nor the media, bother to mention very often: Surely you have a better example of the nefarious actions of the Obama administration than removing “Mr.” and “Mrs.” from letters, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/27 "2015-09-27T17:03:43Z")
> [@Construct](#): > > Colleges are the most progressive places in America, which is itself one of the more progressive nations in the world. You are unlikely to find an area anywhere farther left than Cambridge or San Fransisco. The fact that the people who attend colleges in these areas can still find endless grievances and injustices is not merely a sign of the facileness of social justice, but also of the moral crusades to come. Southerners should have kept those confederate flags flying, because if the left can find prejudice in institutions it exclusively controls, it’ll find prejudice everywhere. Since you have strongly implied that you believe blacks and middle easternors are genetically inferior to “whites” it’s not surprising that you think progressives are finding grievances where there are none. I’m not sure you’d find Birth of a Nation offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718/28 "2015-09-27T17:06:48Z")
Anyway there has been endless complaining about political correctness since at least the 80s and twenty years from now it will probably still be going on. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-on-colleges-and-universities/731718.md?page=1)