# Political Correctness in our universities **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 25, 2018, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108 "2018-04-25T15:58:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/81 "2018-04-30T13:41:10Z")
Yeah, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t see the horrible crime in being less than kind to a recently deceased public figure who we happen to see as a negative influence on history. I’ll gladly fucking dance on the graves of Phylis Schaefly, Antonin Scalia, and Pat Buchanan, whenever he ends up becoming a severely disillusioned corpse. These people were fucking awful for America, and deserve no celebration and no kindness in their eulogy. If anything, now is a better time to highlight things we didn’t like about them - we’re _well_ past the point where they could be offended by insults. [Meanwhile…](https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/randa-jarrar-fresno-state-professor-interview.html) “I felt compelled to speak up because I want people to remember history. I want people to know that our country’s actions don’t just disappear; they have real, negative consequences,” she said in an email. “If we want a better future, we have to confront our past.” Jarrar elaborated on her criticism of the former First Lady, citing the Bush family legacy in Iraq and Barbara’s comments about Anita Hill (whose claims she doubted) and Katrina victims (she once said evacuees were “underprivileged anyway” and better off in the Astrodome). “The Bush family — including Barbara Bush — supported policies that harmed and destroyed the lives of millions,” she said. I’ll be blunt - anyone more disturbed by what Jarrar said than about the death threats and harassment she faced due to her words has missed something very important. Because what she said isn’t anywhere near as bad as even a single death threat. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/82 "2018-04-30T13:50:43Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > I’ll be blunt - anyone more disturbed by what Jarrar said than about the death threats and harassment she faced due to her words has missed something very important. Because what she said isn’t anywhere near as bad as even a single death threat. Death threats. Let’s talk about death threats. 30 years ago, a death threat was when someone wrote a letter, put a stamp on in, and put it in the mail. Today a death threat is an email with 16 strokes of a keyboard: “I’m gonna kill u” Not great to get I’m sure. But I don’t believe the death threat thing (if true, and I don’t know if it was) has the same impact it once had. I mean, I just got an email this morning that there are Russian hotties that want to have sex with me. I’m just not as excited about hear that as I would have been in 1988. Maybe I’m just getting older . . . ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/83 "2018-04-30T19:45:15Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > Death threats. Let’s talk about death threats. > > 30 years ago, a death threat was when someone wrote a letter, put a stamp on in, and put it in the mail. Today a death threat is an email with 16 strokes of a keyboard: “I’m gonna kill u” > > Not great to get I’m sure. But I don’t believe the death threat thing (if true, and I don’t know if it was) has the same impact it once had. > > I mean, I just got an email this morning that there are Russian hotties that want to have sex with me. I’m just not as excited about hear that as I would have been in 1988. Maybe I’m just getting older . . . I know. And how many of those “threats” were fake? Hell she could have made them up herself. College professors have done this before. [THIS](http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/18/local/me-claremont18) college professor faked a racial “attack” by spraying graffiti on and slashing the tires on his own car. Back in [2005 at KU we had a college professor](http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/dec/10/embattled_ku_professor_has_long_history_religion/?ku_news) who went to far as applying makeup to fake an “attack”. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/84 "2018-04-30T20:15:21Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Yeah, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t see the horrible crime in being less than kind to a recently deceased public figure who we happen to see as a negative influence on history. I’ll gladly fucking dance on the graves of Phylis Schaefly, Antonin Scalia, and Pat Buchanan, whenever he ends up becoming a severely disillusioned corpse. These people were fucking awful for America, and deserve no celebration and no kindness in their eulogy. If anything, now is a better time to highlight things we didn’t like about them - we’re _well_ past the point where they could be offended by insults. > > [Meanwhile…](https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/randa-jarrar-fresno-state-professor-interview.html) > > “I felt compelled to speak up because I want people to remember history. I want people to know that our country’s actions don’t just disappear; they have real, negative consequences,” she said in an email. “If we want a better future, we have to confront our past.” Jarrar elaborated on her criticism of the former First Lady, citing the Bush family legacy in Iraq and Barbara’s comments about Anita Hill (whose claims she doubted) and Katrina victims (she once said evacuees were “underprivileged anyway” and better off in the Astrodome). “The Bush family — including Barbara Bush — supported policies that harmed and destroyed the lives of millions,” she said. > > I’ll be blunt - anyone more disturbed by what Jarrar said than about the death threats and harassment she faced due to her words has missed something very important. Because what she said isn’t anywhere near as bad as even a single death threat. So Jarrar got threatened with “consequences?” Isn’t that the price for free speech? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/85 "2018-04-30T20:17:33Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Once again, we’re seeing the doubleplus ungood forces of political correctness targeting anyone at an American university who doesn’t join in their groupthink. Is free speech really so poorly valued in our nation’s academic circles as this? > > I am speaking, of course, about [Randa Jarrar](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/04/25/fresno-state-says-it-cant-discipline-the-professor-who-called-barbara-bush-an-amazing-racist/?utm_term=.312a453baed1), who had the audacity to disagree with people about Barbara Bush’s legacy. She holds a different opinion, and in response, you have college students (and a helluva lot of other people) screaming about how she should get fired for daring to voice an opinion that isn’t politically correct. > > What amazes me most about this case is that there’s not a thread on it already: we have a cadre of first-amendment defenders on these boards who are [So quick](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=851611&highlight=speech) [to jump on](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=827560&highlight=university) [attacks on free speech](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20193190&postcount=4), on campus or off. Did y’all just somehow miss this occasion? > > So, for debate, I propose this: attacks like the attack on Jarrar, in which conservatives mobilize by the thousands, and prominent figures call for her firing, are much more insidious attacks on free speech on campus than are a bunch of undergrads hollering about a professional provocateur on campus; and folks who focus on the latter, not the former, are motivated by partisanship and not by a dedication to free speech. You are conflating political correctness with simple common decency. Jarrar is free to express her views on Barbara Bush and anyone else. Even if it she wants her comments to reset the low bar for common decency of someone who was not a mass murderer, etc. who has just died. Most voices from the right that I have seen attack her comments on those grounds, not that she should not be allowed to say them. Her giving out the phone number she did is another matter entirely, even though it competes with her own low bar for decency. I am extremely tickled that YOU choose this episode to suddenly be a defender of free speech on campuses. I haven’t been around in a while but I don’t recall you attempting top defend the conservative voices on campuses that are routinely shouted down and or shut down. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/86 "2018-04-30T20:47:55Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > Death threats. Let’s talk about death threats. > > 30 years ago, a death threat was when someone wrote a letter, put a stamp on in, and put it in the mail. Today a death threat is an email with 16 strokes of a keyboard: “I’m gonna kill u” > [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I know. And how many of those “threats” were fake? Hell she could have made them up herself. College professors have done this before. I love this narrative. “Death threats are incredibly easy to make now, and plus she probably didn’t get any!” If you seriously think that a person who has a 10,000 name petition calling for her firing, who gets featured on Fox “news” shows as an example of leftism run amok, who has multiple commentators excoriating her–if you seriously think this person is somehow not going to get death threats, you live in a very different universe from ours. 4chan et al have orchestrated death threat campaigns against folks for far less than this. > [@magellan01](#): > > You are conflating political correctness with simple common decency. Jarrar is free to express her views on Barbara Bush and anyone else. Even if it she wants her comments to reset the low bar for common decency of someone who was not a mass murderer, etc. who has just died. > > Most voices from the right that I have seen attack her comments on those grounds, not that she should not be allowed to say them. Her giving out the phone number she did is another matter entirely, even though it competes with her own low bar for decency. > > I am extremely tickled that YOU choose this episode to suddenly be a defender of free speech on campuses. I haven’t been around in a while but I don’t recall you attempting top defend the conservative voices on campuses that are routinely shouted down and or shut down. That’s super cool that your memory failures lead to hilarity for you; I guess any chance at laughter in these dark days is to be applauded. However, be assured that it’s entirely a memory failure on your behalf. You’d have to go all the way back to _earlier in this thread_ to find an example of my calling for prosecuting those who attack conservative speakers on campus: > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > yes, there have been worse incidents, including physical violence against speakers. I fully support punishing those just as any other assaults are punished. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/87 "2018-04-30T21:08:42Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > That’s super cool that your memory failures lead to hilarity for you; I guess any chance at laughter in these dark days is to be applauded. However, be assured that it’s entirely a memory failure on your behalf. You’d have to go all the way back to _earlier in this thread_ to find an example of my calling for prosecuting those who attack conservative speakers on campus: So, you are agains those who use violence against speech they do not like. That’s awesome. They should give you a trophy. But, actual violence aside, it appears that my point stands. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/88 "2018-05-01T00:11:49Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > So, you are agains those who use violence against speech they do not like. That’s awesome. They should give you a trophy. But, actual violence aside, it appears that my point stands. What the hell is your point–that I’m against actual suppression of free speech through coercive means, but don’t get all whinypants about hollering teenagers, so I’m partisan or something? Awesome point, magellan. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/89 "2018-05-01T13:06:26Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > If you seriously think that a person who has a 10,000 name petition calling for her firing, who gets featured on Fox “news” shows as an example of leftism run amok, who has multiple commentators excoriating her–if you seriously think this person is somehow not going to get death threats, you live in a very different universe from ours. 4chan et al have orchestrated death threat campaigns against folks for far less than this. > s: Well its a story which made the news - well it IS news isnt it. And yes it IS leftism run amuck. Whats your point? Commentators look for things to talk about dont they? And its pretty easy to call her an idiot. As for 10,000 names on a petition, in a country of 300 million its not hard to get that many on an online petition. And look, its the world we live in today. All it takes is a few Google searches and anyone can find your home address. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/90 "2018-05-01T15:41:51Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Well its a story which made the news - well it IS news isnt it. And yes it IS leftism run amuck. Whats your point? Commentators look for things to talk about dont they? And its pretty easy to call her an idiot. As for 10,000 names on a petition, in a country of 300 million its not hard to get that many on an online petition. This entire paragraph is a non sequitur to what you quoted. Seriously, go back and reread what you quoted. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/91 "2018-05-01T15:53:45Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What the hell is your point–that I’m against actual suppression of free speech through coercive means, but don’t get all whinypants about hollering teenagers, so I’m partisan or something? Awesome point, magellan. Yup. Shining light on your hypocrisy and the richness of you claiming to be a free speech advocate. Oh, but you are against it when actual violence is used, so that gives you some moral high ground? Ha! And I love how you try to minimize the actions of the dopey campus denizens when they try to prevent conservative speech. You are either an advocate of free speech or you are not. The left used to understand this, most famously, and ironically, at Berkeley in the '60s. Now, they try to limit any speech that upsets them. They have their “free speech zones” (what happened to the campus itself being the free speech zone?), safe spaces, asinine whining about triggers and micro-aggressions, their Orwellian attempt to shut down language by decreeing it hate speech, physical intimidation, vandalism, etc. And if you are not on the side of free and open speech, as Ramparts at Berkeley was, you’re giving cover to the idiocy of these coddled crybabies so easily whipped up in a fury by their antifa comrades. So, your OP is rich, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/92 "2018-05-01T16:37:28Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Yup. Shining light on your hypocrisy and the richness of you claiming to be a free speech advocate. Oh, but you are against it when actual violence is used, so that gives you some moral high ground? Ha! And I love how you try to minimize the actions of the dopey campus denizens when they try to prevent conservative speech. You are either an advocate of free speech or you are not. The left used to understand this, most famously, and ironically, at Berkeley in the '60s. Now, they try to limit any speech that upsets them. They have their “free speech zones” (what happened to the campus itself being the free speech zone?), safe spaces, asinine whining about triggers and micro-aggressions, their Orwellian attempt to shut down language by decreeing it hate speech, physical intimidation, vandalism, etc. And if you are not on the side of free and open speech, as Ramparts at Berkeley was, you’re giving cover to the idiocy of these coddled crybabies so easily whipped up in a fury by their antifa comrades. > > So, your OP is rich, to say the least. So you’re saying you’re in favor of free speech? But also that in order to be in favor of free speech, one has to oppose students who criticize other speech by calling out “hate speech”? So some speech is “Orwellian”, and that speech is anti free speech? This makes no logical sense to me. It sounds like a religion in which the main tenet is that liberals oppose free speech, facts be damned. Criticizing certain speech is okay. Calling something hate speech is okay. Advocating that a university not give special treatment to bigots by giving them usage of their facilities is okay. Advocating for boycotts is okay. None of that is anti free speech in any way. In fact, all of those are just more examples of protected free speech. Violence is not okay. Liberals and the left in general are no more anti free speech than conservatives and the right. For every loony lefty who advocates violence to shut down hateful speech, there’s a loony righty who advocates violence (state violence, generally) to shut down pornography or blasphemy. The vast majority of both sides don’t advocate for violence against speech. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/93 "2018-05-01T17:03:07Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Yup. Shining light on your hypocrisy and the richness of you claiming to be a free speech advocate. Oh, but you are against it when actual violence is used, so that gives you some moral high ground? Ha! And I love how you try to minimize the actions of the dopey campus denizens when they try to prevent conservative speech. You are either an advocate of free speech or you are not. The left used to understand this, most famously, and ironically, at Berkeley in the '60s. Now, they try to limit any speech that upsets them. They have their “free speech zones” (what happened to the campus itself being the free speech zone?), safe spaces, asinine whining about triggers and micro-aggressions, their Orwellian attempt to shut down language by decreeing it hate speech, physical intimidation, vandalism, etc. And if you are not on the side of free and open speech, as Ramparts at Berkeley was, you’re giving cover to the idiocy of these coddled crybabies so easily whipped up in a fury by their antifa comrades. > > So, your OP is rich, to say the least. In the not distant future that post would be labeled ‘hate speech.’ ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/94 "2018-05-01T17:10:07Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > In the not distant future that post would be labeled ‘hate speech.’ Oh no! Someone said the terrible magic words “hate speech” and happy free words were sad forever! ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/95 "2018-05-01T17:31:59Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > So you’re saying you’re in favor of free speech? But also that in order to be in favor of free speech, one has to oppose students who criticize other speech by calling out “hate speech”? > > So some speech is “Orwellian”, and that speech is anti free speech? > > This makes no logical sense to me. It sounds like a religion in which the main tenet is that liberals oppose free speech, facts be damned. > > Criticizing certain speech is okay. Calling something hate speech is okay. Advocating that a university not give special treatment to bigots by giving them usage of their facilities is okay. Advocating for boycotts is okay. None of that is anti free speech in any way. In fact, all of those are just more examples of protected free speech. > > Violence is not okay. > > Liberals and the left in general are no more anti free speech than conservatives and the right. For every loony lefty who advocates violence to shut down hateful speech, there’s a loony righty who advocates violence (state violence, generally) to shut down pornography or blasphemy. The vast majority of both sides don’t advocate for violence against speech. HA! You join with your comrade and draw the line at violence. Another trophy for you. But you might be aware that violence is against the law whether it is about speech or not, so your grand stance is unimpressive in the extreme. There used to be a time that the left valued free speech, most famously with the ACLU’s defense of the asshole Nazis. THAT was the principled stance. Now those on the left seek to exclude protected speech by fabricating this thing they call hate speech. To point of the stupidity of such a thing, try to define it. And tell me, who gets to declare that speech X constitutes as “hate speech”? And then the more speech is decreed as hate speech, speech that comes close to _that_ will result in yet more whining, triggering and micro-aggressions, and yet more speech that will be verboten. Such a nice game you want to play with one of our founding tenets. But you draw a line at violence. Such a principled stance!! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/96 "2018-05-01T17:52:53Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > HA! You join with your comrade and draw the line at violence. Another trophy for you. But you might be aware that violence is against the law whether it is about speech or not, so your grand stance is unimpressive in the extreme. > > There used to be a time that the left valued free speech, most famously with the ACLU’s defense of the asshole Nazis. THAT was the principled stance. Now those on the left seek to exclude protected speech by fabricating this thing they call hate speech. To point of the stupidity of such a thing, try to define it. And tell me, who gets to declare that speech X constitutes as “hate speech”? And then the more speech is decreed as hate speech, speech that comes close to _that_ will result in yet more whining, triggering and micro-aggressions, and yet more speech that will be verboten. Such a nice game you want to play with one of our founding tenets. But you draw a line at violence. Such a principled stance!! :rolleyes: What the hell are you talking about? Who has called for banning/criminalizing any speech, including hate speech? I would oppose any such efforts, as would every liberal I know, including many students who criticize hate speech in their campuses. Criticism and challenge is part of free speech. Anyone can characterize any other speech in any way they want, including calling out hate speech. Including saying that they think assholes should shut up, and that their campuses shouldn’t give special privileges to bigots. That’s actually a necessary part of free speech. Yes, I draw the line at violence - including state violence to ban hate speech, or to ban criticizing hate speech. Where do you draw it? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/97 "2018-05-01T18:32:43Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Oh no! Someone said the terrible magic words “hate speech” and happy free words were sad forever! What? You surely cannot be ignorant of the use of labels like “hate speech”, blasphemy, etc. as a mean to evoke Pavlovian emotional responses from the unwashed and indoctrinated mobs. The left has mastered and is abusing a tactic that religions have used for millennia. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/98 "2018-05-01T18:36:14Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > What? You surely cannot be ignorant of the use of labels like “hate speech”, blasphemy, etc. as a mean to evoke Pavlovian emotional responses from the unwashed and indoctrinated mobs. The left has mastered and is abusing a tactic that religions have used for millennia. I know! Why, think of all the millions who have lost their lives and been brutalized because an evil liberal called something they said hate speech. It’s not like antisemitism or white supremacism or other hateful ideologies have a track record like that. Liberals should just shut their mouths. White supremacism should just go unchallenged and uncritcized, or at least it should never be criticized with those powerful evil magic words “hate speech”. Right? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/99 "2018-05-01T18:50:40Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I know! Why, think of all the millions who have lost their lives and been brutalized because an evil liberal called something they said hate speech. It’s not like antisemitism or white supremacism or other hateful ideologies have a track record like that. > > Liberals should just shut their mouths. White supremacism should just go unchallenged and uncritcized, or at least it should never be criticized with those powerful evil magic words “hate speech”. > > Right? If you study history, at all, you’d know that the form of rhetoric you are so strongly for is a tool used to suppress speech and thought. In your crusade against the KKK and other bogeymen you unwittingly support an even more dangerous concept. At some point these emotionally manipulative techniques could be used to mobilize a mob against a position you hold. Cite? The pit. And the merits of your position won’t matter. All that people will hear are your shrieking opponents chanting “hate speech” and other ad-hominem attacks. Why is the left being critiqued? Because nonsense like political correctness and ‘cultural appropriation’ have moved into the land of the bizarre with their applications. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108/100 "2018-05-01T18:59:08Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > If you study history, at all, you’d know that the form of rhetoric you are so strongly for is a tool used to suppress speech and thought. In your crusade against the KKK and other bogeymen you unwittingly support an even more dangerous concept. At some point these emotionally manipulative techniques could be used to mobilize a mob against a position you hold. Cite? The pit. And the merits of your position won’t matter. All that people will hear are your shrieking opponents chanting “hate speech” and other ad-hominem attacks. > > Why is the left being critiqued? Because nonsense like political correctness and ‘cultural appropriation’ have moved into the land of the bizarre with their applications. What the hell are you talking about? Are you saying it’s wrong to call anything hate speech? Are you just saying it’s overused? I want hateful rhetoric to be called out, challenged, and criticized. Do you disagree with that? What, specifically, are you saying that I’m doing wrong and should do differently? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-in-our-universities/813108.md?page=6)