On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:

> 1. That's not what I mean by saying that it's not the whole story. I mean
> that the students might be raising and giving life to legitimate issues,
> even if their demand that the instructor be fired is unjust.
>


Maybe, but the way they are going about it is very problematic.





> 2. How can you say that it's a free speech issue, and yet say that it
> wouldn't be a free speech issue if the person were a Nazi or a white
> supremacist? Either it's a First Amendment issue or it isn't, either it's a
> free speech issue or it isn't, either it's an issue of academic freedom or
> it isn't. If it is, then it doesn't matter what the political content is,
> right? If you wouldn't defend her if she were a Nazi or an open KKK
> admirer, then it's a slam dunk that what the students are doing is fair
> game.
>


It all comes back to drawing lines, doesn't it? You don't shout "Fire!" in
a crowded concert hall, and you don't spout racist propaganda in a
classroom without consequences. And yes, you do have to make intelligent,
subjective, case-by-case judgments about what constitutes "racist
propaganda". So what?

I thought it was only intellectually lazy libertarians who resort to
simplistic and absolute rules without making allowance for specifics of a
situation and historical context..

-raghu.





On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 11:04 AM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 9:45 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:
>
>> I agree 100% that teachers shouldn't be fired for expressing their views
>> in class, even if they're racists, even if they're KKK, even if they're
>> Nazis. First Amendment, academic freedom, until death.
>>
>
> Actually, I wouldn't go that far at all. If this instructor at Kansas was
> out there spouting white-supremacist theories or something like that, I'd
> totally understand students demanding that she be disciplined or terminated.
>
> This is not about some abstract "free speech" principle; rather the merits
> of the case simply don't support calls for this instructor's termination.
>
>
>
> But: I think it's important to recognize that that might not be the entire
>> story.
>>
>
> That's completely irrelevant. This instructor may very well be an awful
> person, guilty of all kinds of misconduct and may very well deserve to be
> fired. If so, let's see that case being made and we can have that
> discussion.
>
> Right now the issue is a different one: should this instructor be fired
> for the reasons these students want her to be fired? I think the answer to
> that is clearly no. And the students behavior in this case is extremely
> problematic.
> -raghu.
>
>
>
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