A little too much thinkin’ for one day?
OK Milo Trolls. Now I’m really out. Sleep well you wonderful, wonderful people.
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/BryanVision/status/736002143958667264
Tonight’s sweet dreams are brought to you by Scott Paeth, associate professor of religious studies at DePaul University, who’d tuck in each and every one of you if he could and keep you safe from the boogieman, or even Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos if it came to that.
The story of Black Lives Matter activists at DePaul storming the stage during a campus talk by Yiannopoulos and threatening him with violence while security stood by, watched, and did nothing has been well documented. Even the flimsy excuse of students getting caught up in the moment doesn’t fly days later, and it certainly doesn’t apply to university faculty and administrators days after the fact.
Remarkably, DePaul president Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, who was visiting France while students embarrassed the school before a global audience online, issued a statement comparing DePaul’s students to the soldiers buried at Normandy.
#DePaul president: Campus #BlackLivesMatter activists like #DDay troopshttps://t.co/2p60GuhY7T #Normandy #MiloYiannopoulos
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) May 26, 2016
Looking at the rows of white crosses marking the graves of those who died fighting on D-Day, Holtschneider realized that many of the protesters at DePaul bravely stormed the podium to fulfill “similarly noble goals for a more inclusive world for those traditionally held aside by our society” as did the fallen at Normandy.
Paeth didn’t reach quite so far to find a defense for the stage crashers at DePaul but did struggle to find that elusive line between free speech and hate speech, even though the answer is simple enough.
Regardless of what precedes it, the answer to the question "does that person have any right to speak?" is, "Yes." https://t.co/7BexSlpKYS
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) May 27, 2016
That viewpoint doesn’t take into account the fragility of today’s safe spacers, though, does it?
I hadnt expected to spend the past day or so contemplating what constitutes the appropriate boundary of free academic speech but here we are
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 26, 2016
If one comes to a college to say something that has no intellectual worth can interrupting them be a violation of their right to speak?
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 26, 2016
Interrupting them? Or, more precisely, blowing whistles, making punching motions at their faces and stealing the microphones out of their hands to provide intellectual stimulation like, “Milo you got to go. Milo you got to go. Dump the Trump. Dump the Trump. I got all day.”
If a student group brings a speaker to campus for the express purpose of offending others, does that person have any genuine right to speak?
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 26, 2016
.@ScottPaeth Yes. And as a DePaul parent, I pay your salary.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 27, 2016
Thanks! I’ll think of you when I buy my next beer.
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 27, 2016
.@ScottPaeth thanks, and I'll think of you next time I get a DePaul fundraising letter.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 27, 2016
If a student group wanted to bring a speaker to defend the Rwandan genocide, would they have a right to do so? Where is the boundary here?
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 26, 2016
Yes, they would. How long is this exam anyway? We don’t have all day.
Some things are clearly on one side of the protected speech boundary, some things are clearly on the other, but how do find the line?
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 26, 2016
Go to the unemployment office and look for a bunch of people standing in a row. There, you’ve found the line. Congratulations.
Today I received more than a hundred mentions on Twitter, & they keep coming. I'm unconvinced there's two working brain cells among them.
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 26, 2016
It must be exhausting to have to fight off idiotic First Amendment trolls all day. Perhaps the Women’s Studies healing space would have been a better venue that Twitter in which to salve the butt-hurt.
Pretty sanctimonious for a guy that doesn't grasp the basic of freedom of speech.
— Paul #CountryFirst Drake (@PaulWDrake) May 27, 2016
It’s funny you think I don’t grasp it. I think you may have a problem with reading comprehension.
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 27, 2016
It's cute how the guy defending the violent mob that silenced speech keeps claiming civility & comprehension as his own.
— Paul #CountryFirst Drake (@PaulWDrake) May 27, 2016
Aw, you’re cute too. I like you.
— Scott Paeth (@ScottPaeth) May 27, 2016
No wonder the special snowflakes have taken over the DePaul campus.
https://twitter.com/sjfotos/status/735999077180178432
While DePaul equates campus agitators with war heroes and searches for that elusive line defining the boundary of free speech, the school’s rating on Facebook is taking a beating. As of this writing, DePaul’s non-response to the threats has netted the school 8,000 “1” ratings on a 5 scale, compared to 147 5-star reviews.
https://twitter.com/Nero/status/735959982341029888
https://twitter.com/ChrisWitherkay/status/735996430289121280
Free speech is getting out of hand. How long before DePaul petitions Facebook to reset its rating in the name of protected speech?
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