Midwestern State University in Texas Professor Nathan Jun has triggered a free speech fight in Texas after a series of unhinged, hateful statements on social media. Wearing an Antifa teeshirt on social media, Jun has lashed out at police, capitalists, and politicians. His views are extreme and offensive. They are also, in my view, entirely protected. Much like the banning of Louis Farrakhan discussed yesterday, Jun is the test of our true commitment to free speech. By supporting this right to speak, we support the right of everyone, including the vast majority who view Jun’s comments as deeply unsettling and obnoxious.
I recently testified in the Senate on Antifa and its growing popularity on our campuses with both faculty and students, including my own campus. Antifa is an openly violent and vehemently anti-free speech movement — views that should make it anathema for any intellectual or academic.
Jun however is the very face of Antifa: intolerant, intimidating, and rageful. Even among extremists within Antifa, Jun is a standout. He has called for the abolishing of police and thrilled supporters in calling for the killing of officers. Last month, KFDX noted comments by Jun, including “I want the entire world to burn until the last cop is strangled with the intestines of the last capitalist, who is strangled in turn with the intestines of the last politician.”
The line was clearly a paraphrasing of the famous statement by Denis Diderot that “Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
Hundreds have supported Jun including a graduate student association that suggested that the opposition to his comments were the result of anti-semitism and attacks on “otherism”:
“[Dr. Jun] is not a terrorist or anything of the kind. He is of Polish Jewish descent, and the grandson of Holocaust survivors. Given Dr. Jun’s background, we cannot help but see the anti-Semitic overtones of an angry conservative mob in a region politically dominated by evangelical Christianity, singling out Dr. Jun as an enemy ‘other.'”
Putting aside his hatred for police and capitalists, what is interesting about this statement is Jun’s desire to have a system without politicians. He stated “I do long to live in a world in which we no longer have cops, which we no longer have capitalists and which we no longer have politicians. Because those are my political beliefs and I own them and I make no apologies for those beliefs.”
Of course a system without politicians would mean a country without democratic processes. That would seem to be a call for authoritarian rule or the “withering away” of the State under Marxism. Friedrich Engels stated in Anti-Dühring:
The interference of the state power in social relations becomes superfluous in one sphere after another, and then ceases of itself. The government of persons is replaced by the administration of things and the direction of the processes of production. The state is not “abolished”, it withers away.
Again, such views should be entirely protected. ndeed I view them as welcomed on a campus where the diversity of ideas is the very foundation for learning. Unfortunately, Jun’s apparent embrace of Antifa puts him at odds with such diversity of thought. We have been discussing the comprehensive effort, from classrooms to newsrooms, to enforce a new orthodoxy in public discourse. Antifa furthers this movement by adding a menacing element of violence. It often seeks to trigger violent confrontations, particularly with the police. It is all part of achieving what Antifa calls “no platforming,” or denying people with opposing views the ability to be heard.
Dartmouth Professor Mark Bray, the author of a book entitled “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” is one of the chief enablers of these protesters. Bray speaks positively of the effort to supplant traditional views of free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” He defines anti-fascists as “illiberal” who reject the notion that far right views deserve to “coexist” with opposing views.
Jun’s unhinged ravings come right out of the “Antifa Handbook.” Yet, while supporting the most prominent anti-free speech movement in the United States, Jun has denounced the university for failing to support his right to free speech while seeking money on GoFundMe:
“Throughout all of this, my employer exhibited an utterly callous disregard for my safety and well-being, making no effort whatsoever to defend me (either privately or publicly) or to protect my rights more generally. Instead, the president of the university administration eventually broke her prolonged radio silence by sending me a terse email alleging that I had ‘violated the university’s academic freedom and responsibility policy’ and implicitly threatening me with reprisal if I continued to speak out publicly on issues of race and racism.”
Jun has objected that people are calling for his own death after he called for the death of every single police officer.
Putting aside his glaring hypocrisy over free speech, Jun is indeed protected by both free speech and academic freedom. To its credit, the Foundation for Individual Rights for Education (FIRE) has helped him and sent a letter to Midwestern University President Suzanne Shipley to defend his right to speak.
This month in a Facebook post on October 1, Shipley called Nun’s post “abhorrent and disgusting,” as well as “antithetical to our institutional values.” She added:
“That being said, please know this: we have conferred with and are being capably advised by the office of the Attorney General of the State of Texas. We are committed to monitoring this situation with their guidance and will take decisive action if a line is crossed beyond that of speech protected by the First Amendment. Additionally, no students will be required to enroll in or complete Professor Jun’s courses. Alternatives will be provided even now if the student requests them.”
So long as Jun is speaking outside of the school as a private person, I do not see the line being crossed. I only wish that Jun showed the same tolerance for opposing views. Instead he has openly supported Antifa which has engaged in violence against speakers and fellow academics as part of its “no platforming” agenda. However, we cannot let his hateful and hypocritical statements deter us from protecting the values that Antifa seeks to destroy. Ironically, his case could be important to support free speech against people like himself. He can then continue to spew his intolerant ideas and thrill supporters with his violent ideations. Jun is the price we pay for free speech.
“I just think COVID is God’s gift to the left,…”
– Jane Fonda
___________
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) will do anything for power.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) released the “China Flu, 2020” in an election year to stop the Trump juggernaut which was on its way to a massive landslide victory in November.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) will replace American freedom with slavery to the dictatorship; “the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
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“The end justifies the means.”
– Leon Trotsky, Communist Revolutionary
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the canidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
– William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987
he said it in 1981, but he predicted Trump’s gaslighting
The Deep Deep State “Swamp’ signed off on allowing the power-hungry psycho, Hillary, to pull the strings of the puppet buffoon,Obama; advancing his “Obama Coup D’etat in America and Banana Republic Clown Show.”
“If Comey had indicted Hillary, Comey would have convicted Obama.”
– Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review (paraphrased)
___________________________________________
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history.
The co-conspirators are:
Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic,
Sally Yates, James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell,
Sir Richard Dearlove, Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud,
Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper, Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary,
Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power, Lynch,
Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,
Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg et al.
The same stale propaganda. Nancy Pelocy is the third most powerful person in the nation. After President Trump annonced the travel restriction on China she went to China Town in San Francisco and declared that the President was xenophobic (racist). She was not wearing a mask. Unlike Anonymous on the President, I am not laying the deaths from the virus at Pelosi’s feet. I will say that her going to San Fransisco was a political stunt. Her response on autopilot is to say that everything the President does is wrong. Everything she says is not a lie and everything the President says is not a lie. Using this tearing of the heart strings by The Lincoln Project for political purposes is despicable.
PRESS HERE
Nancy Pelosi—Autopilot Button ****
Anonymous —Autopilot Button ****
Almost forgot.
—We are not a robot Button ****
Wow, how did this guy get a job? This is another good example of “freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.” Never been there, but from what I’ve heard, Texas may not be the best state to start throwing out stuff like this. I will vote for Trump, but I won’t wear a maga hat in DC (I won’t wear a bright red hat anyway, but that is another discussion).
Nancy Pelosi has set up a commission to invoke the 25th amendment for remove a future president( Joe Biden). Just incase the president is going to be incapacitated to be able to fulfill the duties of his or her office. Nancy, that could be you.
I learned today that Jun is a Marxist anarchist. Ironically, he is in hiding because of threats of violence. Yet, he calls for the killing of police officers.
Well, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. That would be hypocritical.
Free Speech for All!
I disagree with Jun, but hey, whatever, let the rambles of a rambling nutter go on.
As long as he doesn’t take any actions towards his rantings, we are all gonna be just fine.
Vote-By-Mail – Now the communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) have taken over American elections.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
America is in a condition of hysteria, incoherence, chaos, anarchy and rebellion.
President Abraham Lincoln seized power, neutralized the legislative and judicial branches and ruled by executive order and proclamation to “Save the Union.”
President Donald Trump must now seize power, neutralize the legislative and judicial branches and rule by executive order and proclamation to “Save the Republic.”
China says the NBA has correctly modified its behavior so the Chinese communist party will resume televising NBA games in China and, presumably, re-instate the NBA’s Chinese revenue stream.
The NBA is approved by the Communist Party in China.
Good to know.
Can we put a tariff on the NBA?
George is a communist. He’s hysterical.
After what can be considered labelling George can Anonymous prove “George is a communist.”?
Bwahahaha!
George often talks about “communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs)”, and Allan is silent.
I say that George is a communist, and Allan wants proof.
Allan didn’t realize that my comment was made sarcastically, maybe because he doesn’t read comments in context and didn’t know that I was replying to George’s silly and repetitious claim.
George isn’t a communist. The people George calls communists aren’t communists either. If only George understood that. If only Allan were as curious about George’s ridiculous claim that Democrats and RINOs are communists as he is about my obvious sarcasm.
Article 1, Section 8 and the absolute 5th Amendment right to private property collectively preclude the existence of the entire American welfare state. Congress has no power to tax for individual or specific welfare, redistribution of wealth or charity and Congress may tax for only “…general Welfare…,” general meaning ALL. Congress has no power to regulate anything other than money, the “flow” of commerce and land and naval Forces.
Read it and weep. “Crazy Abe” Lincoln illegally and unconstitutionally commenced, by the imposition of illegal brute force, the nullification of the Constitution as FDR, LBJ and Obama furthered the implementation of communism in America.
Affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, rent control, social services, forced busing, minimum wage, utility subsidies, WIC, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc., are all irrefutably unconstitutional.
I am most certainly as communist as the American Founders.
“I say that George is a communist, and Allan wants proof.”
That is normal to intelligent people but perhaps not so normal for you.
“Allan didn’t realize that my comment was made sarcastically, maybe because he doesn’t read comments in context”
How am I to know that is was your sarcastic pretend friend that made the comment? At least one of your pretend friends has said things stupider than that.
You have to take blame for what you say. That is what adults do. I am not sure that includes adults that live in their mommy’s basement.
Why don’t you ask George for proof that RINOs are communists, Allan?
Do you agree with him?
Though I have disagreements with George, on his worst days he is smarter than you.
Ironic that politicians created the laws that allow him to say that he wants to murder politicians, and police protect him from people who’d like to murder him. But this guy is supposed to be an educator? Just how low is the bar to become an instructor these days? Is there even a bar? Or do you just walk in, spew a bunch of hateful rhetoric and they say, “You’re hired! Let’s go meet the kids!”
Odd that no outlet is reporting on 3 BLM rioters being arrested except the Richmond Times Dispatch. Odd indeed
https://richmond.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-arrested-for-carrying-gun-during-richmond-protest-wanted-in-new-york-city-for-shooting/article_c26a33ac-8f31-591d-b8d4-1e78eb20a0d8.html
Man arrested for carrying gun during Richmond protest wanted in New York City for shooting
A man who allegedly tossed a firearm while fleeing Richmond police during a protest in May already was facing charges in a fatal New York City shooting in January, and he has since been charged with attempted murder in another shooting there after his Richmond arrest.
Moustapha Diop, 19, is charged in New York with criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment in the accidental shooting of a teen who died in January. Diop also is charged with attempted murder in the July 2 wounding of a bicyclist in New York City.
On May 31, as Black Lives Matter protestors marched through downtown Richmond, breaking a newly imposed curfew, police standing at the intersection of North Second and East Marshall streets heard gunshots in the area at 11:37 p.m. The suspected shooter, who initially identified himself as Kevin McAtez and later identified himself as Moustapha Diop, was observed as he ran up North Second Street toward the officers, according to police. The man was holding a firearm in his waistband, police said.
“Officers gave verbal commands to drop the weapon, which Diop ignored. This led to a short foot pursuit. The suspect was then stopped and taken into custody at N. 1st and E. Broad streets by other officers who were in the area,” wrote Amy Q. Vu, a Richmond police spokeswoman.
The arrest was photographed by Richmond Times-Dispatch photographer Dean Hoffmeyer.
Diop is charged in Richmond with reckless handling of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, destruction of property and violating the curfew. He was later charged with failure to appear in court on those charges in Richmond on Sept. 9.
After his real identity was learned, the U.S. Marshals Service started searching for him, and he was arrested Sept. 11 in New Jersey.
Kevin Connolly, with the U.S. Marshals Service, said two associates of Diop had been staying in Richmond near the Virginia Commonwealth University campus, and they also were wanted in New York on shooting charges: Jahmaree Dublin, 19, and a 16-year-old juvenile not identified because of his age.
Records show Dublin, of Brooklyn, was arrested Oct. 1 in Richmond and is being held at the Richmond City Jail on a fugitive warrant.
“You’ve got fugitives that are armed and dangerous” among the generally lawful protesters in Richmond this summer, Connolly said. “The responding Richmond police officers should be commended in their handling of this extreme public safety risk that evening.”
A spokeswoman for the New York Police Department wrote in an email to The Times-Dispatch that Diop was charged prior to the death of a teenager, who was his friend, in January and police think the shooting was accidental. She added that Diop is a “person of interest” in other shootings.
According to an article about that shooting in the New York Daily News, the victim was able to tell police it was an accident. Diop fled the apartment where that shooting occurred, according to the account.
Back in New York after his brush with the law in Richmond, Diop was charged in the July 2 shooting of a person riding a bicycle who was wounded in the left buttock at 11:20 p.m. The shooters were two males who were inside a grey vehicle, wrote the spokeswoman.
They stopped reporting on BLM. It’s hurting them so they dont want people to know
Last night the BLM ers were breaking windows all over Wauwatosa, Wis. No coverage. Just citizen video on Andy Ngo’s twitter. As usual.
Free Speech is not without limits under the law. It’s illegal to shout “fire” in a crowded theater or yell “bomb” in an airport. His rants in public seem to fall under inciting violence against public servants.
Sorry. the price of free speech is the tolerance of repugnant speech. Denounce it; repudiate it. Don’t ban it. We’re seeing legitimate dissenting views ranging from Climate Change to foreign policy. In the search for purity we’re becoming totalitarian.
Absolutely, pristine societies are generally dictatorial.
No, there is nothing to see but ‘rightless’ citizens!
After plagiarizing Diderot, one can only hope he meets the same fate. A disinterred, rotting cadaver left on the steps of a church seems appropriate for this miscreant..
Someone could always try this form of torture out on Jun to see if it works.
It will be a good day when the last antifa goon is strangled with the intestines of the last lefty professor.
Matt Taibbi warns us of ever worsening censorship
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/after-the-qanon-ban-whos-next
“For all this, the Q ban pulls the curtain back on one of the more bizarre developments of the Trump era, the seeming about-face of the old-school liberals who were once the country’s most faithful protectors of speech rights.
Bring up bans of QAnon or figures like Alex Jones (or even the suppression or removal of left-wing outlets like the World Socialist Web Site, teleSUR, or the Palestinian Information Centre) and you’re likely to hear that the First Amendment rights of companies like Facebook and Google are paramount. We’re frequently reminded there is no constitutional issue when private firms decide they don’t want to profit off the circulation of hateful, dangerous, and possibly libelous conspiracy theories.
That argument is easy to understand, but it misses the complex new reality of speech in the Internet era. It is true that the First Amendment only regulates government bans. However, what do we a call a situation when the overwhelming majority of news content is distributed across a handful of tech platforms, and those platforms are — openly — partners with the federal government, and law enforcement in particular?
In my mind, this argument became complicated in 2017, when the Senate Intelligence Committee dragged Facebook, Twitter, and Google to the Hill and essentially ordered them to come up with a “mission statement” explaining how they would prevent the “fomenting of discord.”
Platforms that previously rejected the idea they were in the editing business — “We are a tech company, not a media company,” said Mark Zuckerberg just a year before, in 2016, after meeting with the Pope — soon were agreeing to start working together with congress, law enforcement, and government-affiliated groups like the Atlantic Council. They pledged to target foreign interference, “discord,” and other problems.
Their decision might have been accelerated by a series of threats to increase regulation and taxation of the platforms, with Virginia Senator Mark Warner’s 23-page white paper in 2018 proposing new rules for data collection being just one example. Whatever the reason for the about-face, the tech companies now work with the FBI in what the Bureau calls “private sector partnerships,” which involve “strategic engagement… including threat indicator sharing.”
Does any of this make “private” bans of content a First Amendment issue? The answer I usually get from lawyers is “probably not,” but it’s not clear-cut. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this could go sideways quickly, as the same platforms the FBI engages with often have records of working with security services to suppress speech in clearly inappropriate ways in other countries.
As far back as 2016, for instance, Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was saying that Facebook and Google were complying with up to “95 percent” of its requests for content deletion. The minister noted cheerfully that the rate of cooperation had just risen sharply. Here’s how Reuters described the sudden burst of enthusiasm on the part of the platforms to cooperate with the state:
Perhaps spurred by the minister’s threat to legislate to make companies open to prosecution if they host images or messages that encourage terrorism, their rate of voluntary compliance has soared from 50 percent in a year, she said.
Whether or not one views Internet bans as censorship or a First Amendment issue really depends on how much one buys concepts like “voluntary compliance.”
I checked and he is a philosopher! I would never let my child take a course from him.
Turley ignores what happened in Michigan yesterday, so he can whip out the word Antifa to his Trump base. But no mention of a right-wing armed domestic terrorist organization that had yuge plans for the government of Michigan and police officer’s safety, nothing to see there Turley?
+10
And, still, what did the orange election-cheater have to say about this? Did he condemn the right-wing armed domestic terrorists, promise to root out more of them, prosecute them to the full extent of the law? Hell no. He criticized Governor Whitmer, said she was a terrible governor, and then said that “his” FBI helped apprehend them and she should thank him.
nutjob hater Keith Olbermann calls Trump a “terrorist” and calls on Barr, Amy Coney Barrett, and “TRUMP SUPPORTERS” TO BE PROSECUTED!
FOR WHATEVER!~
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1314674750858297344?s=20
BETTER GET OUT AND VOTE FOLKS NEXT UP IS TOSSING YOU IN JAIL BECAUSE, YOU LIKED TRUMP!
wow, the old first amendment is really headed for the garbage pail if Dems win come November!
Well whose FBI is it?
Who pays their salaries? Who passes the laws they are sworn to enforce? For whom do they work? It sure ain’t Trump.
The FBI works under the justice department which is headed by the attorney general who works for the president.
It’s kind of like the internal revenue working for Obama when he had them harras his political enemies.
She is a hitleress trying to hurt Trump for her handlers – nothing more.
What right wing armed terrorists? The ones attacking people and setting businesses on fire? Hmmmm. You might need to take a second look.
I am so glad the plan to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer was foiled.
Perhaps that will give people pause in the push to defund or abolish police. There are dangerous people out there.
I would like to point out a double standard:
“The individuals in (state) custody are suspected to have attempted to identify the home addresses of law enforcement officers in order to target them, made threats of violence intended to instigate a civil war, and engaged in planning and training for an operation to attack the capitol building of Michigan and to kidnap government officials, including the governor of Michigan,” Nessel said at a press conference.
Antifa and BLM have done all of this. Doxxed law enforcement, and threatened their lives. Tried to instigate a civil war. Planned (and actually executed) attacks on federal building.
All of a sudden, this is news. Why isn’t the news saying it’s mostly peaceful protests?
Do you notice the disparity, or still pretend it doesn’t exist?
Karen: how many times does the FBI Director, Christopher Wray, need to testify that the sh1t you hear on Fox about BLM and Antifa aren’t true before you will believe him? Wray knows more about all of this than you, Hannity, Tucker and Laura. Both of these are sentiments, movements, and not organized groups. Many people in my (mostly) white neighborhood have yard signs reading “Black Lives Matter”, because they are expressing their belief that this is important and they want to publicly support this sentiment. They do not plot violence. When trouble breaks out at a demonstration, this is due to the action of certain individuals, not BLM or Antifa because they aren’t organizations, and they don’t have any agenda to do violence. On the other hand, the right-wingers are organized, they are armed, they had plans to harm Gov. Whitmer and others. They are the ones trying to instigate a civil war, inspired by your orange hero. who not only refused to condemn them, he actually said that “his” FBI helped catch them and Gov. Whitmer should thank “him”. There is no equivalency here.
um Natch ANTIFA is a constellation of covert groups with a shared anarchist ideology. It may be fair to say they are not an organization
‘
BLM however is organized in chapters and relates to a very definitive national corporate leadership structure.
Not that I equate them– much as I dislike BLM and consider them as organizing criminal riot activity,. ANTIFA are anarchists and they are always by definition the worst and most dangerous… to the extent there are some gun nut anarchists out there calling themselves boogerloos, they’re dangerous too. Anarchists are the very most dangerous element that’s been allowed to run amuck and must be rectified for law and order and the good of society, and fast, before they gin up more trouble yet
but i wonder why these boogerloos from Michigan are such a worry for supposedly planning a criminal act when ANTIFA has been out there for months now committing tens of thousands of felonies in the wide open, not just planning them. is this the right law enforcement approach to protect society>?
or has the FBI shown its political orientation and manifest bias all over again?
Natch, for Christmas I’m going to get you a basket of deplorables.
One might say that fairly describes the bulk of that dis-organization.
Nancy Pelosi preps for immediate transfer of power to Kamala Harris by forming committee to review the removal of President Biden, not Trump, under the 25th Amendment.
“25th Amendment: Pelosi pushes new bill to determine whether a President is capable of serving”
– CNN
Piglosi can’t take care of her own political party can’t take care of herself and is a cross by a joke and a useful example of why you don’t vote socialist if you are a Citizen of our Constitutional Republic.
Trump can’t even take care of himself.
Ridiculous.
And then who becomes the vice president?
It’s a bit strange that someone can be insanely “woke” like this on one side of the political spectrum and not be fired, but a Jordan Peterson type in America, tenured or not, would absolutely be without a job due to the angry mob’s revolt (or any, say, Trump supporter) – whether those views were discovered in a public or private forum.