We have previously discussed how many are now claiming that the prevention of others from speaking is a form of free speech. The latest such example comes from the campus of Saint Louis University where students vandalized a pro-life memorial. What is most striking is how unconcerned the students are in their destructive conduct as they are videotaped. They clearly believe that they have the privilege to stop others from speaking because they espouse opposing viewpoints.
The Saint Louis University Students for Life chapter set up a memorial with 1,000 flags arranged in the shape of a cross. Each flag is meant to represent to 800 abortions.
In a video posted by Students for Life, students destroy the memorial and then use profanity when the pro-life students ask them to stop. One asks “Why can’t you just leave women alone?” as they destroys the memorial.
At around 9:00 p.m. on Monday night, other individuals were caught on video attempting to remove the flags from the display. However, they stopped when confronted.
We have previously discussed the worrisome signs of a rising generation of censors in the country as leaders and writers embrace censorship and blacklisting. The latest chilling poll was released by 2021 College Free Speech Rankings after questioning a huge body of 37,000 students at 159 top-ranked U.S. colleges and universities. It found that sixty-six percent of college students think shouting down a speaker to stop them from speaking is a legitimate form of free speech. Another 23 percent believe violence can be used to cancel a speech. That is roughly one out of four supporting violence.
This has been an issue of contention with some academics who believe that free speech includes the right to silence others. Berkeley has been the focus of much concern over the use of a heckler’s veto on our campuses as violent protesters have succeeded in silencing speakers, even including a few speakers like an ACLU official. Both students and some faculty have maintained the position that they have a right to silence those with whom they disagree and even student newspapers have declared opposing speech to be outside of the protections of free speech. At another University of California campus, professors actually rallied around a professor who physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display. In the meantime, academics and deans have said that there is no free speech protection for offensive or “disingenuous” speech. CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek showed how far this trend has gone. When conservative law professor Josh Blackman was stopped from speaking about “the importance of free speech,” Bilek insisted that disrupting the speech on free speech was free speech. (Bilek later cancelled herself and resigned after she made a single analogy to acting like a “slaveholder” as a self-criticism for failing to achieve equity and reparations for black faculty and students).
We previously discussed the case of Fresno State University Public Health Professor Dr. Gregory Thatcher who recruited students to destroy pro-life messages written on the sidewalks and wrongly told the pro-life students that they had no free speech rights in the matter. A district court has now ordered Thatcher to pay $17,000 and undergo First Amendment training. However, Thatcher remained defiant and the university appeared complicit in his actions by the lack of disciplinary action.
The pro-life students had written messages on the sidewalk like “You CAN be pregnant & successful” and “Unborn lives matter” to “Women need love, NOT abortion.” Thatcher got students from his 8 a.m. class to help remove the anti-abortion messages and their chalk was taken away to write pro-choice slogans on the sidewalk. The students seem entirely unconcerned that they are censoring speech and engaging in a grossly intolerant act. Instead, they refer to their teacher as telling them that they should do so. Thatcher then walked up and confronted the pro-life students. Thatcher invoked the controversial restriction of free speech to “zones” and says that there is no free speech right for this type of writing outside of that zone. When the students explain that they have permission, he then proceeds to rub out their messages and declared “you have permission to put it down — I have permission to get rid of it.”
Thatcher is arguing that same Orwellian “Stopping free speech is free speech” position.
A few years ago, I debated NYU Professor Jeremy Waldron who is a leading voice for speech codes. Waldron insisted that shutting down speakers through heckling is a form of free speech. I disagree. It is the antithesis of free speech and the failure of schools to protect the exercise of free speech is the antithesis of higher education. In most schools, people are not allowed to disrupt events. They are escorted out of such events and told that they can protest outside of the events since others have a right to listen to opposing views. These disruptions however are often planned to continually interrupt speakers until the school authorities step in to cancel the event. Some schools (as discussed in the SUNY lawsuit) do not wait to cancel events and instead cancel in anticipation of such hecklers. At SUNY when the speaker insisted on trying to speak to the audience, a protester with a bullhorn was eventually led out of the room. However, he was allowed to simply hand the bullhorn to the next disrupter and eventually the hecklers prevailed as the officials shutdown the event.
Absent enforcement of school rules on such disruptions, there is little hope for the open exchange of ideas and a diversity of opinions on campus. It can unleash a type of tit-for-tat pattern of retaliation as speakers are prevented from speaking on controversial subjects. Our campuses then become little more than screaming matches. The rules of most schools properly draw the line between protests and disruptions. Everyone is allowed to be heard. However, if you enter to disrupt it, you are disrupting free speech.
The added increase in embracing violence is particularly chilling. A quarter of those polled supported violence to prevent others from speaking. This is the core of the philosophy of the Antifa movement. It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against 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.’” Indeed, Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists… From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.” It is an illusion designed to promote what Antifa is resisting “white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism, and genocide.” Thus, all of these opposing figures are deemed fascistic and thus unworthy of being heard.
Antifa has a long and well-documented history of such violence. Bray quotes one Antifa member as summing up their approach to free speech as a “nonargument . . . you have the right to speak but you also have the right to be shut up.”
If the left wants to tyrannize the right, then it is only fair that the
right can tyrannize the left. Turnabout is fair play, after all.
This will pi-s the Biden off:
—-
DeSantis vows to ban Biden’s flights of illegal aliens into Florida: ‘I will send them to Delaware’
The Florida governor said his state was exploring ways to penalize contractors who fly illegal aliens into the state.
“We’ll provide buses,” DeSantis said
“DeSantis made his comments following reports that an adult illegal alien came into the United States while posing as a minor, and, after arriving in Florida, allegedly murdered a man who had four children. “
—-
Our anti-American friends must be celebrating the death of another American at the hands of an illegal alien being sent by the Biden Administration all over the US.
“DeSantis vows to ban Biden’s flights of illegal aliens into Florida”, who for some strange reason are not subjected to compulsory vaccination.
There is no mystery in sex and conception. A woman and man have four choices: abstention, prevention, adoption, and compassion, and still six weeks for the wicked solution. The Pro-Choice religion denies women and men’s dignity and agency, and reduces human life to a negotiable asset.
That said, can they abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too?
“A woman and man have four choices”
So now you’re the choices Czar?
These girls are enacting their personal choices to rise up against their government, and men, creating laws that prevent them from their own body autonomy. Laws like this do not exist for men. The catholic church should spend more time looking inward at the travesties, oppression, and murder they’ve scared this world with.
Folks….engaging Silberman, Anonymous, and Natcha and a few others here is a Fool’s Errand.
Please to remember the old saying…..”Who is the Fool….the Fool or the Man arguing with the Fool?”.
Please do not feed the Trolls.
Ralph warns:
“Please do not feed the Trolls.”
I don’t agree with your suggestion to ignore my speech, but I will defend to my death your privilege to ignore, shame, shun and ostracize me for what I have said.
Of course your defense will come while seated on your couch in your living room in a safe place in Marin County. With friends like you, no one needs enemies.
This boils down to Leftists telling pro-life women to shut up. People who identify as feminists are all about female empowerment….as long as they’re Democrats, working, and pro-Choice.
PBS promoted a show on 5v 2 days ago called Ferguson Riding. They barely mentioned the black lives matter rioters who looted and burned stored on West Florissant Ave. To he people they put on the air were calling for terrorism.
PBS has declined. Not risen.
Conservatives are back to burning books. No doubt, Turley will have something to say about this desecration of free speech tomorrow or the next day.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/virginia-school-board-book-burning/amp
Jeff:
Parents have been objecting to books in middle school libraries that advocate pedophilia and sexual assault. They are quite obviously inappropriate for young children…so inappropriate in fact that a school board censored one mother who began to read from one of the books describing a pedophile assaulting a minor, saying she could not read the material because there were children present.
While I do not condone burning any books, it is also quite clear that some material are inappropriate for children, and should be removed.
What do you say about Democrats banning Shakespeare and other major literature, citing whiteness?
Karen says:
“While I do not condone burning any books, it is also quite clear that some material are inappropriate for children, and should be removed.”
Let’s hope that Turley is principled enough to condemn those Conservatives wanting to burn books and not to pretend to be oblivious to it. I just expect him to be consistent.
You say:
“What do you say about Democrats banning Shakespeare and other major literature, citing whiteness?”
You should know me well enough by now that I expect you to provide a citation to substantiate your claim that Democrats want to ban Shakespeare.
I’m not for banning any books even those written by the great French philosopher Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, a prototypical Trumpist if ever there was one!
“You should know me well enough by now that I expect you to provide a citation to substantiate your claim”
Do you know what an “own goal” is ?
Again you do not understand credibility.
Those with a track records of accuracy are not required to provide support for their assertions – that is called credibility.
It is something you earn – as an example by NOT shilling for the collusion delusion nonsense.
While those who have a poor record of accuracy are required to cite all their assertions.
Regardless a trivial amount of googling produces:
Hmm, that is from Turley’s web site, and it is from THIS year.
https://jonathanturley.org/2021/02/16/this-is-about-white-supremacy-and-colonization-teacher-group-calls-for-shakespeare-to-be-removed-from-reading-lists/comment-page-1/
There are many more links. I think there are even more links to Turley wring about banning shakespeare.
Thanks for refreshing my memory with this link. However, upon further investigation, Turley’s narrative is not the full picture as these articles attest:
“No, Shakespeare isn’t getting ‘cancelled.’ There’s plenty of room for disruptive texts.”
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4629748001
And the statement from Disrupttexts:
https://disrupttexts.org/2021/01/02/january-2021-statement/
After reading these articles, it is clearly the case that Turley’s take was slanted into *advocacy journalism* which he himself opposes. Be that as it may, no teacher is proposing that Shakespeare’s plays be banned like those book-burning Conservatives in Virginia.
Be that as it may, no teacher is proposing that Shakespeare’s plays be banned like those book-burning Conservatives in Virginia.
It takes a liar to continually accuse everyone else of being a liar.
Kill Bill: why we must take Shakespeare out of the classroom
https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2014/mar/17/kill-bill-shakespeare-classroom-theatre
Estovir,
If you were not such a moron, you would realize that the author is suggesting taking Shakespeare out if the classroom for a good reason not a censorious one.
“Turley’s take was slanted into *advocacy journalism* “
I guess our resident lawyer doesn’t know the difference between ‘advocacy journalism’ and legal opinion. I wonder which law school failed in its mission.
Karen.
One wise person once explained right and wrong to me. They suggested the Grandma test to determine what might venture into the wrong, inappropriate, immoral, etc.
Would you do this if your grandma was watching,
I think its a good standard for school librarians to use. Can this book be read aloud at the school board meeting?
Libraries curate literature. Schools should be curating literature appropriate for their users. Clearly books that can’t be read at a school board meeting, fails the test.
The current fad of pushing homosexual agendas has no place in schools. Cultural issues belong in the home. The Schools need to respect the parents wishes. This is where CRT falls also. Parents will guide their children in the proper view of race relations.
If we have learned anything, it is govt schools get parenting wrong, Every, Single. Time.
Old man Iowan2 says:
“One wise person once explained right and wrong to me. They suggested the Grandma test to determine what might venture into the wrong, inappropriate, immoral, etc. Would you do this if your grandma was watching”
———-
“It has always been the practice of those who are desirous to believe themselves made venerable by length of time to censure the new comers into life, for want of respect to gray hairs and sage experience, for heady confidence in their own understandings, for hasty conclusions upon partial views, for disregard of counsels which their fathers and grandfathers are ready to afford them, and a rebellious impatience of that subordination to which youth is condemned by nature, as necessary to its security from evils into which it would be otherwise precipitated by the rashness of passion and the blindness of ignorance.”
~Samuel Johnson 1750
@jeffsilberman
Actually I am not poor but am totally self made. My family left the workers paradise called Cuba. I am not condemning anyone who wants to better themselves including the pursuit of wealth. I do condemn the hypocrisy of those who love to pontificate but not get their hands dirty. Of course, being a good s@@tlib doesn’t require such.
Antonio says:
“I do condemn the hypocrisy of those who love to pontificate but not get their hands dirty.”
I confess that my hands don’t get dirty as I use my head not my hands to achieve a comfortable life. If you really must know, they are very soft as well since they only handle money.
@jeffsilberman
So you DO admit you despise people such as me? Funny thing, if I were a liberal Hispanic you would be ki@@ing my a@@ in an attempt to suck up. Don’t worry the feeling is mutual. Why don’t you give us an amicable divorce then?
antonio
Antonio claims:
“So you DO admit you despise people such as me?”
Where do you get this idea? How can I despise someone who has never wronged me? I despise your lying, true, but I don’t despise you personally.
“Why don’t you give us an amicable divorce then?”
You’re in luck! I am a bachelor. So first you will have to propose to me. I’m flattered, of course. I had no idea you cared. I’m blushing….
Antonio
JS is a troll. He’s here to stir things up. He is mindless, and meaningless. You’ll find better discourse with any 1st grader.
Please dont give him what he wants.
Iowan says:
“JS is a troll. He’s here to stir things up. He is mindless, and meaningless. You’ll find better discourse with any 1st grader. Please dont give him what he wants.”
Does this mean our engagement is off?
@jeffsilberman
“I guess upper-middle class.”
Like most upper middle class s@@tlibs they love to preach the values of diversity to us lesser mortals all while avoiding it in their personal lives and where they choose to live and send their kids to school.
I have absolutely zero sympathy for them when their precious “pets” turn and maul them.
antonio
Antonio says:
“Like most upper middle class s@@tlibs they love to preach the values of diversity to us lesser mortals all while avoiding it in their personal lives and where they choose to live and send their kids to school.”
I feel you.
There is nothing so hard as poverty, and yet there is nothing that the poor condemn as much as the pursuit of wealth.
Regarding your previous “Pro Life” column, shilling for Fox would not seem to be what an academic and law professor would want to do. But I suppose promoting Fox’s app is a condition of your employment. That said, as a general rule I don’t support destruction of signs or other displays on private property. That includes a sign on my neighbor’s property where all summer he posted a sign in his front yard “Trump in 2024”–even though I disagreed with his POV.
Protests against and for the anti-abortion crowd have been going on for years. But only those who are opposed to abortion have resorted to physical violence. Abortion doctors have been murdered and many other health care providers have been injured and threatened with physical violence. That goes way beyond pulling up a few “pro life” flags. It appears Fox and you are trying to ramp up pressure on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe during this term. What better way then to portray those who pull up flags as crazy Antifa types–who you have erroneously called the most violent group in the country.
The real problem is that the extreme right and some in the GOP have been promoting violence against anyone who disagrees with them. We saw it in Charlottesville in 2017 and on Jan. 6 when Trump incited an insurrection that ended in death, injury and destruction of the Capitol. Throughout his presidency Trump promoted violence. Extreme right-wing GOP Rep. Paul Gozar is facing censure after he tweeted about killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. The real threat to our democracy is coming from violent groups on the right–the neo-fascists -and their supporters in the GOP who see violence as acceptable to further their political goals. That’s the road that leads to fascism. Something you ignore in promoting the Fox agenda.
Dennis says:
“Regarding your previous “Pro Life” column, shilling for Fox would not seem to be what an academic and law professor would want to do. But I suppose promoting Fox’s app is a condition of your employment.”
It’s true that Turley has soiled his academic reputation by never denouncing Fox’s undeniable “advocacy journalism” and never criticizing its raging prime time hosts. When he is forced to leave, it will be interesting to see if he will list in his bio that he used to work for Fox News!
When you align yourself with the likes of Carlson, Hannity and Levin, I’m afraid that Turley’s legal reputation will never recover among his elite Ivory-towered colleagues. He has made his own bed, now he must lie in it….
A Generation Worries They Will Have Less Rights Than Their Mothers
Professor Turley seems tone deaf to the concerns of young women. ‘God-Fearing’ Republicans would force them to carry the babies of rapists. And, according to Turley, young women should be okay with that! Like they shouldn’t mind giving birth to severely retarded children or dying of septic shock. ‘Those are just the pitfalls of being a woman’.
Regarding the slogan, “You CAN be pregnant and successful”. Tell that to the Hotel Housekeeper cleaning rooms for $10 per hour. She’ll be glad to know an unplanned pregnancy won’t stop her from becoming Hotel Manager.
Only ignorant people believe abortion will be made illegal or impossible to get. Use your brain. If you can you will conclude differently.
REGARDING ABOVE:
Here some mysterious ‘Anonymous’ wants us to believe the women of Texas are being drama queens for traveling out of state. Like our Federalist Supreme Court is really going to decide in favor of women.
The added increase in embracing violence is particularly chilling. A quarter of those polled supported violence to prevent others from speaking. This is the core of the philosophy of the Antifa movement. It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression.
…
Antifa has a long and well-documented history of such violence. Bray quotes one Antifa member as summing up their approach to free speech as a “nonargument . . . you have the right to speak but you also have the right to be shut up.” — JTurley
Dear Antifa,
I get it, we don’t agree. You don’t care for my ideals and beliefs, and wish I would stop speaking my mind.
I won’t.
Among my beliefs are deep commitments to free will and free speech. You are free to disagree with me, argue with me, persuade me, but not stop me from speaking my mind. If you believe there is a right to stop me from speaking — to use violence against me — you are sadly mistaken.
Leave me alone. That is all I ask.
If you, by exercise of your free will, decide to attack me for what I say… I will not hesitate to defend myself by any means necessary. I may, or may not, be successful in my defense. You might silence or even kill me, but you will not walk away unscathed. I understand violence, and abhor it, but have employed it to defend my life when necessary.
Walk away and leave me alone if you cannot agree to disagree. Or suffer immediate consequences for your decision to attack a peaceful, law-abiding American citizen.
The choice is yours.
Sincerely,
An American
Are all you Trumpists, Infowar cultists and Q-Anon followers on this blog armed to the teeth?
Can I see a show of hands?
You will not be surprised to learn that I don’t own any weapon other than my big mouth.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) have undertaken a massive deployment their “rapid response” “white blood cell” trolls across the land.
Whatever are they so deathly afraid of?
Is John “Dudley Will-He-Do-Right” Durham an existential threat?
Oh, you betcha!
Sign up quick Jeff. Quantities are limited. Bang up prices!
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Jeff,
Are you working class, middle class, or upper-middle class? What city and neighborhood do you live in?
Asking for Antifa and BLM members interested in reparations.
I’ll answer you AFTER you answer me.
How many assault weapons do you own?
What’s wrong, Jeff, afraid to meet Antifa and BLM radicals, whom you support, eye-to-eye on your home turf?
I’ll humor you. I do not own any automatic weapons.
Spanky claims:
“I’ll humor you. I do not own any automatic weapons.”
Perhaps, but I have no doubt that you would convert them to automatic when the time comes….
You will be surprised to learn that I have never taken to the street to protest for anything or anyone. I do all my protesting from the comfort of my Barcalounger with my brain and not my mouth.
I’ll answer you AFTER you answer me. — JeffSilberman
Put up, or shut up, Jeff…
Are you working class, middle class, or upper-middle class? What city and neighborhood do you live in?
Or are you afraid some of your beloved Antifa and BLM radicals might come ’round looking for “reparations”.
Spanky says:
“Are you working class, middle class, or upper-middle class? What city and neighborhood do you live in?
Or are you afraid some of your beloved Antifa and BLM radicals might come ’round looking for “reparations”.
I guess upper-middle class. I live in Marin County which is upper-middle class. I don’t know any Antifa or BLM protestors. I do know a lot of you Trumpists now, but I don’t think you would consider me your friend.
I do know a lot of you Trumpists now, but I don’t think you would consider me your friend. — JeffSilberman
LOL… You obviously don’t know me.
Regarding your support for Antifa and BLM, do you really think they give a d*mn about limousine liberals?
Why not head over to Oakland and find out? Or, better yet, invite them to your home for a confab where, in the luxury of your upper-middle class lifestyle, you can explain to them what a true blue supporter, an ally, you are. Do you have the courage to live up to your professed beliefs?
Or are you all hat and no cattle?
Spanky says:
“Regarding your support for Antifa and BLM, do you really think they give a d*mn about limousine liberals?”
I don’t support Antifa. You don’t know me. I’m against all violence. As for BLM, my understanding is that they don’t want blacks to matter MORE THAN whites as you suppose, just NOT LESS as they feel.
“Or, better yet, invite them to your home for a confab where, in the luxury of your upper-middle class lifestyle, you can explain to them what a true blue supporter, an ally, you are. Do you have the courage to live up to your professed beliefs?”
I would never invite Antifa into my house, and I don’t know any BLM supporters. I live up to my professed beliefs on the immorality of lying by shaming the Trumpists here who claim the election was stolen. And I will continue to shame them until the day I am lined-up at the side of a deep trench and shot in the back of my head.
How many assault weapons do you own?
Zero. You need a special FFL to attain full automatic weapons. They are hard to get and expensive.
Thanks for your honesty.
Based on the left’s hyperbole of Jan 6 I have dozens of assault weapons. I have hammers, saws, knives, forks, and loads of toilet paper in case one of you ever come to visit.
In shooter parlance….you are way “Over Bored” Silberman.
Ralph,
I don’t speak shooter parlance. I don’t know what “over bored” means, but I have heard the expression, “All hat and no cattle.”
When I see a desperate leftist write “Trumpist ” (when right to life was actually stronger decades before him), Infowar and Q-Anon, i realize that they have nothing intellectual or factual to express and the indoctrination into parroting left leaning attacks and rhetoric is obvious. Your rhetoric is boring, redundant and vapid. Your big mouth is a worthless weapon, void of any true ammunition. Professor Turley has not soiled to anyone but the dems and leftists who attack anyone who disagrees with their narrative while proclaiming to be the arbiters of truth and free speech. We will read and research Turley while you losers ass kiss Elias and praise Toobin,
Chessler says:
“We will read and research Turley while you losers ass kiss Elias….”
Eloquently expressed!
Jeff, just one more reply. Then I am going to go away again for a while. You were in rare form today.(11th) .
That is a compliment. Not taking a side. Just very amused.
Carlson “civilly” threatens homicide:
“These baby killers are nothing more than rabid dogs and should be disposed of in the same manner.”
Did this threat of violence slip past through Darren?