Free Speach as a Right

For John, BLUF:  I joined the ACLU some 30 years ago, to help ensure my Civil Rights, especially the Right to Free Speech.  Today, not so much, and my membership has lapsed.  They went "Woke".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Move over ACLU, FIRE is the New Champion of Free Speech

Here is the sub-headline:

The expansion of the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education marks the end of an era, when free speech issues were the sole province of American liberalism

From Taibbi Substack, by Reporter Matt Taibbi, 6 June 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

After years of planning, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, better known as FIRE, announced a major expansion Monday, moving “beyond college campuses to protect free speech — for all Americans.”

FIRE was the brainchild of University of Pennsylvania history professor Alan Charles Kors and Boston civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate, who co-authored the 1999 book, The Shadow University:  The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses.  To the modern reader the book reads like a collection of eccentric cases of students and teachers caught up in speech code issues, most (but not all) being conservative.

To take just one of countless nut-bar examples, Kors and Silverglate told the story of a professor in San Bernardino reprimanded for violating sexual harassment policies because, among other things, “he assigns provocative essays such as Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal,” as the court case later put it.  This was apparently the “cannibalism” portion of the accusation that he delved into such subjects as “obscenity, cannibalism, and consensual sex with children.”

The book triggered such an overwhelming number of responses from other faculty members and students that the pair decided to set up an organization to defend people who found themselves in tricky speech controversies on campuses.  They soon found they had plenty of work and, by 2022, enough of a mandate to expand beyond colleges and universities into America at large.  According to FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff, as quoted in a Politico story, the group has already raised over $28 million toward a $75 million “litigation, opinion research and public education campaign aimed at boosting and solidifying support for free-speech values.”

I am very disappointed in the ACLU and in those Liberals who have abandoned the principles of Liberty.  We are talking about People who have abandoned Liberal Principles for Frankfurt School Progressiveism, intellectuals who fled the rising tide of Fascism, only to implant their own version n the United States.

The Right to Free Speach doesn't mean you can stop me from saying it, but you can point out my comment was wrong, boorish, prejudiced or silly.  It also means you don't have to listen, even if we are married.

Stiffling Free Speech will destroy higher education and slow scientific progress, to our ultimate detrimnt.  It is what gave us the Dark Ages and what ended the Golden Age of Islam (from the 8th century to the 14th century).

Regards  —  Cliff

CRT Endored by NEA

For John, BLUF:  No, not the National Endownment for the Art.  The National Education Association, a powerful Teachers Union, although not here in Lowell.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Teachers’ union backs critical race theory

From Linking and Thinking on Education, by Joanne Jacobs, 5 July 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

The National Education Association voted to teach social studies curriculum “informed” by critical race theory, promote its ideas and investigate its opponents, reports Michael Ruiz on Fox.

The nation’s largest teachers’ union passed New Business Item 39 at its annual meeting.

(It calls for) the accurate and honest teaching of social studies topics, including truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history, such as slavery, and the oppression and discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other peoples of color, as well as the continued impact this history has on our current society.

(The union will publicize) an in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.

The NEA will “join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project to call for a rally this year on October 14 — George Floyd’s birthday — as a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression.”

Until now, CRT supporters had argued that the theory is not being taught in schools, writes Ruiz.

This is shifting terrain.  First the schools are not teaching it and then to oppose teaching it is to mess with the integrity of the teaching profession.  Television personality Joy Reid suggested, this last Wednesday, that those who are against teaching CRT are like QAnon people.

I am sad that my questioning the 1619 Project or CRT is seen as an indication, to my Progressive and Democratic Party fellow Citizens that I am somehow off the rails.  This is not a good look for Democracy in America.

Hat tip to Law Professor Gail Heriot, at the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff