A well reasoned opinion. I would draw the line a bit more in favor of Jewish students, though. I would point out that the courtesy of the exquisitely nuanced protection of hate speech against Jews has not been extended on campuses for those who wish to express more traditional conservative views. Or dare to seek to challenge “progressive” orthodoxy..
I would defend the rights of those challenging progressive orthodoxy and conservative speakers. There were ugly incidents on campuses post-George Floyd where universities did not do enough to protect conservative voices on campus, but I think those lessons were learned. The Dean of Stanford Law certainly rose to the occasion when students and an associate dean allowed a conservative jurist to be shouted down. I agree that overt racists would have a hard time sustaining a protest on campus today, but their rights ought to be protected if they tried.
In principle, the free speech rights must be the same. In actuality. I would be pleasantly surprised if anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish speech or expressive conduct was treated under the same standard as racist or other obnoxious speech or conduct more offensive to progressives. We could debate the extent to which this is due to antisemitism or blindness, but it is the reality as I see it.
Nonetheless, it is at least somewhat encouraging to see some progress in the past few months as the behavior and speech directed against Israel, Zionists and Jews on campuses has gotten increasingly vitriolic. But a long way yet to go.
Sensible, reasonable and so eloquent. Thanks David.
A well reasoned opinion. I would draw the line a bit more in favor of Jewish students, though. I would point out that the courtesy of the exquisitely nuanced protection of hate speech against Jews has not been extended on campuses for those who wish to express more traditional conservative views. Or dare to seek to challenge “progressive” orthodoxy..
I would defend the rights of those challenging progressive orthodoxy and conservative speakers. There were ugly incidents on campuses post-George Floyd where universities did not do enough to protect conservative voices on campus, but I think those lessons were learned. The Dean of Stanford Law certainly rose to the occasion when students and an associate dean allowed a conservative jurist to be shouted down. I agree that overt racists would have a hard time sustaining a protest on campus today, but their rights ought to be protected if they tried.
In principle, the free speech rights must be the same. In actuality. I would be pleasantly surprised if anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish speech or expressive conduct was treated under the same standard as racist or other obnoxious speech or conduct more offensive to progressives. We could debate the extent to which this is due to antisemitism or blindness, but it is the reality as I see it.
Nonetheless, it is at least somewhat encouraging to see some progress in the past few months as the behavior and speech directed against Israel, Zionists and Jews on campuses has gotten increasingly vitriolic. But a long way yet to go.