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> Freedom of speech necessarily implies that a group of people might team up and loudly announce that the people they don't agree with are incorrect and immoral and should be ignored or even ostracized. That's the price of freedom of speech, and it's a fair price.

Sure, agreed. But groups and institutions taking even a dime of tax money should not get to place a thumb on the scales of those arguments. US universities, in particular, chose a side and then silenced all opposing viewpoints.

It was inevitable that the silenced would eventually mobilise, and they did. And now the group has to abandon their arguments about allowing "punching up" and instead pontificate on "free speech".

Myself (and many others) argued over the last decade and more that the pendulum always swings back, so lets be a little less extreme in the left/right argument. I, on this site, got labeled a non-thinking right-winger apologist for pointing out that the mainstream views on transgender for minors does not match the views that the powers-that-be were pushing.

You can't push for normalising the silencing of views for well over a decade without you yourself eventually falling victim to the same normalisation.

▲ ytpete 15 hours ago | parent [-]

What did US universities do to "silence all opposing viewpoints" on any issues? Did they kick students out of school because of their viewports? Claw back their financial aid? Get them deported? Physically harm them? I sure don't remember things like that happening in widespread manner to conservative students, let alone happening in a way that was organized top-down by the universities' leadership.

	▲	stale2002 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Did they kick students out of school because of their viewports? Yes actually! Almost every presigious/non public college has speech codes. And those speech codes have consequences. Up to, and including, expulsion if you keep breaking them. Check out how well each college is doing here: https://www.thefire.org/colleges
	▲	lelanthran 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I want to assume you are asking in good faith and really aren't aware of academic administration's attempts to silence specific and common viewpoints. Your comment surprises me, because at this point, there really isn't any contention over the fact that universities have been doing exactly this. So while I am assuming that you don't actually know, I'll give you a short list of links (I'm not doing research that takes me more than 5m). > What did US universities do to "silence all opposing viewpoints" on any issues? https://www.forbes.com/sites/musbahshaheen/2024/06/05/stop-r... https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/diversity-statemen... https://www.thefire.org/news/anti-free-speech-trends-campus-... https://www.thefire.org/facultyreport https://www.hrdive.com/news/stop-requiring-diversity-stateme... (UK, but still the same idea) https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/kathleen-stock... https://www.thefire.org/news/speaker-disinvited-uncomfortabl... https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-disinvited-speakers-... And, finally, some charts: https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/eternally-radical-idea/ne... Analysis of the data FIRE has collected reveals a clear political trend in the likelihood that a speaker will be targeted with a disinvitation effort. Speakers are far more likely to face disinvitation efforts from opponents to their political left than from those to their right. Since 2000, those behind the disinvitation efforts targeted speakers with views more conservative than their own nearly three times more frequently (97 attempts) than they targeted speakers with views more liberal than their own (36 attempts). The takeaway is that the right-leaning students and administration are far far more tolerant of speech from the left, than the left-leaning students and administration are of speech from the right. It pains me to say it, but it aligns with my experience. > Did they kick students out of school because of their viewports? Claw back their financial aid? Get them deported? Physically harm them? None of that is required to silence opposing views. > I sure don't remember things like that happening in widespread manner to conservative students, let alone happening in a way that was organized top-down by the universities' leadership. "Allowing only one viewpoint" doesn't require that the university administration has a top-down directive to expel students, only that they allow one viewpoint and silence the other. Once again, that this happened is not in dispute, so I am left wondering where you were going with this response.
	▲	mantas 12 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I think it's vice versa. Some students prevent other students from exercising their free speech rights. E.g. try to prevent speakers they don't like from speaking on campus. Or harass some people for their ethnicity in context of Hamas/Israel war. Then universities look the other way.