Friday, April 14, 2006

Stifling of Dissent at Northern Kentucky University

"Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it."
 
So says the literature professor who apparently led nine female students in tearing down a university-sanctioned display put up by a campus pro-life activist group. She continued "Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged." Outraged? That other people dared to have a pro-life viewpoint? And that they further dared to actually express it?
 
Apparently, the free speech rights of other people don't count for anything, if they make you feel angry or outraged. (Note the contradiction, as well - the display is "silly" when its importance to other people is being deprecated to minimize the offense, but it's an "outrage" when it comes to her feelings.)
 
This is classic. MY feelings are so important that they trump other people's rights. YOUR feelings are so insignificant that I can ignore you. This is the moral calculus possessed by a five-year old.
 
The symbolism of crosses - each of which represented an aborted fetus - being thrown into the garbage can by female students speaks for itself.
 

1 comment:

mythago said...

I doubt Michelle Malkin would give a rip if it were pro-life academics tearing up Planned Parenthood posters. That said, whaddamaroon. The solution to speech you don't like is more speech, not tearing down posters.

As an aside, when I was in college, I belonged to a small pro-First Amendment rights group. For some reason, the campus Objectivists got it into their head that we were anti-Objectivist, and we couldn't put up posters without having them torn down or covered over two sheets deep in Ayn Rand porn.