Freedom for the Thought We Hate
Is there a difference between freedom of speech on the campus of a state university and the freedom of speech that is guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the U.S.? Discuss your position in 5-7 sentences and then be sure to debate others' positions on the subject for a total of 3 posts. Be specific and provide details that support your argument.
posted by A. Zeitz at 12:30 PM
3 Comments:
Hi-- please be aware that we will get spammers to our blog as it is a free blog. I will be removeing them periodically!
Let's keep the discussion free of shut-downs and personally offensive dialogue please. I will be removing any comments that are non-academic or offensive to other students.
Hi all,
That was quite an interesting dialogue exchange that took place for our Thursday session. I enjoyed following your “discussion” immensely! Just to cap things off, some of the points that caused the greatest controversy had to do with the freedom to cause pain, distress, or even wreck havoc with one’s first amendment right. A few points I’d like to touch on: there is a difference between the right to speak and the legal concern for the public good. Causing a bomb scare by yelling “Bomb!” is illegal for various reasons including protecting the public’s safety. Similarly, inciting riot is also illegal. Ellysha and Ilyana touched on some interesting points in that she felt that protecting others’ feelings was important on a college campus. This is not quite a public place—students pay to be there, and not everyone has the right to access its grounds, so shouldn’t students be entitled to not being subjected to language that may be offensive?
The article we read maintains that the language that we find most offensive, that causes the most outrage, is the very language that we most need to protect because oftentimes it is that language that is symbolic of our right to speak because it is the rhetoric that is most often suppressed. Generally speaking, this is welcome on a college campus to some extent unless it violates laws or the philosophy of the campus. NJCU, for example, embraces diversity and tolerance, but the rhetoric of hate would probably not be welcome in a public forum on campus in my opinion.
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