BrianGarst.com

This story seems like one of those “teachable moments” I keep hearing so much about:

The University of Oregon student body has been learning some useful lessons in liberty as the campus debates what to do about an extremely controversial group’s presence on campus. Last week, the student government narrowly voted to defend free expression when it voted down a resolution designed to push the group off campus for good.

The organization is the Pacifica Forum, a discussion group hosted on campus by an emeritus professor, as permitted by university rules. The group is so controversial, it appears, because every so often it discusses topics that a lot of people on campus find extremely offensive—such as the swastika or Nazism—well, not just because of the topics, but because some of the participants appear to the critics to be voicing far too much sympathy for ideas of white supremacy. You can find this criticism of the Pacifica Forum in full force on the Facebook.com group “UofO students and community members against the Pacifica Forum,” and you can find defenses of the group’s right to free expression in reasonably good order on the website of student publication the Oregon Commentator.

…The group met at the university’s Erb Memorial Student Union until a few weeks ago, when it met in a larger space than usual because of the expectation of hundreds of protesters for the discussion of the swastika on January 15. The protesters came and disrupted the event.

The disruption appears to have been organized by student government president Emma Kallaway, and Vice President Getachew Kassa who, according to the Oregon Commentator‘s January 25 issue, helped to coordinate a rally prior to the disruption:

“We wanted to create fear and anger in the forum, and we accomplished that today,” said Kassa.

According to campus newspaper the Oregon Daily Emerald, the disruption was severe enough that law enforcement officers had to remove several protesters from the room.

And that is how not to deal with “bad” speech.

Some people have bad ideas.  Some people subscribe to hate, and they seek out like minded people to discuss these views with.  That’s just a part of life.

At issue is how you deal with such people.  If all they’re doing is exercising their rights to speech and association, then theatrics are the wrong way to go.  Protesting, disruption, temper tantrums – all just serve to bring attention on the target group.

The best way to deal with bad speech is with more speech.  If people are listening to their ideas, then use your own speech to say why they are wrong.  Don’t toss aside your own principles to have them silenced.

free speech