Watched a guest speaker get shouted down at our student union last semester

Back in October, a writer with some pretty conservative views came to give a talk at my university. Within 5 minutes, a group of students started yelling over them and the event got canceled. Before that, I always thought free speech was just a given on campus. Now I'm wondering how you draw the line between protest and just shutting someone down. Has anyone else seen this happen at their school?

3 comments

3 Comments

xenarobinson14d ago

the thing nobody's talking about is how this same energy shows up in workplaces too, not just campuses. i work in a field where we have to make split-second decisions and sometimes someone's opinion you don't agree with saves a life. we don't get to shout down the guy who suggests a different way of cutting a car open because he's wrong on politics. what happens when the loudest voices in the room decide who gets to speak and that person actually has a key piece of info? we're training people to silence first and ask questions later, and that bleeds into everything.

jenny58014d ago

Exactly, that's the thing nobody wants to admit...

hugo23614d ago

Haven't we been doing that way before this whole current thing blew up? The loudest people in any room have always drowned out the quiet ones who actually know what's going on.