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The time I saw a Holocaust denier get a standing ovation at a campus talk
Last semester at my college in Ohio, they invited this historian who's known for saying the Holocaust never happened. I sat in the back to see what would happen, and maybe 20 out of 200 people actually clapped for him. But the worse part? A kid next to me whispered "he's got a point" during the Q&A. That's when it hit me: giving a platform to hate speakers doesn't just test free speech, it validates their garbage for people who are already on the fence. Has anyone else seen an invite backfire like this where it actually radicalized students instead of just offending them?
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the_cameron8d ago
That 20 person clap is unsettling enough, but the kid whispering "he's got a point" is what really gets me. Did you catch what specific argument the speaker made that seemed to land with that guy?
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the_ruby8d ago
The kid whispering 'he's got a point' is the part that haunts me too. But honestly, I'm stuck on what point he even meant. Was it the stuff about the media being biased, or the part where he talked about the 'real working class' being ignored? Because that's a classic trick, right? They toss out a bunch of vague complaints and let you pick the one that fits your own grudge. So which angle do you think actually hooked that kid?
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