The week my campus got Matt Walsh canceled and uncanceled twice in 72 hours

I sat through a 4 hour student council meeting where they debated his invite, voted to ban him, then reversed it the next day after a local news station ran a story about free speech - and honestly, I still can't decide if we handled it the right way; has anyone else watched a speaker controversy flip-flop that fast at their school?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.jesse1mo ago

Actually, I was at that student council meeting you mentioned. I remember when someone pointed out that the initial vote to ban him passed 7-6, but three of those yes votes came from people who admitted they hadn't even read the full invite policy. The next day when the news story broke, two of those same students switched their votes without any new info. I think the thing that bugs me is how fast people changed their minds based on outside pressure instead of actually thinking through the free speech arguments. Feels like nobody really knew why they were voting yes or no in the first place.

harperwright1mo ago

Friend of mine sat on a housing board where they had to vote on evicting a guy for noise complaints. Half the board admitted later they didn't even read the complaint reports, just voted with whoever spoke first. Next week after the guy's story hit the local paper, suddenly everyone had a strong opinion.