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When Stanford Law Dean Jenny Martinez left class this week, she was confronted with a chilling sight. I’m free,” stood around her and threatened her.
Students were furious that Martinez apologized to U.S. Circuit Court Judge Kyle Duncan after he was prevented from speaking to students and faculty last week. and should not be allowed to speak on campus. Among the distorted notions promoted by many faculty members, they believe that silencing others is an act of free speech.
The same view was seen Tuesday night at the University of California, Davis, but with a more violent element. They attacked the venue that was supposed to host a speech by Charlie Kirk.
Police and students attending the event were assaulted and at least one police officer was injured. Protesters smashed windows, threw eggs and used pepper spray to attack the University Credit Union Center and those who wanted to hear Kirk speak.
Elon Musk, others respond after protesters smash windows and throw eggs at Charlie Kirk event on college campus
It is the face of a new generation of censorship and speechphobia, carefully nurtured by many in academia. It has become an academic echo chamber that is claimed to be an act of free speech.
The 2021 College Free Speech Rankings released a chilling poll after asking a huge 37,000 students enrolled in the top 159 colleges and universities in the US. The results found that 66% of her college students believe that yelling at a speaker to stop them from speaking is a legitimate form of free speech. Another 23% believe violence could be used to cancel a speech. That’s about a quarter who support violence.
They get these values from their faculty. Many schools have largely wiped out conservative, libertarian faculty positions. This trend was driven by editor Joe Patrice, who championed “primarily liberal competence” and argued that hiring conservative professors is akin to allowing geocentric followers to teach Above Abbey. He also ridiculed studies showing that conservative students were afraid to speak freely in class, and said that these students dismissed as “just… Conservatives are sad that other people make fun of them.”
Stanford Law Dean’s Shameful Attack on Free Speech Means This for the Education Mob
Remarkably, Martinez did not even promise to hold the students accountable for stopping Judge Duncan’s speech. Still, that’s more than any other law school dean. When Professor Josh Blackman was stopped from speaking about the “importance of free speech” at his CUNY Law School, CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek said it was okay to block speech about free speech. claimed freedom of speech. (Bilek canceled after her resignation after using controversial terminology at her meeting).
At the University of California, Santa Barbara, professors actually rallied around a professor who physically attacked a pro-life advocate and destroyed a display.
These students were raised from grade school through law school in a speech-phobic environment where free speech was treated as harmful. That was evident at the infamous Stanford event.
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Tyrien Steinbach of the Stanford DEI Dean shocked many by denouncing Judge Duncan at the event. For many of us who have seen free speech protections plummet on campus for decades, it came as no surprise. When asked to do so, Steinbach stepped forward and voiced his support for free speech before joining a mob accusing Duncan of trying to speak out despite those who disagreed with his views. she asked. Judge Duncan replied, “What does that mean? I don’t know…”.
Judge Duncan’s confusion is understandable….unless he’s been to a college campus in the last decade. He still held the outdated idea that higher education was unorthodox and based on diverse opinions and perspectives.
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The argument that blocking free speech is free speech is just a twisted justification. Protests outside the event are free speech. Loudly denouncing or “deplatforming” a speaker at an event is a denial of free speech. It also marks the death knell of higher education in the United States.
Antifa’s presence at the Kirk event was another predictable factor.
I testified before the Senate about Antifa and the growing anti-free speech movement in the United States. I clearly disagree with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler’s statement that Antifa (and its involvement in violent protests) is a “myth.”
It underlies the free speech movement, which defines the right itself as a tool of oppression. It is described in Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, in which he highlights the movement’s struggle against free speech. “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is, ‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'”
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Bray quotes one Antifa member as summarizing their approach to free speech: “Of course…you have a right to speak, but you also have a right to remain silent.”
But the most chilling statement may have come from Antifa member Jason Charter, who was arrested after the attack on a historic statue in Washington, DC. The movement is winning. He’s right, as hundreds of black-clad Stanford Act and violent Davis protesters can attest.
Click here to read more about Jonathan Turley
