National Free Speech News & Commentary

Heather Perlberg, Janet Lorin and Bloomberg
Fortune

Excerpt: First it was Apollo Global Management’s Marc Rowan blasting the University of Pennsylvania, then Dick Wolf of Law & Order followed by former US diplomat and businessman Jon Huntsman and billionaire Ronald Lauder.

Now it’s David Magerman, who helped build the trading systems of Renaissance Technologies. He castigated Penn’s “misguided moral compass” in a letter to President Elizabeth Magill and board chair Scott Bok, citing the school’s hosting of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival last month and its response to the Hamas attack on Israel in October.

Sara Weissman
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Five professors laid off by the County College of Morris in New Jersey two years ago may be poised to get their jobs back after a state hearing examiner recently issued a scathing ruling concluding that their layoffs were a retaliatory move related to their union activities.

Yascha Mounk
Persuasion

Excerpt: On October 7th, the world witnessed the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Many people, of all faiths and convictions, have recognized the enormity of these crimes. Numerous world leaders denounced the terrorist attacks in clear language. Private citizens shared their grief on social media. Millions mourned. But despite the outpouring of support, there has also been a large contingent of people and organizations who stayed uncharacteristically silent—or went so far as to celebrate the carnage.

Some of the most famous universities in the world—including Princeton, Yale and Stanford—only released statements after they came under intense pressure on social media.

Nathan Goetting
Discourse

Excerpt: The current academic free speech crisis stems from two causes. The first is that free speech principles are unnatural and counterintuitive. This has always been the case and, given human nature, always will be. The second, addressed in the next article in this series, is that now young people are exhorting—demanding, even—that older generations use a heavy censorial hand to promote social and political goals. This is unprecedented in our history and, without immediate and significant action, may prove ruinous to the mission of higher education.

Greg Lukianoff
New York Post

Excerpt: One of the strangest things about fighting cancel culture is the stubborn claim that it doesn’t even exist. But 22 years of combatting censorship on college campuses has shown me that cancel culture is very real, and can even be deadly. And contrary to what deniers claim, the impact of cancel culture on individuals is often profound.

Just this year Richard Bilkszto, principal of Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute and Adult Learning Centre in Canada, committed suicide after a run-in with a diversity trainer in Toronto cost him his job, his friends, and his good standing.

Ryan Quinn
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Two associates of the right-wing organization Turning Point USA followed a queer Arizona State University instructor on campus Wednesday afternoon, with one demanding he answer questions about “How long you’ve been attracted to minors” and “How long you’ve fantasized about minors having sex with adults” while the other filmed the encounter.

The confrontation eventually turned physical, ending with the educator, David Boyles, posting a photo of himself with blood on one side of his face.