Free speech isn’t a tricky concept. It just needs to be applied universally and especially to the opinions and words of people you disagree with. Take some time and read the whole essay, it is worth your time.
“Another meme popular with the enemy is “calling bigotry an opinion is like calling arsenic a flavor”. Again, in plain English, “any opinion that I personally define as bigotry should not be tolerated”. To the jihadist or the Christian fundamentalist, any criticism or mockery of their own religion constitutes bigotry. And so it goes. The crux of the thing is who gets to define “bigotry” or whatever category of opinions is deemed intolerable and thus not protected free speech.
The people who make these kinds of assertions always assume that it is they, or people like them, who would have the power to define what is intolerant and thus intolerable. Don’t forget that in the near future it could be president DeSantis and a passel of legislators like Marjorie Taylor Greene who will be empowered to make that decision. The principle of free expression of opinion as an inviolable and seamless, yes, moral standard would stand robustly against them, because it would stand equally against any such attack regardless of which views are being suppressed. Once you decide certain opinions are worthy of suppression on whatever grounds, you have no principle to stand on when your opponents turn on you and try to suppress yours.”
We must guard against this sort of degenerate mob justice. See the entire article here.
“When talking to people about the state of universities in Canada, many deny the negative impact of “woke-ism.” My current “lived experience” in a province with a reputation for supporting free speech, however, indicates otherwise. It was challenging sacred cows associated with the “woke” character of Indigenization, trans activism and “anti-racist” initiatives, in fact, that led to my firing from my tenured position at Mount Royal University in December 2021.
For those unfamiliar with the word, “woke-ism” (spelled wokism in this publication) is the colloquial term for the postmodern tactic of reducing scientific objectivity to subjective authoritarianism, imposing its arbitrary interpretation of what is acceptable. Also referred to as “reified postmodernism” by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, the authors of the hilarious but revealing “grievance studies hoax,” this reactionary response to the intellectual progress driven by the Enlightenment tries to prevent certain ideas from being discussed under the auspices that the identities of oppressed groups must be “made real.”
Collision course: Frances Widdowson’s run-in with wokism got her fired from Mount Royal University in Calgary but she was still not prepared for the unruly mob of protest she faced in Lethbridge.
If, for example, a trans activist believes that they are completely debilitated as a result of “misgendering fatigue,” or if an Indigenous person is convinced that 215 students were murdered and dumped in a mass grave in a Kamloops Indian Residential School apple orchard, these views must not be contradicted because it is argued that such disagreement will “deny the humanity” of those who are oppressed, and disempower them. This, we are told, constitutes “hate speech” and “discrimination.”
Despite my costly collision with wokism at Mount Royal University in Calgary, I was still not prepared for what was to transpire at the University of Lethbridge earlier this month. I had been invited by philosophy professor Paul Viminitz to give a talk, to be entitled “How ‘Woke-ism’ Threatens Academic Freedom.” I was about to experience the fury of current wokism. UofL President Mike Mahon originally stated that the talk would be allowed to proceed because of the institution’s policy on freedom of expression. Woke faculty and students responded with intensifying pressure, leading Mahon to cancel my appearance a few days later.
Cancelled: University of Lethbridge (UofL) President Mike Mahon initially cited freedom of expression as the reason why Widdowson’s lecture should proceed; under pressure, he changed course and shut it down. (Source of photos: University of Lethbridge)
I remained adamant that I should go to the university to challenge Mahon’s assault on academic values (and repudiation of his institution’s freedom of expression policy). So on February 1 I arrived at the university to give my talk in a “Speakers’ Corner” type of format. But as I walked out of the elevator of University Hall and into The Atrium – a large public space on campus – I was amazed to see a crowd of about 700 people filling the main floor and upper level. While some in the audience had come to hear me speak, and a number were just curious onlookers, many were openly hostile to my presence, some brandishing signs declaring “RACISM IS NOT FREE SPEECH.”
Free speech is a large part of the basis of our democratic society. The issue is popping up much more frequently now in Canadian Society as it would seem that certain opinions have been deemed ‘untouchable’ and thus must be avoided or cancelled within the public sphere.
What I don’t understand is why so much of the Canadian political left has completely fumbled the ball on this issue. If you have a counter argument or refutation of Jordan Peterson’s views then bring those views to the public sphere and criticize his arguments. Demonstrate where they fall short, or where they are just plain wrong – but do it with evidence and coherent arguments – not just banning Peterson from speaking.
Banning and cancelling people should, and I repeat should, raise serious concerns on the Left asrestriction of personal liberties and speech are positions that the Left once defended (I imagine the classical Liberals still do, the activists not so much).
So, disagree with JP? Awesome. Bring your arguments to the table and show where he’s wrong. But for heaven sake, don’t stop him from speaking.
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