“That most fundamental right of free speech is under assault at campuses,” Stanley Kurtz said at CLC this morning.
Surveys show support for restrictive speech codes “have reached historic highs,” he said.
Democratic socialism? “All those Bernie Sanders supporters are already trying to shut down free speech,” Kurtz said.
“But I’ve got good news,” he said. Under the leadership of Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a bill to protect free speech at UNC will be unveiled soon.
The Campus Free Expression Act will be the most comprehensive protection of free speech on campuses in the country, he said.
A broad statement supporting free speech will supplant any restrictive speech code. It will expressly bar students or staff from interfering with the expression of others’ speech. So there will be no more shouting down speakers or blocking meetings. There will be disciplinary action to back up the principle.
“Shouting down or interrupting speakers is tyranny,” he said.
Quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes, Kurtz says freedom includes allowing the speech we hate and abhor. “Freedom of speech itself is the ultimate act of civility,” he said.
It’s also important for universities as institutions to be neutral in such debates.
“Common reading assignments” for freshmen are often just leftist indoctrination. (The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy has exposed much of this.)
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