Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
I am a liberal, though these days I have to qualify that with 'in the traditional sense,' since liberal has come to mean something fundamentally different in the last 10 years or so. And I'm all for giving anyone the opportunity to express their views and challenge mine. Nothing beats an open and free-wheeling debate. That's how we make progress. Where I draw the line is efforts to silence or suppress discourse - which is what check your privilege, no platforming, and blanket accusations of bigotry are. That isn't just a different opinion, that's a threat to the foundations of liberal democracy. I get my back up when the right tries to suppress speech, and when the left tries to. Sadly, in the last few years years I've encountered the latter far more than the former. And I'm not alone.
So more people on the centre-left need to speak up about the suppression of liberal ideals by the regressive left. The radicals get a free pass from a compliant academia, media, and liberal mainstream politicians for a variety of reasons. Guilt. Cowardice. The belief that the radicals on your side somehow counter the radicals on the other. Simple partisanship. But liberals need to recognize they're losing more than they're gaining by letting the rhetoric and tactics of the radicals go unchallenged. They're risking alienating genuine liberals, and losing the centre.
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Completely agree with this. Well said. The big question is how do you do it? I've sat in on several meetings with different schools and they are all struggling to deal with this issue. My approach is open structured public debate, but the elements you wish to drag into that are not game for the most part. So what do you do? With the change in tenor on campuses it is not a great environment to be at the moment.