But Gow’s tenured position teaching at La Crosse is protected under an academic freedom policy designed to shelter controversial speech and heretical thinkers. In denouncing “free speech hypocrisy” Gow has a solid case. Conservatives who have been making so much noise about free speech on campus lately are focused solely on rooting out “woke” ideology and somehow protecting Republican college students from being made to feel bad by their more numerous anti-racist and anti-sexist peers. There was a time when people on the left and right joined together to defend free speech, including speech the defenders themselves abhorred. The free exchange of ideas is the foundation of university education and of American democracy.

Source: New York Times January 04, 2024 11:06 UTC