ipl-logo

The Silencing: How The Left Is Killing Free Speech

1072 Words5 Pages

The popular belief is that the left side of the political spectrum is the more liberal and open-minded to ideas and beliefs. I was one of those people that believed that liberals were the more politically accepting. However, as Kirsten Powers describes in her book, The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech, this is not always true. Rather, a lot of those people who identify themselves as being liberal, are not really liberal because they actually shut down ideas and the people that go against their own beliefs. According to Powers, there are two types of liberals. There is the “traditional” liberal that really is respectfully open to different ideas and liberties, and then there are the ones that claim to be open to ideas and liberties …show more content…

I believe that Powers makes some very valid points on how expression is censored in the more modern “liberal” era. I think that it is within everybody’s right to believe in whatever they want and have the right to express it. More importantly, what I have really taken away from this class is: just because you may think something is “offensive’, “obscene,” or “wrong” does not mean the person next to you may see it that way as well. As we discussed in class, in particular cases, who really is capable of deciding what is truly right or wrong? Who is this “reasonable person” to decide for all what is politically correct or not? It is evident that we all have ideas of our own and that should be respected. I do not think another person has the right to dictate what is the “correct” way to feel about particular issues. Only an individual can feel what is right to them. Furthermore, it is certainly not okay to get a person fired for their political beliefs. As citizens of a country built upon the concept of freedom, we should respect that. We should all respect and accept the fact that having different views is okay because that is how we learn from each other in order to continue grow as a great

Show More
Related
215 Words | 1 Pages

In the story “Should This Student Have Been Expelled?” by Nat Hentoff was a very good argumentative passage. Hentoff argues that freedom of speech should be valued no matter how offensive it is interpreted by others. Dough Hann abused his freedom of speech when he blurted out “Fuck you niggers” to black students at Brown University. A student asked Hann to stop screaming and Hann yelled “What are you a faggot?” Next, Hann noticed an Israeli flag in the student’s dorm and asked “What are you a Jew?” and shouted, “Fucking Jew!”

Read More
278 Words | 2 Pages

Censorship Wasn't All-bad: Daniel Wolf The article begins by grabbing the reader's attention to refer to society as “ugliness as beauty, insensitivity is honesty, offense as virtue” (Wolf, 192). The author also states various sentences about freedom throughout the article. The author Daniel Wolf demonstrates us various opinions that may be considered propaganda in today's world. According to Webster's dictionary, propaganda is defined as, “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.”

Read More
1141 Words | 5 Pages

The history of the United States of America has often been punctuated by moments of triumph, and also by grievous lapses in moral and ethical judgements. For years, students have learned about the entirety of our country’s history in school. However, a school board in Colorado recently attempted to prevent this from happening. Their decision to alter the American history curriculum in order to promote patriotic values angered many students, who then protested this decision. Leonard Pitts, a journalist for the Miami Herald, openly criticized the school board’s move.

Read More
1230 Words | 5 Pages

They provide examples from the University of California administrators, who in 2014 gave them a list of seemingly common phrases that must be avoided to prevent offending students. The authors point out that the political correctness movement of the 1980’s and 90’s is similar but different from what we are currently experiencing; the current movement is driven by emotional well-being rather than protecting marginalized groups. Believing to have the freedom to not be offended is not a new concept, for example, people fought for the right to be offensive all the way back in the Victorian era. Starting in the 80’s, far left students on college campuses decided that women and minorities had the right to not be offended. The authors uses the term “vindictive protectiveness” to describe the brutal response by the current movement towards people who question whether or not the movement actually keeps students safe.

Read More
357 Words | 2 Pages

In Derek Bok’s, Protecting Freedom of Expression On The Campus, he brings light to the issue of censorship in universities. He states that students at Harvard University got offended after a few students displayed the confederate flag. There have been many cases in which people have tried to censor offensive material however; the Supreme Court preferred to conserve the freedom of expression. He believes that if censorship starts to take place, it will be difficult to know when to cross the line. In addition, it will not fix the initial problem since the offenders will continue to abuse others using different means.

Read More
1782 Words | 8 Pages

Have we, as a people, become so fearful to speak what is actually on our minds in the society that we live in? Are we scared that we may offend someone, and have our job taken away from us because of something we have said? In the article, “I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me,” Edward Schlosser suggests that students are limiting how professor are able to lecture them. Schlosser is also worried that he may even have his job revoked from him if he slightly upset or offend any of his students. In our society, political correctness has reached an all-time high in the 21st century.

Read More
563 Words | 3 Pages

It is important to maintain an environment for victims to feel safe in but I don’t think it’s right to be silenced to the point where even talking about it for educating and information purposes is looked down upon. Morally, it’s always important to not have your speech make anyone feel uncomfortable or unsafe but especially for educational purposes it’s important to not feel like you must walk on eggshells because someone might find it offensive. Kaminer uses another example in her essay where she was “quickly branded a racist” because she used “the n-word” while teaching Huckleberry

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Is Censorship Still a Problem? Censorship may seem to be a problem washed away with the First Amendment of the Constitution, but it is actually a rampant problem in some parts of the country, including the masked target of Vonnegut’s letter You Have Insulted Me. Censorship is actually taking hold of many schools elementary and collages alike, from liberals demanding that all “offensive” texts, flags, statues, arts, and writings be banned and kept away to parents wanting their little babies to be kept out of the way of words. The censorship at hand is much like the early stages of what Bradbury wrote about in his famous book Fahrenheit 451 in which, all books are cleansed from the earth through the quick hands of fire. The passages of Bradbury

Read More
766 Words | 4 Pages

He aims to expound to the reader why hate speech shouldn't be included in the freedom of speech, at least on university premises, while reassuring the audience that he understands that the freedom of expression is highly essential and difficult to restrict in terms of hate speech. According to his statements, students who are subjected to racist instruction could even consider filing a lawsuit "on behalf of Blacks whose right to an equal education is denied by a university's failure to ensure a non-discriminatory educational climate" (Charles 18). To help the audience grasp the gravity of the issue, Charles chooses to explain how hate speech might escalate within legal

Read More
1080 Words | 5 Pages

The use of ‘bastions of unbridled inquiry and expression’ (774) creates an image of a fortified and well-defended area that in this case was a safe place to explore possibilities and voice one's opinions. To have in the same sentence ‘..repress free speech as any other institution in young people’s lives’ Immediately takes what may have looked like something promising and turns it into yet another governed establishment that is more interested in total compliance than individual creativity. Speech codes were birthed in the 1980s as the result of ‘political correctness’ melding with the concerns of the somewhat controversial ‘nonfaculty campus administrators.’ Lukianoff’s explanation about why these stringent codes violate the constitutional right to freedom of speech is sharply defined with the phrase ‘...well intended but, outside of the ivory tower…’ (774) Ivory tower meaning a state of seclusion from the facts of the real world.

Read More
907 Words | 4 Pages

“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon." (Bradbury 58) Censorship is the act of suppressing speech, works of literature, music, movies, work of arts, and ideas that are thought to be politically incorrect, offensive, and threatening to society. The United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances ( law.cornell.edu) However, historically, government officials and organizations have been “abridging” our freedoms since the inception of this

Read More
1491 Words | 6 Pages

First and foremost, there is a consensus that whenever there seems to be the absence of reasons that are constitutionally valid to regulate the speech of students, then they are fully entitled to a freedom of expression provided they remain within reasonable constitutional bounds. More so, a choice by the administration to prohibit the students against expressing their opinion, in the absence of concrete evidence that permitting them would have had any substantial adverse effects on their discipline is a fundamental violation of the First

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

The Liberal Era was a time period in the history of the United States that, like the many other important periods in history, had both its ups and downs. It ran from the 1930s to the 1970s and was an age of golden economic equality. However, what was not equal was the way that the people who were not straight, white men were treated according to information from Dr. Barrett. One of the most unfair moments in history is the relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps throughout the United States during World War II.

Read More
905 Words | 4 Pages

The idea of free speech on college campuses and the complications of it stem from those on campuses expressing views that don’t align with popular views. Implications for students who use the idea of free speech as a method for hateful actions and comments should be reprimanded, but the question remains as to whether schools should enforce tougher limitations. The freedom of speech on college campus expands to the freedoms of religion, assembly, press, and protest as well. Freedom of expression allows students to show their own political, social, and cultural views. Removing freedoms of speech and expression have consequences deeper than surface issues.

Read More
996 Words | 4 Pages

Liberal Democracy is a democratic system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law. The word democracy is greek, the word “demos” means people and “kratos” means power. The idea of liberalism first began in the 1600’s with John Locke as he believed that the people should be allowed to remove the government currently ruling when they have misused their power for ulterior motives. Although the seed was planted in the 1600’s, liberal democracy only properly took form in the 1840’s in Canada. Australia and New Zealand followed not long after as they began to use the secret ballot system to elect political leaders.

Read More

More about The Silencing: How The Left Is Killing Free Speech

Related Topics

Open Document