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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America cheer a court decision that upholds Wisconsin’s right to work law and rejects the argument of organized labor that it has a right to part of workers’ paychecks. They also shudder as a new study shows students of all political stripes evenly divided on whether “hate speech” should be protected speech, whether it’s OK to shout down speakers they don’t like, or even whether uncomfortable views should be allowed on campus. And they have fun with a political ad that is a horrible parody of a famous scene from “Top Gun.”
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Progressives were super-enthused about free speech back when the goal of public education was to make the child as different from the father as possible. To that end, the mind-expanding possibilities of higher education were touted, and provocation was considered a virtue in itself.
Now that the long march through the institutions has reached its apex, there’s no longer a reason to tout diversity of opinion or confrontation or any of that, because students are now so thoroughly indoctrinated that they are willing to rise up against the bourgeoisie without hesitation.
The Glorious Revolution is at hand, comrade.
I’ve not yet listened to today’s Three Martini Lunch podcast, but I have read the Morning Jolt:
@Jim Geraghty, PLEASE practice what you preach regarding the use of the pronouns they, them, their, and theirs. I realize that I’ve long been fighting an uphill battle to enforce the basic rule of grammar that
SUBJECT AND OBJECT PRONOUN MUST AGREE IN GENDER *AND* NUMBER
but I cringe every time I hear Jim Geraghty say something along the lines of “if a student wants their homework to be …” or “you should always permit a person to say whatever they want to say …”
Ouch. If you want to use the feminine gender as the neuter gender equivalent, fine. But number disagreement is just plain wrong.
This isn’t a small issue. She who controls the language controls the debate. I think that much of what we see today with encroachments on individual liberties based on arguments about “LGBT rights” is a result of the misuse of the word “gay” to mean “homosexual.” Think about it: the word “gay” used to mean “happy.” Yet whenever the word “gay” is used to describe homosexuals, there is nothing happy. If you refer to a homosexual or a lesbian as homosexual, even though you are empirically, clinically, provably correct, you are immediately branded a bigot.
Every time a person uses the incorrect pronoun, the LGBT movement gains a little more acceptance, and individual liberties are threatened.
Does belief in free speech create the desire to shave? Or does shaving lead one to free speech?
I have a beard and am fine with free speech. Fine with free piano playing, too.
“It’s a social mor…” When I heard that, I thought it interesting.