I used to think campus deplatforming was a clear-cut free speech win

I mean, I saw a speaker get shut down at my old school in Boulder and just thought, 'good, that's a bad view gone.' But then I watched a full video of a recent event at a different college where the protest basically stopped any talk from happening at all, even from students who just wanted to ask questions. The concrete thing was seeing a student quoted saying 'I just wanted to understand their data,' and they couldn't. It made me compare a loud protest that blocks everything to one that holds a silent vigil outside, and the second one lets debate actually happen. Has anyone else had a moment where the method of protest changed their view on the speech itself?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamie_adams2mo ago

Yeah, that's a solid point about the protest method. It's not really about the speech if no one can even hear it. The silent vigil idea seems way more powerful for actually making people think.

the_max2mo ago

Exactly, I read that silent protests force people to confront the issue themselves.

smith.nancy2mo ago

Wasn't there a study on how silence makes people listen harder?