That one week when the free speech rally turned into a screaming match over nothing

Last Tuesday at State U, there was this big free speech event on the quad where two student groups were supposed to debate campus funding. It started fine, people holding signs and talking, but by Wednesday it fell apart hard. A guy from the Young Americans group yelled at a girl from the student council for like 20 minutes straight about how her group was 'censoring' him. Then someone threw a cup of coffee at a microphone stand and security had to step in. The whole thing was supposed to be about ideas, but it just became a shouting fest with no real discussion. By Friday, the dean had to cancel the rest of the week's events because nobody could agree on basic ground rules. Has anyone else seen a supposedly free speech event totally derail like that? I'm curious if it's just this campus.

3 comments

3 Comments

bennett.harper1mo ago

Sounds like typical college drama, not some huge crisis.

the_thomas1mo ago

My buddy Jake got caught up in something similar back at State. He was in this group project where one girl was crying over a shared Google Doc and the other guy was threatening to drop the class over it. Turns out the whole thing was about who typed in a comma splice in the wrong place. I sat there eating my sandwich watching them go at it like it was a life or death situation. Some people just need real problems to put things in perspective.

logan5611mo ago

Did you see that whole mess on Twitter with the "open forum" hashtag last month? It was wild, people just camped on each other's posts for days without actually talking about the main topic. It was supposed to be about budget cuts but it turned into a personal beef between two random accounts who are probably just bored. I swear these events start off with good intentions but then someone with a camera shows up and it's all about who can get the most likes on their hot take. The real problem is nobody knows how to disagree without making it a personal attack, like you can't just say "I see it different" and move on anymore. I've seen this play out at a few open mic nights too, people get on stage and just start yelling at the crowd instead of actually discussing anything.