Thread: open minded
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Old 04-13-2018, 07:46 AM   #2
Pete F.
Canceled
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: vt
Posts: 13,069
If you read the whole thing you would find more to the story, and what i highlighted in red shows that intolerance is not confined to one side of the dialogue. And nowhere in the story does it say that the students were studying law, only that it was put on by a chapter of the Federalist Society.
"Then the dialogue shifted to the back of the room. The African-American student I mentioned earlier said, “I don’t support this guy” but “I want to hear him speak.” The protesters tried to shame him for attending. He continued, “I want to ask him a very hard question. And we should all try to ask him very hard questions. Like about the notion of legal objectivity.” Sensing the event had taken a different direction, I said, “Let’s talk about that.” The protesters then heckled and shouted over the student asking the question. I interjected, “Let him talk, let him talk.” After the protest died down, he said, “I respect the fact that you have a right to speak and you came here. I do not support anything you are writing or your politics, but I do respect the fact that we can have a dialogue and ask some tough questions.”


At that point, the protesters left the room and, I learned, they marched to the dean’s office to complain. After they left, I took questions from the students for over an hour. I did not present any of my prepared remarks, but it didn’t matter. I spoke on originalism, textualism, the separation of powers, DACA, affirmative action, criminal procedure, and a wide range of other topics. The conversation was civil and professional. I was very proud of the students who stayed till the end. (Well, there was one Trump supporter in the room who called me a “cuck” for not being MAGA enough — I can’t win.)

COMMENTS
Indeed, though there were only five people at the start of the event, by the time it concluded I counted about 30. I learned that some students were either ashamed or intimidated and did not want to be seen attending the event. A number of students thanked me after the event, and explained that conservative speech is stifled on campus not by the faculty but by the students. The students swarm on anyone who does not toe the progressive line.

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