Friday, December 16, 2016

Ad Hominem Attacks

I believe that campuses should be open to sides of an issue, that anti-trans people should be allowed to speak on campuses, but there is always a “But.” I believe that college students are smart enough to make up their minds on issues. Now the “but” I do not think that personal attacks on individuals is acceptable.
Breitbart writer targets transgender UWM student
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Karen Herzog
December 15, 2016

A firebrand speaker who was permanently banned from Twitter for "inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others" blasted a transgender student by name at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, prompting the school's chancellor to immediately condemn the speech in a campus-wide email.

Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos brought his "Dangerous Faggot Tour" to the Student Union at UWM on Tuesday night at the invitation of a new student group called Turning Point USA.

During his speech to a crowd the university estimated at 325 to 350 people, plus others watching via live stream on the Breitbart website, Yiannopoulos singled out a transgender student who had protested against a new UWM policy created for its recreation center's locker rooms.
[…]
Yiannopoulos named and showed a picture of the student to his audience, and accused the student of being a man trying to find his way into women's bathrooms.
Mr. Yiannopoulos cross that line with his personal attacks on the trans student putting her life in jeopardy. She started being harassed and receiving threats and it got so bad that she dropped out of work.

The college president responded…
In an email to the campus Tuesday night, shortly after the event ended, chancellor Mark Mone said UWM was prohibited by law from restricting access to its facilities based on the viewpoint of a student organization or a speaker invited by a student organization.

"Free speech is one of UWM’s core values and I will support students’ decisions to bring a wide array of speakers to our campus – even if the speaker is controversial, and even if I disagree with him or her," Mone said.

"That said, I do not agree with Yiannopoulos’ views, and I strongly condemn the belittling of others and their appearance, and the encouragement of hate and harassment. I also will not stand silently by when a member of our campus community is personally and wrongly attacked."
Colleges should be for the open intercourse of ideas not to create hate and violence.

1 comment:

  1. Yiannopoulos' version of free speech is the equivalent of shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, which the Supreme Court found is not protected by the Constitution.

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