It's a confusing world where we condemn the speech of insurrectionists but defer to "academic" freedom in excusing the authors of most of the abhorrent notions of those insurrectionists. John Eastman, a law professor, provided the ingredients for the insurrectionist stew that bubbled in Trump's brain. For his part in the coup plot, the C…
It's a confusing world where we condemn the speech of insurrectionists but defer to "academic" freedom in excusing the authors of most of the abhorrent notions of those insurrectionists. John Eastman, a law professor, provided the ingredients for the insurrectionist stew that bubbled in Trump's brain. For his part in the coup plot, the CA Bar has unveiled disciplinary charges against Eastman -- not to prevent his speech but to make him accept responsibility for it. The ideas and most of the vitriol spouted by the rubes didn't originate there. We are quick to point the finger at the mob that will do what mobs have always done throughout history, but demure when the leaders of the mob are "academics"? Tenure is designed to protect the Copernicuns and perhaps the flat earthers alike but not those who would destroy the universe to prove it doesn't exist, as authoritarians are wont to do in order to quash liberal democracies.
Well said, Grumpy. Tenure is designed and needed to protect academic freedom in teaching and research. What this professor is spouting--black are inferior to whites, women are dumber than men, America should attract and retain only white people, Asians suck--is neither teaching, research, nor arguments she's making tied to the law she teaches. They're vile racist and sexist statements designed solely to seek attention and stir the pot, and I believe the university has ever right to discipline her up to and including termination for it.
It's a confusing world where we condemn the speech of insurrectionists but defer to "academic" freedom in excusing the authors of most of the abhorrent notions of those insurrectionists. John Eastman, a law professor, provided the ingredients for the insurrectionist stew that bubbled in Trump's brain. For his part in the coup plot, the CA Bar has unveiled disciplinary charges against Eastman -- not to prevent his speech but to make him accept responsibility for it. The ideas and most of the vitriol spouted by the rubes didn't originate there. We are quick to point the finger at the mob that will do what mobs have always done throughout history, but demure when the leaders of the mob are "academics"? Tenure is designed to protect the Copernicuns and perhaps the flat earthers alike but not those who would destroy the universe to prove it doesn't exist, as authoritarians are wont to do in order to quash liberal democracies.
Well said, Grumpy. Tenure is designed and needed to protect academic freedom in teaching and research. What this professor is spouting--black are inferior to whites, women are dumber than men, America should attract and retain only white people, Asians suck--is neither teaching, research, nor arguments she's making tied to the law she teaches. They're vile racist and sexist statements designed solely to seek attention and stir the pot, and I believe the university has ever right to discipline her up to and including termination for it.