Because of the extremism. Or rather, because the student didn’t stick to his assigned free speech zone — my guess is, just for the irony of their actually being only a small free speech zone from which he was permitted to hand out the Constitution on Constitution day, and even then, he needed to get permission for his free speech from the governing authorities of the college days in advance.
The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, but don’t try to pass out copies of it at Modesto Junior College in California.
A student at the school who tried to pass out pocket-size pamphlets of the very document that memorializes our rights got shut down on Sept. 17 – a date also known as Constitution Day.
Campus authorities told 25-year-old Robert Van Tuinen, who caught the whole thing on videotape, he could only pass out the free documents at a tiny designated spot on campus, and only then if he scheduled it several days in advance.
“Watching the video is a combination of depressing and nauseating, to see what rigamarole students have to go through just to express themselves on campus,” said Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has taken on campus speech codes around the nation.
[…]
A spokeswoman for the college tells FoxNews.com that students and the general public are permitted to pass out materials in areas on campus that are generally available to the public, as long as they do not disrupt the orderly operations of the college.
“In the case of the YouTube video, it does not appear that the student was disrupting the orderly operations of the college and therefore we are looking into the incident,” Modesto Junior College Marketing and Public Relations officer Linda Hoile said.
In the video, Van Tuinen is confronted by an unidentified campus police officer within minutes of passing out the pamphlets. When he protests, he is told “there are rules.”
“But do you know what this is?” he asks. “What are the rules? Why are the rules tied to my free speech?”
Van Tuinen explains that he wants to start an organization called Young Americans for Liberty.
“That’s fine, but if you’re going to start an organization like that you have to go through the rigamarole,” the police officer tells him.
“It was a tense situation,” Van Tuinen, who is from Modesto, told FoxNews.com. “To be told I can’t do something as basic as handing out the Constitution was frustrating.”
Eventually, the police officer escorts Van Tuinen into an administrative office, where an unidentified woman shows him a binder with rules she says govern free speech on campus. She explains that there is a designated place “in front of the student center, in that little cement area
,” where free expression is allowed, but then notes that two people are already using it.
“You’d have to wait,” she says. “You could go on (Sept.) 20th, the 27th or you can go into October.”
— Or, not Constitution Day.
Eventually he is advised to make an appointment with Brenda Thames, vice president of student services, who can explain the policy.
Shibley said he was angered by the video, but not surprised.
“One of the revealing things about this particular case is what students have to go through just to express themselves on campus,” Shibley said.
He said the very idea of speech codes on campus ought to be troubling to Americans.
“They are imposed in an attempt to sanitize the public space of anything that might offend somebody,” he said. “The fact is, no school specifically needs a speech code. They have the ability keep order on campus . Of people are too loud, harassing people, or blocking traffic they have the means to address that.”
The American higher education conglomerate: where intellectualism and freedom go to die. Or at least be beaten badly about the head and neck with binders full of bureaucratic obstacles boiled down to wordy, tyrannical text.
Full video:
This looks like a job for FIRE.
If the kid had been handing out condoms or coupons (10% off your next abortion), I bet the cop would have left him alone.
Modesto Junior College Mission Statement
MJC is committed to transforming lives through programs and services informed by the latest scholarship of teaching and learning. We provide a dynamic, innovative educational environment for the ever-changing populations and workforce needs of our regional community. We facilitate lifelong learning through the development of intellect, creativity, character, and abilities that shape students into thoughtful, culturally aware, engaged citizens.
Education is the reason our institution exists. To this end, we value innovation, professionalism, integrity, and responsible stewardship. We foster respect for and interest in the diverse individuals and histories of our community. These values are foundational to the way we shape our programs and services, make and communicate decisions, reinforce collaborative relationships within our community, and promote civic engagement.
link
She explains that there is a designated place “in front of the student center, in that little cement area,” where free expression is allowed, but then notes that two people are already using it.
I read that sentence three times just to get to the rich, chocolatey, totalitarian center.
in other college news
University of Portland student gets help, inspiration from controversial Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
I’m not worrying about where you want me to hand out pamphlets when I pay you $800 a three credit class.
Are we going to have a betting pool on how long before UP expels
himher, NR?read the (biased)article. i’m perplexed by folks protesting jus. thomas for helping a young woman down on her luck to get a college edu. only in proggtardia.
So state-run and -paid-for institutions staffed with taxpayer-funded staff members aren’t considered State actors when it comes to violating our Constitutional rights? What do you want to bet they wouldn’t have minded had it been a mass same-sex wedding?
Who else remembers the days when an awkwardly thrown frisbee was the biggest threat on campuses?
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
SEC. 2. (a) Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or
her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of
this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or
press.
link
I once tried to talk a college classmate, who had attended MJC, into going out with me (this was way back when the Left wanted to give John Hinckley another chance). I doubt her MJC link explained her refusal, though…
It’s sad that even a junior college has been turned into an institution of higher re-education.
In other news, it would appear that Deb F. had a sex-change operation.
Something pathological is going on here, too.
Anyone know the name for this compulsion to engage in extremely vulgar, outrageous attacks in public? It’s over-the-top enough to not just be a bad mood or a potty mouth.
“If the kid had been handing out” the Koran things likely would have been different.
Speech codes are only to make sure that only the permitted type of speech is spoken/handed out/seen as speech. It is part of the indoctrination that our schools have become the centers of and have as their central purpose.
Anyone know the name for this compulsion to engage in extremely vulgar, outrageous attacks in public?
“Progressivism”. HTH
College campuses: where free speech goes to die.
Dicentra: Anyone know the name for this compulsion to engage in extremely vulgar, outrageous attacks in public? It’s over-the-top enough to not just be a bad mood or a potty mouth.
Could this be one explanation?
I think nihilism is a good explanation Bob. But you can’t forget nihilism’s corollary, will to power.
I’ve been thinking on and off about that since yesterday, coincidentally. My kids and I finally got to watch Epic last night, and the struggle between good and evil, life and death, growth and decay is one of the key themes of the movie (which is a very good movie, by the way). Nonetheless, the movie has this message that life and death are coequal –forces that must be balanced.
So I had to explain to my kids that that wasn’t true. Life is stronger than death, like good is stronger than evil –no matter how hard the world tries to persuade us differently.
Anyways, the reason the mini-review cum sermon matters is that will to power is dependent upon nihilism. If everything is fated to end in entropy anyway, why not fuck over whomever you can, whenever you can?
Kali again.
geoff just reminded me that I need to read Ponnuru’s Party of Death
If only for the privilege of being able to shake my head and wonder “what the hell happened to that guy?”
Nihilism, yes, but I’d call that an element of the problem rather than the diagnosis.
Jeff’s former tormentor had a screw loose somewhere that compelled her to actively seek out people on whom to unload some truly vile stuff — things that went far beyond the usual name-calling, trolling, and flaming that you find on the Internet.
I copied her stuff to my LiveJournal — which was read by some fairly left-wing folks — and they were just as astounded and repulsed as I was.
Wishing a horrible death on opponents of Obamacare is standard fare lately — but most of these ill-wishers are making a quasi-logical connection: “You are ruining healthcare, so I hope you suffer the worst of your awful decision.”
Similar to hoping that gun-grabbers get mugged someday, to teach them a lesson.
But that guy’s other stuff was purely gratuitous filth: his targets were on the wrong team, is all, and his insults reflected something worse in his excuse for a soul than mere nihilism, tribalism, or trollery could explain.
I perused the personality disorders again and wondered if it were sadistic personality disorder, but I’m not convinced. Also wondering about the manic phase of a bipolar, because I experienced the business end of someone’s manic phase over the Internet, and it was characterized by exaggerated aggression.
Meh.
He’s a male, and dudez seem better-equipped to come up with vile insults than females, that one chick whose name I shall not speak notwithstanding.
*** If everything is fated to end in entropy anyway, why not fuck over whomever you can, whenever you can? ***
In answer to which Xenophon has Hiero tell us, from the point of view of the successful tyrant who does do these things in accord with his temptation, how miserable his life has become as a consequence. Evidently, Hiero never lived at the end of things, but helplessly as a human among humans. He couldn’t seem to escape himself, or others, to live in a world where nothing and no one mattered. So he found himself always trapped by his deeds, inescapably bound to his corruption.
In that case Di, you’re only recourse is metaphysical.
The problem with conservatives is conservatism. Insufficiently radical. You already know about the radical hoax covered by Oberlin administration, still covering for it. Do that and the like. If you want them to have a copy of the constitution then shove it down their throats. Quit mewling like decent silly little rule abiders, caterwauling like abused kittens. Every shelf of the school book store littered with constitutions, all over the library, every windshield wiper, every lounge, every flat surface available surreptitiously over and over all over the place. Fuck their free speech circle, shove it up their butt holes. Oh! Toilets. Litter the place with constitutions. Make a crime of it. Learn something, do what they do.
I went by King Soopers @ Speer/14th, Bean Soopers to 9th/14th’s Queen Soopers, anyway, the bike racks are empty. Empty! Near to Downtown and near to the campus. And you know what those bike racks need? Constitutions, that’s what.
Once I decoupaged a constitution. Tore its edges, burned it a little poked a hole in it, scratched it, stained it, attempted to make it look aged and barely together, coated it with polyurethane, screwed a hook in the board, and honestly, it looked like shit, ugly as hell, a deplorable non-understanding execution, mum hung it on the wall for decades.
They have no sense of design. At all.
They have a flag on a staff in their living room.
When I see peoples’ homes with that I think, Jesus Christ, other people do that too, I thought it was just them. It gets me every time.
How to address the security guard:
“Officer, I see you’re wearing a badge. Did you take an oath to get that badge?”
Yes.
“Did that oath, by any chance, state that you swore/affirmed to uphold and defend the Constitutions of the United States and of California?”
Yes.
“Officer, this is the very US Constitution that is your sworn duty to uphold. [Try to hand him a copy. If he won’t take it, make a comment about him refusing the US Constitution.] If you act against it, your oath is broken, that badge ceases to be valid, and you have no more authority to command me than I have to command you. This document says no law can abridge my freedoms of speech, of the press, and to peaceably assemble. Any authority you attempt to assert against those freedoms is by definition illegal. And a peace officer committing an illegal act under color of authority has no immunity against a civil suit.
So tell me, officer, what law will you tell the court empowers you to prevent distribution of printed copies of the US Constitution, whether they’re paid for by the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Brothers, or the Coca-Cola Company for that matter? My right to freedom of the press does not depend on whether my press is located at Kinko’s or Heritage.”
After the discussion with the burrocrap drone in the office, I’d get signs proclaiming that the people holding them are members of a “union” of some sort (“Union of Students for Free Speech” or somesuch) operating an “informational picket”, and then hand out copies of the Constitution as well as a statement about how the “Free Speech Zone” violates it. Then if the campus cops do anything, they’re attacking union members.
Di, I think the word you are looking for is “Cowardice”.
It’s not a personality disorder, so no need to complicate things by looking for a diagnosis/syndrome.
People will do things in groups or when they presume to be protected by the group and its groupthink, that they wouldn’t do if they were alone in front of their target. Photographic evidence of the insult hurler shows him to have a classic Punch Me face. He’s only a tough guy from behind his Twitter account or on the internet.
Cure? Classic ass whoopin’.
So a parent in Baltimore Co. Md rose to put an unwelcome question to a community organizing propaganda inculcation session on the implementation of the Common Core curriculum and got arrested for his impertinence.
Man, it’s a funny old America, this fundamentally transformed joke of a nation anymore.
Peter Lawler: The End of “Disrupting” in Higher Education?
It’s not a personality disorder, so no need to complicate things by looking for a diagnosis/syndrome.
Yeah, I’m thinking you’re right. It’s Anonymous Troll Syndrome, which isn’t a real syndrome but, like you said, the jeering of someone who feels safe and superior.
And who also holds public office and tweets under his real name.
That’s what I don’t get. If you’re going to be that kind of troll, invent a pseudonym like southwestpaw or dicentra.
He has been just that insulated to not have to care whether he was being decent.
It’s probably Insular Political Circle Syndrome. There! We invented one. I smell grant money. . .
Kind of like Pauline Kael not knowing how Nixon got elected when no one she knew voted for him.
Insular Political Circle Syndrome
There ya go.
Except being insular politically doesn’t necessarily result in this kind of jackassery. Plenty of lifelong Utah conservatives, for example, don’t get much exposure to left-wingers or Democrats or Constitution-haters, but they also would never dream of sniping at non-conservatives in like manner. They would be astounded to hear strongly held opinions different from their own, but they wouldn’t loathe those people with their whole souls.
So IPCS plus nihilism plus Having The Soul Of A Jackal.
There’s also the Establican variety, where you get David Brooks and John McCain sneering at the hobbits and extremists and knuckle-draggers.
But I can’t see Brooks or any Establican tweeting that kind of sludge, even drunk. Leftism really attracts some awful people and then nurtures that awfulness. I guess the Commies and Fascists had the same effect in Europe, last century, and the Wahhabists are likewise attracting the dregs of their society.
Gah.
I can understand hostility to the people you perceive to be Ruining Everything, but you’re fermenting some truly ugly stuff in your soul to feel safe tweeting “c*mr*g” and other filth to total strangers.
they wouldn’t loathe those people with their whole souls.
I reckon that degree of loathing must originate with self-loathing, subsumed and projected and spewed out like rot from an exploding corpse.
So is the self-loathing a result of being a loathsome person or from being much sinned-against?
Who knows? Either way, it’s in his best interest (as well as everyone else’s) for him to get the boot.
And then pummeled into jelly by a crew of umbrella-wielding grandmas.
Well, di I think we can factor in the tragic, and I mean that in the real sense, “hipness” of having no God/Higher power/guiding light in one’s life. It’s tragic to live and die for being “cool” with one’s peer group.
Dicentra, perhaps a good part of the explanation may be found in the fact that Brauer is a homosexual.
I believe Homosexuality is a mental illness. I think in most of those it afflicts, the manifestations are relatively mild [ie: neurotic behavior, (in males) exaggerated effeminacy, etc.], but for a minority of the males the manifestations are a raging anger and hatred of women.
Male Homosexuals are all filled with a irrational fear of women that is so bad it causes them to avoid dealing with women on an intimate level. Regarding the minority of them who are filled with unreasoning fury, the senseless and demented fear they have results in vile and disgusting attacks against heterosexual women.
I believe this is the psychological core of their mental illness, but it certainly may manifest itself in related behaviors, such as manic episodes, but the root, I think, is made up of frenzied fear of women. Perhaps this also leads them into Nihilism.
Ernst is quite correct that the Will To Power ‘is dependent upon nihilism’. Why would anyone seek to dominate their fellow Human Beings, to be as God, except that they hate and despise Life as it is, as it was gifted to us by God.
a raging anger and hatred of women … the senseless and demented fear they have results in vile and disgusting attacks against heterosexual women.
You’ve got it backwards, oddly enough. Gay men loathe straight men with a white-hot loathing, because they represent the masculine ideal that gay men are expected to attain but never can. Gay men admire women and want to be like them. They admire women’s gentleness, nurturing, non-violence, sense of style. (I was told this by a gay guy.) They feel comfortable in female-dominated areas and, if you haven’t noticed, are decidedly effeminate themselves. Gay men don’t rape women (even with objects) a crime reserved for hetero men who loathe women.
Gay men usually never possessed an abundance of masculine traits: they didn’t like the rough-and-tumble games among boys, didn’t like the vulgarity, didn’t like the sports, the competition, the rivalries, and pretty much most “guy stuff.”
But they were also acutely aware that because of their Y chromosomes, they were expected to be “macho shitheads” (a term my gay boyfriend frequently used) and were punished mercilessly by other boys for not Being Men. As a result, they resent the hell out of straight men.
Male sexual identity is a complex acquisition. We all start out life as girls (in utero) and then half of us become boys because of the addition of testosterone and male plumbing. (Vestigial nipples are one evidence). We all emerge from a woman’s body, suckle from her body, and are involved in a hyper-feminine realm during our early years.
As we mature, girls get to stay in that realm, but boys have to differentiate themselves, especially behaviorally. Around the age of three, children understand that there are two flavors of people on the planet — boys and girls — and they totally know which one they are. Try suggesting to a 3-yr-old boy that he might be a girl and he’ll vehemently reject the suggestion.
Those boys who are naturally effeminate (gay or straight) have in essence failed to differentiate from The Feminine Realm and are therefore attacked by masculine boys as freaks, failures, and pervs.
You’ll notice that there’s no such concept in GirlWorld as “not a real woman.” Being a tomboy is not dishonorable: it’s just a variant. “Be a lady” has to do with not repelling straight men, not with a freakish failure to be womanly.
So if gay men loath manliness, why are they attracted to men?
Because like straight women, they crave to unite with the masculinity they lack. For whatever reason, gay men perceive males to be “the opposite sex.” When it comes to sexual attraction, the exotic is erotic. We’re attracted to Teh Other.
We might all be hard-wired to be attracted to the opposite sex; what goes awry is the perception of which sex one is. (I don’t know the reason for that, and I suspect there are multiple causes.)
The gay guy in question is prolly only misogynist against conservative women. He said vile things against SooperMexican and other male conservatives, so for him it’s politics, not sexuality.
Gay men may want to be like women, but that doesn’t mean they like women.
Just look at what gay men design for women to wear.
Greg Lukianoff follows up.
when i was an undergrad at PSU, we had “cuntfest”.
one has to ask the question, which is edgier: “cuntfest”, or handing out copies of the constitution?
Edgier or more embarrassing?