January 24, 2015



This Is Not The Behavior Of People In A Free Society (Attempt To Ban Germaine Greer From Speaking At Cambridge)

It's like people are pining for an Orwellian unfree society with all their outcry every time somebody whom they disagree with is going to give a talk. Pathetic and dangerous.

Charlotte Ivers writes at Cambridge.tab.co.uk that the members of the "CUSU Women's Campaign" at Cambridge are rising up to condemn the Cambridge Union for hosting Germaine Greer as a speaker:

Greer, a prominent feminist theorist, has previously been accused of transphobia. Most notably, she publically opposed appointing a trans woman to an academic position at Newnham.

From a statement that CUSU Women's Officer Amelia Horgan posted on Facebook:

Greer does not represent feminism, and she does not represent us.

Why should a speaker "represent" you or your views in order to be allowed to speak?

A totally childish view -- the view of entitled brats who see no danger in yanking the Enlightenment value of free speech. (Children, the world does not owe you emotional comfort at every turn.)

The answer to speech you don't like is more speech, not squashing speech.

Oh, and happily, the president of the Union, Amy Gregg, and her colleagues seem to agree:

"The Union maintains its commitment to free speech and, as ever, rejects no platform policies. We neither condemn nor condone the viewpoints of any of our speakers, but provide a neutral forum where they may be questioned and challenged by our members. We respect the decision of CUSU LGBT+ to issue their statement condemning someone they believe to represent views contrary to their core aims, but our speaker program will remain unchanged."

via @adamkissel

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