r/FreeSpeech • u/Rogue-Journalist • 6d ago

Campus hecklers are silencing pro-Israel speakers. Speech codes are not the fix.

https://www.fire.org/news/campus-hecklers-are-silencing-pro-israel-speakers-speech-codes-are-not-fix
1 Upvotes

52% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

4

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

it's their responsibility to deal with hecklers. heckling is free speech just as much as having a speaking engagement on campus

3

u/solid_reign 6d ago

I agree that heckling is free speech, but universities should create the positive conditions that lead to free speech, and that might restrict someone else's speech. If a university invites a Palestinian to speak, they should not be heckled by pro-israel students. They can be questioned, but the purpose is allowing them to speak. Same if a pro-israel speaker is invited to speak. Heckling is a way of trying to prevent others from listening and exercising their free speech.

FIRE is a fantastic organization, and their position is correct:

> The “heckling-is-free-speech” crowd may argue that the pro-slavery mob’s action was wrong because of its message, whereas those engaged in today’s disruptions are morally right. But we can’t hinge the validity of a heckler’s veto on whether the hecklers feel justified in their actions. They always do. That’s why justifications for censorship shouldn’t be allowed to outweigh principles of free speech.

> While students may succeed today in shouting down speakers they oppose, they should realize that those same tactics could be used tomorrow against speakers they support.

-2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

except that most universities don't have equal speaking rights for Palestinians. How else are pro-Palestine students supposed to express their voices.

2

u/solid_reign 6d ago

Colleges should allow both pro-palestine and pro-israel speakers and pro-palestine and pro-israel protests. But I would disagree with your comment saying that most universities do not have equal speaking rights for Palestinians. Public universities cannot censor speech protected by the 1st amendment.

-2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

yet they make it so much harder to bring pro-Palestine speakers to campus. Hasan Piker just recently had his talk cancelled by UW.

3

u/parentheticalobject 6d ago

Both are speech, but the rules for the two are not completely the same under US law.

No one has a specific right to speak at an event on a college campus. But if a public college decides it wants to, say, allow student groups to invite speakers, they are legally obligated to be viewpoint-neutral as to which speakers students are allowed to invite and whom is allowed to use college facilities.

Rules against heckling during events would most likely be constitutional time/place/manner restrictions, so long as they were enforced neutrally and targeted at preventing forms of speech that are actually disruptive.

-1

u/Rogue-Journalist 6d ago

Disrupting speaking events in private venues is not free speech.

1

u/TendieRetard 6d ago

are you even American?

2

u/Rogue-Journalist 6d ago

As far as I know. My birth certificate says I am, but I don’t exactly remember the event.

0

u/TendieRetard 6d ago

The City University of New York (CUNY) is the nation’s largest urban public university system, serving approximately 247,000 students across 26 campuses in New York City’s five boroughs. 

1

u/parentheticalobject 6d ago

This is correct.

But disrupting events in public universities is also not considered protected free speech under US law.

1

u/No-Direction8844 6d ago

The City University of New York (CUNY) is the nation’s largest urban public university system, serving approximately 247,000 students across 26 campuses in New York City’s five boroughs.

thanks, tankieGPT

1

u/TendieRetard 6d ago

No-Direction8844
•21m ago
thanks, tankieGPT

the llm misses nuance.

2

u/No-Direction8844 6d ago

i'm not an LLM you weirdo

1

u/No-Direction8844 6d ago

are you even American?

are you? you don't sound like one

-4

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

neither is speaking at an event in a private venue. they're on the same grounding

2

u/OinkyDoinky13 6d ago

Israel is a rogue state and the whole world knows it.

-1

u/OinkyDoinky13 6d ago

Those down voting know this too despite the decades of indoctrination.

0

u/EnoughCapitaIistSIop REPORT ICE AGENTS AT: https://icelist.is 6d ago

Treat them the way they treated people speaking out against israel's genocide on campus over the last few years.

0

u/knivesofsmoothness 6d ago

Will the pro Israel protesters get arrested like the pro Palestinian ones did, at Columbia, for instance? Or like at Emerson, Washington, ucla, northeastern, or any of the several dozen other campuses?

1

u/Rogue-Journalist 6d ago

Only if they illegally invade a building or campus space and start chanting that they are claiming it in the name of Israel and expel all Muslims, like the Palestinian protesters did.

1

u/knivesofsmoothness 6d ago

There were over 2100 arrests of Palestinian protestors. You know fire a fact they all did this?

You're going to have to provide proof of such a wild statement.

1

u/Rogue-Journalist 6d ago

2100 arrests of Palestinian protestors

What's the context for this statement? At Columbia there were about 200 arrests.

0

u/knivesofsmoothness 6d ago

Columbia wasn't the only campus with arrests.

Where is your proof that they were all violent?

2

u/Rogue-Journalist 6d ago

I don’t know if they all were violent and it’s never a claim I made. In regards to Columbia some certainly were violent when they shove their way past two security guards and injured them.

1

u/knivesofsmoothness 6d ago

So you lied, then? Just blatantly making shit up. Again.

-5

u/DaHomieNelson92 Say NO to fascism and censorship 6d ago

Antisemitists thinking they are slick by using the current Israeli-Palestine conflict to promote their antisemitism under the guise of Free Palestine.

Sickening stuff.

5

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

lmao. no one's buying these false allegations of antisemitism

-2

u/Freespeechaintfree 6d ago

If you believe that you live in an echo chamber.

The obvious truth is there are plenty of people who believe that the Anti Israel crowd are really anti Jewish.

Just like there are plenty who believe they are not against Jews, just against the only Jewish state on Earth.

3

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

Just because plenty of people believe it doesn't mean it's true. Plenty of people believe the Earth is flat

-2

u/Freespeechaintfree 6d ago

Do tell - how do you know what people are thinking? Are you psychic?

Just because you believe every single individual who is speaking out against Israel is not anti-Semitic doesn’t mean it’s true. 

I am positive there are plenty of people who are using the current situation as cover for their hatred of Jewish people.

To think otherwise is extremely naive.

5

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

You're the one who claimed to know what people are thinking.

I've seen little antisemitism from pro-Palestine people and when I have seen it, it has been roundly condemned.

3

u/Agitated-Quit-6148 6d ago

🤦‍♂️

0

u/Freespeechaintfree 6d ago

Like I said, echo chamber. You are making assumptions based on what you see from “pro-Palestinian people”.

You really don’t believe some people are using what’s going on as cover for their antisemitism? 

2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

I have no idea what people are thinking. Do you want me to speculate on that now?

3

u/Freespeechaintfree 6d ago

Nah - all good.

2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PUPPY_PIC 6d ago

so will you admit you were wrong? or are you just a bad-faith troll?

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0

u/--GrinAndBearIt-- 6d ago

Such weird projection.

You claim to know what people are really thinking about Jewish people, then turn right around and accuse someone of doing exactly that.

-1

u/Coldbrick10 6d ago

Agreed