@droodzilla ,
@matthewr
this is NOT about free speech, it's about something far more basic. in terms of the current student (or student-age) generation, i think it's fantastic that so many have been able to break through massive ideological dogma to question capitalism, criticize israel, demand climate change action and denounce imperialist wars.
on the other hand, they also seem to want to make a meal of things which have been largely addressed/redressed by previous generations in the realm of civil rights. as it happens, it always seems to be in the latter domain that a relatively trivial difference of opinion or a vague remark leads to all out war and wholesale dismissal of people. hey, if it just stayed on twitter, it would be one thing, but when people are losing their jobs, that's quite another. are you familiar with the mob incident(s) at evergreen state? you may want to watch the video of all that.
Sorry but that is an incredibly crass statement. Racism in the USA has festered for decades but it's never gone away and the white supremacists have never been more emboldened in recent times. This matters because it's the context within which seemingly minor ideological differences can blow up. Perhaps they are not as minor as they might appear to people who don't know the history of racism and its manifestations in the present.
I recently witnessed, first-hand, a related development on a forum I use professionally. A couple of ethnic minority members of staff pointed out that the organsation's ethnic mix significantly diverges from the wider population's, and asked how this might be addressed in light of recent interest in BLM. There was no aggression or implied criticism of anyone on the forum, but it was met with a wall of defensiveness, missing the point, nit-picking, obfuscation, changing the subject and expressions of hurt feeling from the overwhelmingly white, middle class members of the forum. Weeks later several related threads rumble on, but the original posters are nowhere to be seen - I can only assume they have given up in despair. I won't name the organisation but if I did, you would expect it to be full of liberal-left types. And it is, but my point is that, even in this relatively rarefied atmosphere of liberal tolerance, a huge number of people have a big blind spot when it comes to acknowledging the concerns of ethnic minorities.
Another anecdote, which brought home to me the reality of black life here in the UK. A young man of mixed-race, who I've met several times (he's the nephew of my partner's best friend) has been stopped and searched by police
five times in the last couple of years. I know this guy: he lives in a perfectly respectable part of London, he's painfully shy and wouldn't say boo to a goose, and he is slightly built. What must it do to someone to know they are constantly being viewed with suspicion by people who can make life difficult for them (and worse) with the full backing of the state?
I found the Evergreen State College videos. It looks like an interesting, well made documentary, and I think Tony was wrong to censor you (Irony's kinda ironic that way). I intend to watch it in full (unless I get bored) but, whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, within the opening minutes of the documentary, it is stated that Evergreen State is the most progressive of all the progressive colleges. As such, I doubt we can draw general lessons from the exeperience and make the leap to a full-blown "free speech crisis".
Like I said before, the relentless focus on a few extreme examples (if that applies to Evergreen State) is the currency of the far-right and it's designed to undermine legitimate demands for change. And it completely inverts the reality in which the majority of people who are silenced or experience abuse are from minority groups - ask the black people who no longer seem to be posting on the forum I mentioned.
PS: I see whether people should lose their jobs over some of this stuff as mostly a separate issue - it's why we need good employment law, decent employment practices and strong representation in the form of unions.