Students Say Diversity Is More Important Than Free Speech

[UglyCasanova]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...ity-inclusion-more-free-expression-study-says

Asked to select which is more important, about 53 percent of the students interviewed for the study picked diversity, versus 46 percent who chose free speech. This data is based on telephone interviews with 3,014 traditional-age students (18 to 24) at 100 four-year institutions, both public and private.

This also came through in the Gallup/Knight report, with 64 percent of students believing that the First Amendment shouldn’t protect hate speech. About 70 percent of students said that campuses should restrict certain slurs, and 30 percent believe they should prohibit some politically oriented speech.

Pretty striking and downright frighting if accurate. Freedom of speech being one of the cornerstones of democracy, it's amazing that people think like this. The First Amendment under attack, what a time to be alive!

 

[Atreus21]

I think it's time students were asked questions that require them to define hate speech.

 

[Jaskalas]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...ity-inclusion-more-free-expression-study-says

Pretty striking and downright frighting if accurate. Freedom of speech being one of the cornerstones of democracy, it's amazing that people think like this. The First Amendment under attack, what a time to be alive!

That's kind of a BS poll asking them to choose which is more important. And important for what situation? In what context?
I'd caution against drawing conclusions on something so.... fickle.

 

[Jaskalas]

The report from Gallup and the Knight Foundation comes at a turbulent time on college campuses nationwide, where students have challenged the principles of the First Amendment -- they have called for controversial campus speakers to be disinvited, and when they disagree with speakers’ message, have shouted them down. They’ve also called for administrators to invest more in diversity initiatives and are demanding clear statements from them against speech they deem hateful.

Oh my... the article has you riled up over the greater subject where college (students) are shutting down speech and becoming overtly authoritarian and dictatorial over the first amendment. Well, I know why you made the topic but I'd still caution whether anyone answering the poll thought it had anything to do with choosing censorship or not.

 

[pmv]

Were either 'diversity' or 'free speech' actually defined in the question?

 

[brycejones]

Queue up another round of hand wringing about how we can't trust today's youth.

 

[BurnItDwn]

The first amendment is under attack, but not by college students who prioritize "diversity."

Media consolidation is probably the biggest enemy of free speech.
Revocation of the fairness doctrine has more or less allowed propaganda to replace news

The real enemies of free speech are when the courts decided they wanted plutocracy and they made 2 disasterous rulings.
1.) Buckley v. Vallo from 1976
2.) Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

 

[zinfamous]

What kind of information are we supposed to glean from a targeted, nonsensically-constructed poll?

 

[dank69]

What kind of information are we supposed to glean from a targeted, nonsensically-constructed poll?

Just enough to blame liberals for everything.

 

[Jaskalas]

"Diverse and inclusive society"

Just look at the poll itself. Being inclusive is VERY important to a free society. No wonder students struggled to choose free speech over that. Both are very important. The context of how this was presented to them is necessary to understand the vote results. I imagine it's also NOT how the poll was presented to you.

TL;DR, that article is rubbish.

 

[UglyCasanova]

It's a strange way to ask the question but still pretty telling. This even moreso though:

This also came through in the Gallup/Knight report, with 64 percent of students believing that the First Amendment shouldn’t protect hate speech. About 70 percent of students said that campuses should restrict certain slurs, and 30 percent believe they should prohibit some politically oriented speech.

 

[khon]

Freedom of speech being one of the cornerstones of democracy

So is the principle of "one person, one vote". If some people are not included, how is that a democracy ?

The phrasing of the poll was extremely vague, but if you really had to choose between the two, I don't think it's straightforward to conclude what matters most.

In any case I find the poll fairly nonsensical, because the options are so poorly defined.

 

[Jhhnn]

Queue up another round of hand wringing about how we can't trust today's youth.

Poor Nazis! Poor White Supremacists! They deserve the kind of free speech where nobody else expresses their own right of free speech by getting in their faces, obviously.

Oh, and I'm sure the Nazis would respect the right of free speech if they ever gained power, just like the Klan during the era of Jim Crow.

 

[bshole]

Tolerance of other viewpoints/cultures is pretty damn important to societal stability. Look at the bloodbaths in the Middle East for the ultimate result of complete intolerance of others.

 

[Homerboy]

Just enough to blame liberals for everything.

Not just liberals, but "this new generation"

 

[Homerboy]

Tolerance of other viewpoints/cultures is pretty damn important to societal stability. Look at the bloodbaths in the Middle East for the ultimate result of complete intolerance of others.

Pffft - that's just because they have the wrong religion there!

 

[fskimospy]

It's a strange way to ask the question but still pretty telling. This even moreso though:

It’s not particularly interesting. You can get similar answers from boomers and genxers depending on what topic you’re looking to repress speech on. Students today are the same as they ever were.

 

[TheVrolok]

What's more important, air or water?

 

[mect]

Poll: Which is more important, food or shelter?

 

[feralkid]

Peanut butter or jelly?

 

[UglyCasanova]

It’s not particularly interesting. You can get similar answers from boomers and genxers depending on what topic you’re looking to repress speech on. Students today are the same as they ever were.

I doubt it. Boomers and Gen X'ers have plenty of faults but I think you'll find agreement amongst them on the importance of free speech.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'm not sure how you have diversity with out free speech.

 

[fskimospy]

I doubt it. Boomers and Gen X'ers have plenty of faults but I think you'll find agreement amongst them on the importance of free speech.

Let your doubts be assuaged then! Here's an interesting article on the topic that shows historical polling strongly indicates that previous generations at the same ages were perfectly comfortable with suppressing free speech, it was just about suppressing the kind of free speech they didn't like.

https://www.thecut.com/2015/11/false-alarm-on-millennials-and-free-speech.html

Here's one example from when GenXers would have been college students:

Kathleen Weldon of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell sent me an age breakdown from a 1999 American Attitudes About the First Amendment survey in which respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement “People should be allowed to use words in public that might be offensive to racial groups.” Combining the “mildly disagree” and “strongly disagree” categories, 75 percent of respondents in the 18-to-29 age bracket disagreed.

I imagine they, like every American generation strongly agree on the importance of free speech right up until the point at which someone starts making a speech that they don't like.

 

[UglyCasanova]

I guess so, but I’d that really free speech though?

 

[fskimospy]

I guess so, but I’d that really free speech though?

Whether or not people should be allowed to use certain words in public? Sure sounds like free speech to me.