Professor: Otto Warmbier got ‘what he deserved’

The sheer coldness and meanness of this professor's mentality is simply shocking--utterly horrible. We should always remember that no one "side" has a monopoly on hatefulness.

I agree with the many, many Americans calling for her firing. Universities pride themselves on their championing of free speech, and they should: free speech is an integral part of our society and of our republican system of government. Support for free speech, however, should not lead our universities to believe that they are unable to stand for any sort of system of values at all. There must be lines whose crossing, even if not unconstitutional, should nevertheless not be tolerated by institutions whose primary purpose is to aid the development of the next generations of American society.

There's a professional issue here as well though. It is now very reasonable to believe that males--especially white males--cannot receive a fair grade in her class. This professor has asserted that white males literally deserve to be killed simply because they are white males. She then went on to imply in a thinly-veiled manner that the murderous, thuggish North Korean regime holds itself to a higher standard than does our society. This is the sort of poison and polarization that our universities should be protecting young people from--teaching them that this is not how civilized people behave.

To be sure, Americans have no business traveling to North Korea. There is no conceivable circumstance under which any American should find himself in North Korea. Otto Warmbier made a very poor decision--an easily avoided mistake--in deciding to go to North Korea. Indeed, the U.S. government should institute a travel ban barring Americans from stepping foot inside that country. None of this, however, means that white men deserve to be killed because they are white men, and none of it shifts the blame for Warmbier's murder from the North Korean government, which, like the Taliban before 2001, is simply a murderous criminal gang that happens to currently find itself in control of a small piece of territory.

We should support free speech. It's very important. "Free speech," however, doesn't mean "don't stand for anything and allow hateful influencers to instruct our young adults." Hateful and violence-condoning ideology against any race, gender, etc. cannot be allowed to fester and grow in our educational system under the guise of "free speech."

She should certainly be free to say these things without fear of imprisonment but not as a university instructor. This professor should be fired.