The Opponents of Free Speech Are Gaining Ground. Here’s How We Can Fight Back

Free speech has been under attack for decades, but recent trends are particularly concerning.

Source: The Opponents of Free Speech Are Gaining Ground. Here’s How We Can Fight Back - Foundation for Economic Education

This article is primarily about free speech and how not to lose it. It focuses on something a college professor said, the repercussions and how those repercussions have the effect of suppressing free speech. It points out that speech is NOT violence and that things have gotten so bad that people are afraid to express themselves. This is tragic and has terrible consequences, especially given that some of the worst examples can be found on college campuses.

What concerns me the most is how the most common sense statements can be construed as offensive and discussion effectively forbidden. So what was it that this college professor said that was so awful that he had to be put on administrative leave for 122 days and only kept his job because of a technicality (and has since resigned)? He called Biden's decision to only nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court blatant affirmative action and expressed his view that it would lead to a less qualified person being nominated.

Is this not common sense? If you restrict the pool of candidates to someone of one particular sex and one particular race, do you not exclude a whole host of candidates that may be more qualified? That isn't to say that a black woman can't be the most qualified. Of course they could be. But should they not have to compete with the pool of ALL possible candidates, not just other black women? How is the decision to pick a Supreme Court justice by race and sex not overtly and blatantly racist and sexist? How is it not offensive not only to white people and men but also to Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and every other minority?

I though we were supposed to live in a meritocracy. Did Martin Luther King not say that people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin? Why is it acceptable for the President of the United Stats of America to judge someone by the color of their skin (and their sex)? To decide that the most qualified candidate will be a black woman no matter what? Why is it offensive to question that? Furthermore, even if you find it offensive, is it not at least worth a discussion as opposed to "cancellation"?

I feel common sense went out the window a long time ago. Maybe I'm just old and stupid but I would love for someone who agrees with what Biden did to explain it to me like I am in Kindergarten. I'm willing to listen.