{"id":2066300,"date":"2023-10-13T12:57:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harvard-students-should-know-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-consequences\/"},"modified":"2023-10-13T13:00:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T17:00:32","slug":"harvard-students-should-know-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harvard-students-should-know-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard students must understand speech has consequences."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fharvard-students-should-know-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-consequences%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2066300&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Skin of Belief<\/h2>\n<p>In the spring \u2063of \u20621986, I \u2064took a History of \u2062Christianity course at Cal. In his introductory lecture, Professor Bouwsma acknowledged \u200dthat many students might come from Christian backgrounds. We might have deeply held beliefs, he said, but we should expect to be challenged and \u2062discomfited. He\u2064 invited the believers in the class to\u200b think of their faith like a warm jacket.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re out and about \u200bin the\u2064 chill, you need to wear your coat,\u201d Bouwsma said. \u201cWhen you come in here, \u200cI ask you to take off the coat of your faith and hang it on \u200bthe back of your chair. You can put it right back on when\u2063 you leave, but \u200cwhile you\u2019re\u200d here, you\u2062 don\u2019t need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The young woman next to me\u200b said, under her breath, with a mixture of pain and wonder that I can \u2062vividly remember almost forty years later, <strong>\u201cBut it\u2019s \u200cnot\u200b a coat. It\u2019s my skin.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I \u2064didn\u2019t say anything. I remember I felt sorry for\u2064 her. \u200dRaised an agnostic in a culture that valued skepticism and rationality not \u200bjust as servants but as masters, college-aged Hugo pitied deeply \u200dreligious\u200d people. <em>Imagine \u2063walking through \u2063the world \u201cblinded\u2063 by your priors!\u201d Imagine taking your faith so seriously you couldn\u2019t let go \u2062of it for a sixty-minute lecture! No wonder the\u2062 world is\u2064 a mess \u2062\u2014 even here\u200d at Berkeley, fanatics and fundies abound! I bet she doesn\u2019t believe in sex before marriage either!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It would \u2064take me years before I realized that my own upbringing as the son of two atheist philosophers (who met in grad school at \u200bBerkeley) was a \u2063coat I wore without knowing. I never took it off because I\u2063 didn\u2019t realize I had \u2063it on. In the circles in which I traveled,\u2064 everyone I admired wore\u200d the same coat, and\u200b none of them\u200b knew it\u200b either.<\/p>\n<p>It would take me years to consider that Professor Bouwsma\u2019s\u200b request, as elegantly and politely couched as it \u200bwas, was a monumental overask. It would take\u200d me years to understand \u2064that the ability to take one\u2019s core beliefs on\u2063 and \u200doff like\u200c a jacket is not, in fact, an unmistakable marker of high intelligence and sophistication.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conservatives For Cancel Culture<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2063 would grow, in time, to \u2063envy the people \u200dI\u2019d once pitied.<\/p>\n<p>I often think of that young woman in that class. I thought of her again this \u2063week as I read story after story \u2063about the \u2062backlash against various\u200d college students and celebrities who have issued statements in support of what Hamas did in Israel last Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The\u200d first story came when the Arab \u2062American porn\u2063 star Mia Khalifa was\u200d fired by Playboy. Even as the massacres were still happening last weekend, Khalifa \u2014 who is of Lebanese descent \u2014 used her Twitter account to cheer\u2064 Hamas on. On Monday, Playboy <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2023\/digital\/news\/playboy-drops-mia-khalifa-hamas-attack-israel-disgusting-reprehensible-1235750651\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Over the past few days, Mia has made disgusting and reprehensible comments \u200bcelebrating Hamas\u2019 attacks on Israel and the murder of innocent men, women, and children. At Playboy, we encourage free expression and constructive political debate,\u2064 but we have a zero tolerance policy for hate speech. We expect Mia to understand that her words and actions \u2064have consequences.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>(This ain\u2019t your father\u2019s Playboy! Old folks like me might remember that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner \u2062once published a\u200b nuanced and lengthy interview with the American Nazi leader, George Lincoln Rockwell. There was huge \u200boutrage \u200bat the time, but Hefner \u2014 who did not think much of the slippery distinction between \u200bfree expression \u2062and \u201chate speech\u201d \u2014 stuck to his proverbial guns.)<\/p>\n<p>Not to \u2064be outdone by the likes of Playboy, the billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BillAckman\/status\/1711788747086233661\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said on Tuesday<\/a> that he was starting\u200d a campaign to name and\u2064 shame Ivy League students who had signed letters of\u2064 support \u2064for Hamas. Several CEOs joined the campaign. At least one \u200dstudent had a job offer withdrawn. Some students howled in protest, others hastily retracted (or \u2063tried to retract) their \u200bsignatures on \u2062the pro-Hamas letters.<\/p>\n<p>Noting that students at\u2062 Harvard and other Ivy League campuses have been\u2062 some of the most\u2064 effective wielders of \u201ccancel \u2062culture\u201d in recent years, some thought this was \u201cjust desserts.\u201d Many of my \u200dconservative friends have remarked that while they are against cancel culture in general and\u200b dislike the\u200b idea of people\u200d losing job opportunities\u2062 for their political views,\u200b they are prepared to\u2062 make an exception for those who celebrate burning babies to death.<\/p>\n<p>I have been \u200ba free speech zealot for as long as I \u2064can remember. As \u200ba boy, I joined the ACLU after reading about their successful defense of the right of \u2064Nazis to march through the streets \u200bof Skokie, Illinois. The first time I wrote a letter to a politician was to protest the work of Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center. My adolescent\u200d hero was Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler. \u200dWhile I \u200bconfess I did like his \u2063magazine, what\u2063 I really admired was \u200dthat Flynt had lost the use of his legs after being shot by a\u2063 religious zealot.<\/p>\n<p>That free speech \u2063zealotry wasn\u2019t just because I liked porn. It \u200dcertainly wasn\u2019t because I was sympathetic to\u2062 Nazis. I was keenly aware of my father\u2019s family\u2019s Jewish history. \u2062It was because I\u200d believed that the bedrock of a good society was freedom of expression, and that <strong>the hallmark of maturity and sophistication was\u200c to be unoffended \u200cby ideas, images, or words<\/strong>. I believed we should police actions, of course, but not language or beliefs.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Right to Free Speech and the Right to Be Offended<\/h2>\n<p>My family \u200bencouraged this \u200cstance, at \u200bleast in part. I like to tell my conservative friends the story of the\u200c time\u200b I brought a copy of the \u200baforementioned Hustler magazine to \u2064the family ranch. I generally hid it in my duffel bag, but one day, left it out on the bedside table. That afternoon, a grave-faced aunt pulled\u200d me aside.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cDarling,\u201d she said, \u201cYou really must tuck all your\u200b unmentionables\u2064 away each morning. Please do be more careful.\u201d In other words, there \u2062was nothing\u2064 wrong \u2062with a thirteen-year-old boy looking at Hustler. There was something wrong with <strong>forcing others to \u2062confront the fact<\/strong> that\u200c one looked at Hustler. As I\u2019ve written before, \u200cin families like \u200bmine, the primary moral binary wasn\u2019t clean\/unclean or good\/bad, \u200dit was public\/private. All things were permitted \u200bin the latter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I didn\u2019t feel guilty about looking at Hustler or pleasuring \u200bmyself to what I saw. I did feel very guilty that I had not better concealed the evidence. That\u2019s the WASP moral code, \u200dand \u2064it explains why I felt perfectly at home\u200d with Professor Bouwsma\u2019s suggestion that faith was like a coat that one could and should take\u200c off in certain settings.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Architect of \u200bYour\u2062 Own Adversity<\/h2>\n<p>One more thing, \u200dfrom personal experience. Sometimes, when the world turns on you because of your words or\u2063 your conduct, you double down. You become defensive and intransigent. \u2063Other times, though, when you experience enough loss as a consequence \u2063of what you\u2019ve said or done, you reconsider. You begin to wonder if maybe, just maybe, \u2063you are not a victim \u2064of a bigoted and intolerant culture. You begin to think it\u2062 possible that you are the architect of your own adversity. Having burned a bridge, you start building another one, perhaps in a different place \u2014 and with a great deal more humility.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a devastating week. \u200bNerves are raw. Many of us shift from outrage to fear to grief and \u2063back to outrage several times a day. We may not all agree on the Middle East, but most \u2064of \u200dus agree that all of that emotion feels more like \u201cskin\u201d\u2063 than \u201ccoat.\u201d We cannot all easily divest ourselves of our convictions and sit \u2014cheerful, polite, and unflappable\u2014 in the presence \u2064of someone who holds radically different views about what happened in Israel on October 7.<\/p>\n<p>We cannot use\u200b the force of the law to silence those whose views appall us. We can, however, \u2064say to \u200courselves that these are people with whom we do not wish\u2064 to\u2062 associate. We know ourselves, and we know basic psychology.\u200c As a result,\u2063 we are not wrong to assume that what repels the conscience is \u201cskin,\u201d not \u201ccoat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published on the\u2063 author\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/hugoschwyzer.substack.com\/p\/hamas-israel-coats-and-cancel-culture?r=1fvxy&#038;utm_medium=ios&#038;utm_campaign=post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Substack<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"> <\/p>\n<h2> How does \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harvard-students-should-know-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-consequences\/\" title=\"Harvard students must understand speech has consequences.\">cancel culture impact\u2063 free \u200bspeech<\/a> and open dialogue, according to its critics?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  E\u200b dialogue, but we do not condone hate speech or the celebration of violence. As a result, we have made the decision to end our collaboration with Mia\u200d Khalifa.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Similarly, several \u200buniversity students who expressed support for Hamas on social media have faced \u2063consequences. One student at Stanford University was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcbayarea.com\/news\/local\/stanford-responds-to-online-claims-of-anti-semitic-incidents-on-campus-whis\/2568373\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reprimanded<\/a> by the university for \u2063her\u2062 posts, while \u2064another student \u200bat Johns Hopkins University was\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/quicktakes\/2021\/05\/24\/johns-hopkins-students-twitter-exploits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suspended<\/a> and subjected to online \u200dharassment.<\/p>\n<p>These incidents \u2064have sparked a \u200bheated debate about cancel culture\u200b and its role in our society. On one\u200b hand, many argue that individuals should \u200dbe held accountable for\u2062 their \u2064actions and statements, especially \u2064when they promote \u200chate and violence. They believe that consequences such as job loss and academic discipline are necessary to ensure a safe and inclusive environment \u2063for \u2063all.<\/p>\n<p>On\u200c the \u200dother hand, critics of cancel culture argue that it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-will-give-republican-response-to-biden-state-of-the-union-address\/\" title=\"Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Will Give Republican Response To Biden State Of The Union Address\">stifles free speech<\/a> and discourages open\u2063 dialogue. They believe that individuals should be allowed to express\u2062 their opinions, even if they are controversial or offensive, \u2062without fear of severe repercussions. They argue\u200d that canceling someone for their beliefs only further \u2062divides society and\u2064 prevents us from engaging\u2064 in meaningful conversations that \u200dcould \u200blead to\u200b understanding\u2064 and growth.<\/p>\n<p>As I reflect\u2062 on these debates, I can&#8217;t help but \u2062recall the young woman in my History of Christianity class. I now understand that \u200bher faith \u2063was\u200c not\u200d just a\u200b coat to be taken on \u2063and off, but\u2064 an integral part of\u200c her identity and worldview. I \u200crealize that dismissing and pitying her for \u2063her deeply held \u200bbeliefs was a form of intellectual \u2064arrogance and a\u200c failure to\u200b recognize the \u2064complexity of human experience.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, I see \u200cnow\u200c that cancel culture can be a harmful and reductive \u200dapproach to addressing differences of\u2062 opinion. While \u2062it is \u200dimportant to hold individuals accountable for \u200dtheir actions, we must also strive to foster a society where diverse \u2064perspectives can coexist and be respectfully engaged with. Instead of\u2062 canceling, perhaps we \u2062should focus \u200bon promoting dialogue, empathy, and understanding.<\/p>\n<p>This does not mean condoning hate speech \u2062or violence. It means creating spaces where difficult\u2062 conversations \u200dcan \u2063take place, where \u200bpeople can learn from each other, challenge\u2064 their own beliefs, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/md-gov-hogan-urges-biden-lawmakers-to-work-together-on-covid-19-relief-legislation\/\" title=\"Md. Gov. Hogan urges Biden, lawmakers to work together on COVID-19 relief legislation\">find common ground<\/a>. It means recognizing that just as faith can be\u2063 integral to one&#8217;s identity, so can beliefs and opinions that\u2062 may differ from \u2062our\u200c own.<\/p>\n<p>As I continue to \u2064learn and grow, I hope to shed the coat of intellectual arrogance and embrace the complexity and diversity of human thought. I hope that we can move beyond cancel culture and towards a\u200c culture\u200c of genuine dialogue,\u2064 where \u200cwe can listen and learn\u2063 from each other, even when our \u2064beliefs and perspectives seem worlds apart.<\/p>\n<p>The young woman\u2064 in that class\u2064 all those years ago had a wisdom that\u2062 I was blind \u200dto at\u200c the time. \u200dHer\u2063 faith was not \u200cjust a coat; \u200dit was her skin. And \u2063she had every right to wear\u200b it proudly \u200cand\u200b unapologetically, just as we all have the right \u2062to express our beliefs \u2063and \u2064thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>So let us strive to create a society \u200bwhere the skin of belief is respected and celebrated, where cancel culture gives\u200b way to curiosity and understanding, and \u2062where we can \u200dengage with each other&#8217;s\u200b differences with\u200c empathy and respect.\u200d Only then can \u2064we truly embrace the \u2062richness of\u200b our \u2064shared humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1986, I enrolled in a History of Christianity course at Cal. Professor Bouwsma recognized that some students had Christian backgrounds. He encouraged us to anticipate discomfort and challenges, despite our strong beliefs. He urged the believers in the class to engage in critical thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1885,"featured_media":2066301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2066300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1885"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2066300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2066300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2066300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2066300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}