FAIR Weekly Roundup
Reading List
Banning Hate Speech Won’t End Extremist Violence
For Persuasion, FAIR Advisor Jacob Mchangama writes about the recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, and how “the toxic combination of hate-infused violence and online virality has prompted many politicians and experts to call for tougher regulation of social media and hate speech.”
However, “while online expression may sometimes lead to real-life harm,” Mchangama writes, “placing restrictions on free speech is not necessarily an effective remedy. Nor is it certain that any benefits of repression outweigh its negative and unintended consequences.”
Here’s why all students need agency rather than ‘equity’
In The New York Post, FAIR Advisor Ian Rowe writes about “what happens when resources are forcibly removed from the ‘privileged’ and given to the ‘unprivileged’ in the pursuit of ‘equity’ over ‘equality.’”
Rowe continues by saying that “the problem with equity—defined as equal outcomes for students from varied identity groups—is that it inevitably denies the role of individuality. Rather than support students’ assets and abilities, ‘equity’ limits them by race and opportunity.”
Why I Quit Georgetown
For the Wall Street Journal, Ilya Shapiro writes, “After a four-month investigation into a tweet, the Georgetown University Law Center reinstated me last Thursday. But after full consideration of the report I received later that afternoon from the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action, or IDEAA, and on consultation with counsel and trusted advisers, I concluded that remaining in my job was untenable.”
When Mental Health Education Makes Us Sick
For Quillette, Clare Rowe writes about “Australia’s ‘silent’ problem of poor mental health.” However, she writes, “it is not so silent,” and “somewhere along the line, we have turned from promoting acceptance of poor mental health conditions to the normalisation of the very diagnoses themselves.”
Anger Management: How the News is Destroying Us
For his Substack, Slack Tide, Matt Labash writes about “all the bad news you watch that’s making you angry,” and points to the fact that “no matter how much of it you consume, they’re going to keep making more of it. You’ll never catch up. And so, if it’s throwing your system off-kilter, you’re faced with a dilemma: how many shots of poison can you drink in good health per day?”
Free Speech and Due Process at Princeton: The Case of Joshua Katz
For Quillette, Robert P. George writes about Joshua Katz, the classicist and linguistics scholar who was suspended from teaching for the “impermissible relationship he had with a student under his supervision in the mid-2000s.” Katz returned to teaching after his suspension, but his criticism of a July 4th Faculty Letter led to backlash and, in George’s estimation, a case of double jeopardy. “These officials…believe that because the specific allegation made by the woman was new, investigating it, prosecuting it, and punishing Professor Katz on this basis did not amount to trying someone twice for the same offense.”
A Vanishing Word in Abortion Debate: ‘Women’
For The New York Times, Michael Powell writes about The American Civil Liberties Union’s omission of the word “women” in its recent tweet regarding abortion rights. “This was not an oversight,” Powell writes. “Driven by allies and activists for transgender people, medical, government and progressive organizations have adopted gender-neutral language that draws few distinctions between women and transgender men, as well as those who reject those identities altogether.”
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