Some things occur to me. First is that RF perhaps does better than Yale and other places in not shutting down written speech. Debates can get pretty heated and I've been part of that myself, of course. But we've managed to avoid the worst of what has been occurring elsewhere. I also have no problem with a school banning unhinged violence-dinged ranting on the part of staff or speakers.
But I also agree with the author that there's a fundamentalist religious overtone to politics with all the negative aspects that engenders.
I’m a Conservative Who Got Heckled at Yale Law School. But Not by Who You Think.
This spring, I spoke at Yale Law School. ... Things went fine enough, and the room started to relax. Then a conservative student launched into a tirade because he had seen me hug the associate dean of students earlier in the afternoon. I’d known her since I was a first-year law student at Harvard more than 15 years ago. Though I was the president of the Harvard Federalist Society and she was a well-documented liberal, she had helped me innumerable times on campus. She supported me when the faculty and administrators selected me as class day speaker at graduation. A few years later, we stood together at the White House when our former dean, Elena Kagan, was confirmed as an associate justice to the Supreme Court. When I hugged her at Yale this spring, she had just congratulated me on having a baby at the height of the pandemic.
The law student didn’t know any of this, but was offended by this display of non-ideological human interaction and accused me of “buddying up” with his enemy.
...
And my own interaction with a conservative student shows how much today’s students — across the ideological spectrum — are incapable of separating the personal from the political, how they view the opposing side as enemies unworthy of being listened to.
The result is intellectual close mindedness on both sides: Neither side needs to engage with the other because there is nothing left to debate in their view.
...
Our ability to speak to one another — across states and oceans — has never been more easily attainable. Yet our desire to listen to those who have a different view has never been weaker. As religious commitment has decreased, politics has become the new faith. And faith does not bend to reason. It is not up for argument. Faith does not tolerate heretics.
But the law must do all of these things. At Yale, in Judge Ho’s chambers, and at the Supreme Court.
But I also agree with the author that there's a fundamentalist religious overtone to politics with all the negative aspects that engenders.
I’m a Conservative Who Got Heckled at Yale Law School. But Not by Who You Think.
This spring, I spoke at Yale Law School. ... Things went fine enough, and the room started to relax. Then a conservative student launched into a tirade because he had seen me hug the associate dean of students earlier in the afternoon. I’d known her since I was a first-year law student at Harvard more than 15 years ago. Though I was the president of the Harvard Federalist Society and she was a well-documented liberal, she had helped me innumerable times on campus. She supported me when the faculty and administrators selected me as class day speaker at graduation. A few years later, we stood together at the White House when our former dean, Elena Kagan, was confirmed as an associate justice to the Supreme Court. When I hugged her at Yale this spring, she had just congratulated me on having a baby at the height of the pandemic.
The law student didn’t know any of this, but was offended by this display of non-ideological human interaction and accused me of “buddying up” with his enemy.
...
And my own interaction with a conservative student shows how much today’s students — across the ideological spectrum — are incapable of separating the personal from the political, how they view the opposing side as enemies unworthy of being listened to.
The result is intellectual close mindedness on both sides: Neither side needs to engage with the other because there is nothing left to debate in their view.
...
Our ability to speak to one another — across states and oceans — has never been more easily attainable. Yet our desire to listen to those who have a different view has never been weaker. As religious commitment has decreased, politics has become the new faith. And faith does not bend to reason. It is not up for argument. Faith does not tolerate heretics.
But the law must do all of these things. At Yale, in Judge Ho’s chambers, and at the Supreme Court.