The American left is riddled with ironic and contradictory beliefs, and Cinnamon Stillwell shines a light through one of the biggest hypocritical holes by detailing recent mob rule on "elite" college campuses. "Liberal" students (who are anything but, which is why I label them "leftist") apparently don't quite understand that the right of free speech is more than just a tool the ACLU uses to persecute Christians.
Conservative speakers have long been the targets of such illiberal treatment. The violent reception given to Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, an anti-illegal immigration group, at Columbia University in October is a recent example. Gilchrist had been invited to speak by the Columbia University College Republicans, but was prevented from doing so by an unruly mob of students. What could have been mere heckling descended into yelling, screaming, kicking and punching, culminating in the rushing of the stage and Gilchrist being shuttled off by security.The fact that the rioting students could be heard yelling, "He has no right to speak!" was telling. Apparently, in their minds, neither Gilchrist nor anyone else with whom they disagree has a right to express their viewpoints. In any other setting this would be called exactly what it is -- totalitarianism. But in the untouchable Ivy League world of Columbia, it was chalked up to student activism gone awry. While condemning the incident, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger has yet to apologize to Gilchrist or to conclude the supposed investigation into the affair. In other words, mob rule won the day.
Read the rest of the examples and consider one of the many reasons I decided not to become a professor.
(HT: Instapundit.)
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