A flyer for a talk on free speech at UC Berkeley got taken down by the student union last month

They said it violated a policy on 'safe space' language. The same week, a different group put up posters for a talk on campus climate that was critical of the administration, and those stayed up. The difference was the second group framed it as a 'dialogue' instead of a 'debate'. Has anyone else seen this kind of wording being the deciding factor?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_grace18d ago

The Berkeley incident shows how much power comes from picking the right label. Calling it a 'dialogue' frames it as a shared search for truth, while 'debate' implies winners and losers. That small word choice can make or break a campus event now, which is kinda wild.

taraw1618d ago

My life story is basically a series of badly labeled events.