That time a professor got shouted down at my school made me question where the line is

Last semester at my community college in Sacramento, a guest speaker from some conservative think tank came to talk about immigration policy. Half the room started yelling over him like 10 minutes in. He couldn't finish his talk. Some people said he deserved it because his views were harmful, others said free speech means letting him talk even if you disagree. I sat there not knowing what to think. Now I see this kind of thing on the news all the time. Where do you guys draw the line between protesting and shutting someone down?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_cooper9d ago

I used to be one of those "let everyone speak no matter what" types until I saw a similar thing happen at a local event near me. Hearing the speaker out didn't change my views, but watching people scream over him made me realize there's a point where protest just becomes noise that helps nobody. Now I think you can disagree strongly without having to literally take the mic away.

taylor_flores8d ago

Back in 2018 I went to a city council meeting where a guy was arguing against a zoning change for affordable housing. People booed him for ten straight minutes before he could finish his first sentence. I sat there thinking this is exactly how you lose moderate voters who might have agreed with you on other stuff. The council ended up passing the change anyway but the whole thing felt like a performance, not a real debate. What actually worked for me was just waiting until the Q&A part and asking him specific questions about his property values argument. He didn't have good answers and people saw that without anyone having to shout. That did more than screaming ever could.

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