Can we talk about that speaker who got disinvited at Middlebury College a few years back?

I was reading about Charles Murray getting shouted down at Middlebury in 2017 and it got me thinking. I actually had a buddy who was there as a student, and he told me the whole thing felt like a circus from the start. He said the protestors were so loud you couldn't hear a word Murray said, and then someone actually grabbed a professor by the neck during the scuffle afterwards. My buddy ended up leaving early because he felt bad for the students who just wanted to hear the talk, even if they disagreed. It makes me wonder, at what point does a protest stop being free speech and start being straight up bullying? Has anyone else here had a speaker they wanted to see get blocked before they could even open their mouth?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley8311d ago

Oh man, I had something similar happen at my school with a controversial speaker a few years back. I ended up just watching the livestream from my dorm because the chaos outside was so bad you couldn't even get near the building. It's tough because I get wanting to block hateful ideas, but at some point it just shuts down any actual discussion, you know?

ryan_nelson11d ago

@wesley83 yeah totally, that's the thing that's always bugged me about it too. I mean, at my old school there was this one guy who got invited and the protests were so loud you couldn't hear a single word he said anyway. It kind of defeats the purpose of even having the event if no one can actually engage with whatever they're saying, even if it's terrible stuff.