Paid $200 to bring a controversial speaker to campus and the backlash was insane

I chipped in with a group to get a guy who questions vaccine mandates to speak at our college, and the admin shut it down after 3 protests. Cost me $50 of that myself, but now I'm stuck wondering if free speech only works when everyone agrees. Anyone else put money into a speaker that got canceled?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbarab561mo ago

I chipped in $75 to bring a guy who talked about free market solutions to healthcare and the admin canceled him after one petition with 200 signatures. It was frustrating because the whole point of college is supposed to be hearing different viewpoints, right? The protests were loud but they didn't even listen to his actual talk, just freaked out over a headline. I feel like people forget that shutting down a speaker doesn't make them disappear, it just makes them a martyr. Your $50 probably went up in smoke but at least you tried, lol. That's the real problem with free speech on campus now, it's only free if nobody gets their feelings hurt.

tessa_kelly1mo ago

Okay but is it really that big of a deal? I mean, college admins cancel speakers all the time for all sorts of reasons (budget, scheduling, whatever) and half the time nobody even notices. You're acting like one canceled talk is the end of free speech on campus forever, but honestly it just sounds like you guys got unlucky with a loud petition. The whole "making him a martyr" thing is a bit dramatic too. Nobody's gonna remember this guy's name in a week, let alone turn him into some free speech icon. People just got mad over a headline, admin got spooked, and that's about it. It's frustrating for sure but it's not like this is a huge crisis, you know?