The way we handle controversial speakers feels backwards sometimes

I've been watching this debate about Jordan Peterson getting invited to speak at a bunch of colleges lately, and it seems like people on both sides keep confusing the right to speak with the right to be heard without pushback. At a public university in Michigan last month, they had a whole protest over a speaker being invited, but the actual talk went fine with open Q&A. Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't the whole point of a campus to hear ideas you disagree with and argue back? Has anyone else sat through a controversial talk and found the actual discussion way less dramatic than the hype around it?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul_thompson671mo ago

You said "the right to speak with the right to be heard without pushback" and that's the whole problem right there. I've sat through a few of these controversial talks now and the best thing you can do is go in with a question already written down that you actually want an answer to. The loudest people on social media never even show up to the event, they just post about it from their dorm room. Real talk, the Q&A sessions are usually where the worst questions get the most applause anyway, so just ask something honest and watch how fast the drama fades.

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emerychen1mo ago

lol so true - the people organizing the boycott are usually the ones who couldn't find the lecture hall if they tried. Nothing funnier than seeing someone post a 10 thread rant about a talk they watched on a livestream from bed.