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Went to a talk at Ohio State last Tuesday and half the room walked out before the speaker even got going
So I drove up to Columbus last Tuesday for a free lecture at Ohio State, some guy talking about voting laws, and I got there early so I grabbed a seat in the middle. About 10 minutes in, a group of maybe 30 students stood up and walked out the side door, all together, like it was planned. Nobody yelled or anything, just left. The speaker kept going but you could tell he was thrown off, he stumbled over his next two answers. Here's the part that bugged me: the Q and A after was supposed to be 30 minutes and it got cut to about 8 because there was hardly anyone left to ask things. I paid 12 bucks for parking and sat in traffic on 315 for an hour to watch people make a point by leaving. Is walking out actually free speech in action, or is it just a way to shut down a talk without ever saying a word?
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elizabeth_king12d ago
That line about the Q and A getting cut to 8 minutes really hits home. I went to a city council forum last year and the same thing happened, a bunch of people in matching shirts got up and filed out about 15 minutes in, and by the time they got to questions there were maybe 20 of us left in a room built for 200. What got me was the people who stayed, a retired guy next to me had a whole list of questions written on a notepad and he only got to ask one. So yeah, you drove up, paid for parking, sat in that 315 mess, and the folks who walked out got exactly what they wanted without saying a single word. Did the speaker ever come back around to the stuff he stumbled on, or did he just rush through to the end?
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