In a recent article, “A Fraught Balancing Act,” Inside Higher Ed reported that “Some college leaders quickly cracked down on students and faculty voicing support for rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Others walked a fine line between protecting free speech rights and tamping down incendiary language.” Note well that what was cracked down upon was “support.”
These colleges and universities are not alone. New York applauded the recent decision of the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School to kick Representative Elise Stefanik off its advisory board because she “repeated Trump’s lies about election fraud.” The ivory tower, it argued, “can no longer pretend that ideology and partisan affiliation do not matter.” The American Political Science Association was recently forced to apologize for including in its Statement on the Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol support for “efforts to begin reconciliation . . . including agreement by both sides” to work together. In a rapidly expanded statement, the APSA expressed “deep regret” for its “use of the phrase ‘both sides.’ The term evoked deeply harmful rhetoric.”
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