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The Daily Signal
Ben Shapiro,
Adam Carolla Call on Colleges to Teach Students Civil Disagreement
Elle Rogers
July 28, 2017
Instead of disinviting controversial speakers, college administrators
should model civil disagreement for students, say Ben Shapiro and Adam
Carolla.
Shapiro, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, and Carolla, a comedian and
radio host, testified Thursday before a joint subcommittee of the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee on campus challenges to free
speech.
“You can’t put students in a bubble and expect them to come out
stronger,” said Carolla of administrators who disinvite or obstruct
speakers in response to student protests.
Shapiro had a similar take, saying, “a healthy nation requires a
population ready to engage in open debate at any time.”
The hearing, the second in a series of subcommittee panels highlighting
First Amendment issues, occurred amid increasing tensions on campuses
over free speech. Shapiro, who has encountered multiple speech
obstructions at college campuses, was disinvited from speaking at
California State University, Los Angeles last May due to what the
university called “threats and expressions of fear.”
University administrators later agreed to host Shapiro.
In an op-ed published on The Daily Signal prior to the hearing, Rep.
Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote that “many colleges and universities in our
great country have reversed course and are now using their power to
suppress free speech on campus.”
Speaking against what Shapiro called the “club” of hate speech used by
campus administrators to “silence” those with whom they disagree,
Carolla and Shapiro encouraged faculty and staff members at public
universities to respond to student activism by engaging potentially
offensive and controversial speakers.
Rather than prosecuting hate speech, which Shapiro called “undefined,”
Shapiro said institutions should introduce ramifications for those
interested in “shutting down the debate.” Shapiro voiced support for
suspensions and other retributive measures following violent protests.
Carolla encouraged administrators to refrain from acquiescing to
protester demands. “We need the adults to start being the adults,” he
said. “Children are the future, but we are the present.”
Right now, Shapiro said, professors should teach students to move
beyond what he termed the “philosophy of intersectionality,” which he
says ranks a view based on the presenter’s “level of victimization in
American society” instead of the quality of the view itself.
Shapiro attributes violence surrounding campus speakers to this
philosophy and its conclusion that, Shapiro said, “words you don’t like
ought to be fought physically.”
Disagreement, he said, can happen, even at an administrative level, but
should be civil and rooted in the argument itself.
“All of our views should be judged on their merits, and should never be
banned on the grounds that they offend someone.”
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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