Kathianne
04-03-2016, 03:48 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/04/03/censorship-speech-college-campuses-turkey-erdogan-white-house-french-president-column/82581796/
<section id="module-position-O7j8uiORul4" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;">Glenn Reynolds: Talk of censorship backfires for Erdogan, Obama and anti-Trumpers</section><section id="module-position-O7j8uiRG3JA" class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module story-story-byline-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;">Glenn Harlan Reynolds3:40 p.m. EDT April 3, 2016
</section>From U.S. college campuses to Turkey to the White House, censorship provokes more speech.
“If you censor me, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
OK, that’s not the actual line from Star Wars. But it does describe an increasingly common effect, in which efforts to shut down people’s messages result in those messages getting a lot more attention than they would have. Last week featured three particularly noticeable examples of this phenomenon.
The first was the effort by Emory student “activists” to censor (http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/28/emory-university-student-activists-trump-2016-chalk-free-speech-column/82322316/) pro-Trump chalkings on campus sidewalks and steps. Not only did this effort produce an enormous blowback aimed at Emory, but it also produced a nationwide campaign of Trump-chalking at colleges everywhere. College humor site Old Row created a contest (http://hypeline.org/thechalkening-old-rows-quest-to-make-liberals-cringe/) and offered gift cards to readers sending in the best pictures of Trump chalkings on their campuses, and vast numbers responded, with chalkings from <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">North Carolina-Chapel Hill</culink>, Missouri State, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Kentucky" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Kentucky</culink>, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Maine" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Maine</culink>, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Nebraska–Lincoln" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Nebraska</culink>, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Boston University" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Boston University</culink>, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Louisville" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Louisville</culink> and many, many more (https://twitter.com/immigrant4trump/status/716165049895616512).
As Old Row noted, "It’s not about Trump (https://twitter.com/OldRowOfficial/status/716059550273638401), it’s about freedom of speech on campus.” And as <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Georgetown University Law Center" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Georgetown Law</culink> professor <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Randy Barnett" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Randy Barnett</culink> tweeted (https://twitter.com/RandyEBarnett/status/716248542474584064), talk of censorship is like talk of gun control: Talk of gun control leads people to stock up on guns and ammo; talk of censorship leads people to express themselves more vigorously. Which is a pretty good response.
And, happily, that response isn’t limited to the USA. In Germany, comedians who produced a satirical video aimed at Turkish strongman <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Recep Tayyip Erdoğan" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Recep Tayyip Erdogan</culink> got pushback from the Turkish government, which summoned the German ambassador (https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-summons-german-envoy-over-anti-erdogan-tv-094148027.html)to complain. But it didn’t go very well, as Newsweek reported:
...
<section id="module-position-O7j8uiORul4" class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;">Glenn Reynolds: Talk of censorship backfires for Erdogan, Obama and anti-Trumpers</section><section id="module-position-O7j8uiRG3JA" class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module story-story-byline-module" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px;">Glenn Harlan Reynolds3:40 p.m. EDT April 3, 2016
</section>From U.S. college campuses to Turkey to the White House, censorship provokes more speech.
“If you censor me, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
OK, that’s not the actual line from Star Wars. But it does describe an increasingly common effect, in which efforts to shut down people’s messages result in those messages getting a lot more attention than they would have. Last week featured three particularly noticeable examples of this phenomenon.
The first was the effort by Emory student “activists” to censor (http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/28/emory-university-student-activists-trump-2016-chalk-free-speech-column/82322316/) pro-Trump chalkings on campus sidewalks and steps. Not only did this effort produce an enormous blowback aimed at Emory, but it also produced a nationwide campaign of Trump-chalking at colleges everywhere. College humor site Old Row created a contest (http://hypeline.org/thechalkening-old-rows-quest-to-make-liberals-cringe/) and offered gift cards to readers sending in the best pictures of Trump chalkings on their campuses, and vast numbers responded, with chalkings from <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">North Carolina-Chapel Hill</culink>, Missouri State, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Kentucky" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Kentucky</culink>, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Maine" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Maine</culink>, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Nebraska–Lincoln" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Nebraska</culink>, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Boston University" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Boston University</culink>, <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/University of Louisville" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">University of Louisville</culink> and many, many more (https://twitter.com/immigrant4trump/status/716165049895616512).
As Old Row noted, "It’s not about Trump (https://twitter.com/OldRowOfficial/status/716059550273638401), it’s about freedom of speech on campus.” And as <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Georgetown University Law Center" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Georgetown Law</culink> professor <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Randy Barnett" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Randy Barnett</culink> tweeted (https://twitter.com/RandyEBarnett/status/716248542474584064), talk of censorship is like talk of gun control: Talk of gun control leads people to stock up on guns and ammo; talk of censorship leads people to express themselves more vigorously. Which is a pretty good response.
And, happily, that response isn’t limited to the USA. In Germany, comedians who produced a satirical video aimed at Turkish strongman <culink class="culinks" culang="en" href="http://curiyo.com/en/topic/Recep Tayyip Erdoğan" title="" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; cursor: help; z-index: 9000; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(100, 98, 94) !important;">Recep Tayyip Erdogan</culink> got pushback from the Turkish government, which summoned the German ambassador (https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-summons-german-envoy-over-anti-erdogan-tv-094148027.html)to complain. But it didn’t go very well, as Newsweek reported:
...