Recommendation: Free Speech On Campus

“I hear you’re writing a book on theology. I hope you have a good title.”
“I have the perfect title … ‘Has it Ever Occurred to You That You Might Be Wrong?'”
Charlie Brown and Snoopy

I recently stumbled upon the following rant about “Free speech on campus” by Pat Condell. You could discard it with the old Simpsons joke: “an ‘old’ man is angry at something”. But what he says in that video is actually very well written.

BTW, it also was transcribed — didn’t know crowd-sourced transcripts of YouTube videos were a thing (cool :-)). You find the transcription at dotsub.

And yup, intolerance is intolerance, whether it comes from the left, the right, or from where ever. It’s a learning process to be able to tolerate an idea and have a close look at its merits even if you strongly disagree with it. This does not mean changing one’s opinion like a weather-vane, esp. if you developed your prior position based on rational arguments and not only emotions. But it helps to see — if not the full picture — than at least more of the complexity of an issue. And you need a clear picture of an issue to find the best solution.

Not sure about his other videos. I have only seen a few of them. With some videos I disagree, either with the position or the arguments (esp. when they appear — to me — as one-sided and based on top-down inferences like his position on Islam and Israel). But then again, this is also a case where his Campus Free Speech video is applicable. Videos I agree more with are “A society of cowards” (regarding the point that it’s fear of violence, not ‘tolerance’, and good point about a generation never having to defend its freedom; but I think Islam is painted with too broad a brush here) or “A word to left-wing students” (same vein as the Free speech on Campus video).