Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein
“No Safe Spaces” is an interesting documentary of the state of free speech at colleges and universities in the USA. If you have watched the developments over the last few years, not much is surprising, but it’s still a good summary. And yeah, it looks at it from a specific perspective. On the other hand, these are people arguing for free speech, not their speech. And they practice what they preach.
Probably best part is letting opponents of free speech speak or showing videos of people protesting it. That’s the thing about free speech — give people a rope, and those with bad ideas frequently hang themselves with it. And yeah, it’s difficult to watch — the shouting, the crying, the “emotional reasoning”, the name-calling of someone as fascist, racist, xenophobic (and the like), the attempts to hide violent actions as reaction to so-called violent speech, or by claiming it’s a simple “reaction”. But then again, if people have learned to take their value from being a victim, (claiming to) feel(ing) powerless is the only way to go.
Shame. People are capable of so much more.
P.S.: Watch the credits. The bee scene is both impressive and hilarious.
