Campus Leftists Don't Believe In Free Speech

Wall St. Journal ^ | April 17, 2009

[Steelfish]

OPINION APRIL 18, 2009

Campus Leftists Don't Believe in Free Speech Conservative speakers now have bodyguards when they visit universities.

By DAVID HOROWITZ

I arrived in Austin, Texas, one evening recently to give a speech about academic freedom at the university there. Entering the hall where I was to give my speech, I was greeted -- if that's the word -- by a raucous protest organized by a professor and self-styled Bolshevik, Dana Cloud. Forty protesters hoisted placards high in the air and robotically chanted "Down With Horowitz," "Racist Go Home," and "No More Witch-hunts."

Fortunately, a spokesperson for the administration was present to threaten the disrupters with arrest if they continued on this course. (The threat was administered very carefully, with three formal warnings before any action could be taken.) This quieted the crowd enough that I could begin my talk, which proceeded without further serious incident.

Even so, there were occasional heckles and demonstrative cheers from the group when I mentioned the name of Sami Al-Arian ( whose organization, Palestine Islamic Jihad, is responsible for the deaths of more than 100 innocent victims in the Middle East), Black Panther Huey Newton (convicted of killing an Oakland police officer in 1967, although he was eventually released on a technicality), or when I uttered the word "communist" -- even though I did so to remind the audience that communists killed 120 million people in the last century trying to implement Marx's ideas.

Among the organizations participating in these outbursts were the International Socialist Organization, whose goal is the establishment of a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in the United States; Iranians for Peace and Justice, supporters of Hezbollah and Hamas; and Campus Progress, the unofficial college arm of the Democratic Party.

[Keith Brown]

Let’s not forget, obama wants billions to support these leftists.

[M Kehoe]

Campus Leftists Don't Believe In Free Speech

M Kehoe's don't believe in gun control.

5.56mm

[kcvl]

Dana Cloud

A longtime activist in anti-war, labor, abortion rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, anti-death-penalty, and anti-racist movements, she is a member of the International Socialist Organization.

The ISO stands in the tradition of revolutionary socialists Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky in the belief that workers themselves--the vast majority of the population--are the only force that can lead the fight to win a socialist society. Socialism can't be brought about from above, but has to be won by workers themselves.

[opineapple]

If you're a liberal, it all depends on what the meaning of "free" is.

[Secret Agent Man]

Leftist believe in free speech - as long as they agree with it.

The whole liberal issue, no matter what it is - gays, guns, God - is that they simply cannot HANDLE ANYONE around them saying anything that opposes what they believe, because it shatters their false comforting belief that everyone agrees with them. They actually hate people not only for rejecting their views, having the audacity to, but also for the simple fact that ANY opposition forces them to realize a truth they never want to have to face - that there are people that do oppose them, that do not think they are right, and that means there’s a possibility that they could be wrong. And they NEVER EVER want to admit they are wrong. Try listening to them when they have to sputter out what they consider an apology.

They hate the fact that reality is not what their internal worldview is - that almost everyone agrees with them, and those that don’t are tiny aberrations that almost exist in their imagination.

So realize when you’re going up against libs, you’re going up against people who hate you (and I mean HATE) for at least two different reasons: one is issue specific, one is because you simply exist - because your existence and therefore, your opposition to them, makes them have to confront the fact their worldview they are trying to stay in about reality, is a lie. And your existence forces them to recognize that fact. And because they have to consciously confront the fact they are lying to themselves they self-loathe themselves, it makes them nervous that they might be wrong on other things (doubt) and it makes them hate you even more. And by God, if there’s anything personal between you and them, that’s a third way they hate you.

[kcvl]

March 8, 2007

Return of the Campus Witch Hunts
David Horowitz and the Thought Police
By DANA CLOUD

“David Horowitz is a self-appointed general of the right-wing thought police. In 2006, he published The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. In it, he named me and 100 other professors as threats to national security akin to terrorists.”

“Many of my colleagues say that we ought not “take Horowitz’s bait.” Among scholars and activists, he is regarded as something of a kook and a windbag. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has argued the weak line that disciplining faculty for supposed transgressions against academic freedom should be left up to university administrators, not politicians.”

“Then there are the organizations and professors who have devoted themselves to refuting Horowitz’s “facts” about their publications and activism. I believe this also is a wrong approach, because his “facts” about faculty syllabi and political affiliations are not in question. It is urgent that we challenge Horowitz politically.”

“Horowitz’s theatrics and demagoguery mask a very serious agenda: to discredit, harass and censor critical intellectuals and activists on our campuses. He knows that universities have historically been spaces of critical thinking and dissent. Students and professors have been organizing against the war and against the greed and hypocrisy of the right, and he would like nothing more than to hound us from our jobs.”

http://tinyurl.com/d2sr8v

[cripplecreek]

Sure they do.

As long as they agree.

[kcvl]

Dana Cloud

Associate professor of communication studies at the University of Texas at Austin, member of the International Socialist Organization.

Suffering people the world over need a special “Pledge.”

“I pledge allegiance to all the ordinary people around the world, to the laid off Enron workers and the World Com workers, the maquiladora workers and the sweatshop workers from New York to Indonesia, who labor not under God but under the heel of multinational corporations; I pledge allegiance to the people of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, and to their struggles to survive and resist slavery to corporate greed, brutal wars against their families, and the economic and environmental ruin wrought by global capitalism. I pledge allegiance to building a better world where human needs are met and with real liberty, equality and justice for all.”

http://www.aim.org/wls/author/dana-cloud/

******

Dana Cloud

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is strange.

“It seems very strange to pledge loyalty to a scrap of cloth representing a corrupt nation.”

Source: The Professors

http://www.aim.org/wls/author/dana-cloud/

[kcvl]

Teachers for a Democratic Society

Ward Churchill Solidarity Network

Open Letter Calling on the University of Colorado to Reverse Its Recommendation To Dismiss Professor Ward Churchill

http://www.progressivescholars.org/?q=node/38

[Alia]

... 'n Mz. Cloud thinks she's "all that".

Excellent column, superb points by Mr. Horowitz.

There's something wrong with Mz. Cloud's "thinking" apparatus. I wonder if she hasn't something along the lines of bipolar. Why can't see grow up? Get some help? 'cuz it sure ain't about "thinking".

[kcvl]

The following is an e-mail exchange David Horowitz had with Communications Studies Professor and self-styled Bolshevik Dana Cloud in regard to his scheduled visit to the University of Texas on April 9 to discuss the book he wrote with Jacob Laksin, One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America’s Top Universities are Indoctrinating Students and Undermining our Democracy. — The Editors.

http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/news/2684/dialogue-sort-of-with-a-bolshevik-in-texas

[VeniVidiVici]

I pledge allegiance to all the ordinary people around the world, to the laid off Enron workers and the World Com workers, the maquiladora workers and the sweatshop workers from New York to Indonesia, who labor not under God but under the heel of multinational corporations;

Funny how these worthless academics never START their own corporation to right these wrongs and employ these downtrodden, helpless workers.

They'd rather mouth off in self-importance then actually put into practice what they preach.

[kcvl]

An E-Letter from Dana L. Cloud

Dear Hatemongers:

How delighted I was to discover that I am your July Academic of the Month. I invite you to visit my “tony” office stocked with Office Depot furniture, and featuring a window on the parking lot where I pay $400 to park each year. Right now outside my office, workers are tearing out asbestos tile from the walls. We have such modern and luxurious facilities here.

I also would so love to have you visit my classes and my office hours. Of course you will have trouble finding me in my office, as I am only here Monday through Friday, 9 until 6 p.m., except when I am in class. I would be so happy if you would read my work in detail and interview my students. There is obviously one out there who thinks I use the classroom as propaganda platform. Oddly, I don’t seem to have heard from that person but I would love to make amends if I violated his or her freedom of expression.

Meanwhile you will want to speak with the students I had last semester. In the classes on speechwriting and on gender and communication, students gave me the following anonymous feedback. I post their comments below.

You might try actually reading some of my work, where you will find me to be somewhat critical of the excesses of arcane theory.

I am proud not to be a bigot and to use public space, not pedagogical space, to democratic ends.

Warmly,

Dana Cloud
(That’s Dr. Dana Cloud to you.)

http://tinyurl.com/cz3l5z

[kcvl]

Because it takes hard work to start and run a business. So called teaching ‘critical thought’ doesn’t take much hard work in my opinion.

[popdonnelly]

They haven’t believed in freedom of speech for the last forty years. They never will.

[pepperdog]

I wish everyone would realize this! Truer words were never spoken.

[STONEWALLS]

...as economic times worsen people like Dana Cloud will be out of a job...kids won’t sign up for her classes.

[lilylangtree]

they only believe in free speech as it applies to them and no one else.