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just saw more on the germain greer 'controversy'. and. its the same old thing. crusty...

just saw more on the germain greer ‘controversy”. and. its the same old thing. crusty old white radfem is a violent transmisogynist, ppl don”t like this so they decide that she shouldn”t give such and such lecture, the media explodes, and i have to read a million thinkpieces about why ‘censorhip” is bad and how its just her opinion etc and so on forever and ever.

first off, i want to make it clear that i don”t care about the whole no-platforming. i think students (and community members) have every right to decide whether or not they entertain hate speech. i”d be estatic if greer and all the other old white crusty radfems would just… fade into obscurity never to be heard of again.

the only thing that bugs me about the conversation that inevitably arises is that we shouldn”t restrict ‘free” speech or whatever the fuck.

first. this ignores the reality that pretty much every country in the world places restrictions on free speech. yes, even the US where this right is taken very very seriously.

second. depending on the jurisdiction one of the restrictions on free speech is that hate speech isn”t allowed. hate speech is usually interpreted as ‘inciting ppl to violence” (amongst other things).

this is honestly where ppl on either side tend to miss each other.

if greer regularly engages in hate speech, then restricting her public speech is desirable.

if greer”s opinions are not hate speech, then restricting her public speech is a type of censorship.

do you see where the problem is? one group does consider her views as being inciteful for violence. some do not.

this is the real issue at hand, not free speech. free speech is a red herring that usually works, too.