The Age of outrage

[Buddha Dharma]

And that was worth people hurting each other?

I'm not sure what you're inferring with this question. Sorry, I wish I could be, but I've spoken to a lot of people that would infer this was the town's fault for not wanting to any longer glorify an oppressive cause.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Very true. What I would expect from a large, high quality, institution is a broad variety of different viewpoints aired.

It depends a good deal on what turned away means. Nobody can host an unlimited number of guests. You have to exercise some discretion.
But it's something else entirely to cancel part of that broad array because some students don't want the views aired. That happens all too often.
Tom

I think it's more accurate to say that it's because the university has concerns about its reputation, not necessarily that people don't want the views aired at all.

When a speaker speaks at university, it can be taken of an endorsement of the speaker’s views by the university. It’s entirely appropriate for a university to make sure that this implied endorsement is only given to speakers that the institution wants to be seen as endorsing.

As for cancellations... I think this often comes down to poor communication within the university itself: typically, a student group will try to organize a speaking event and expect it to fly below the radar, but then something happens to bring attention to the event, which is when the top levels of the university administration become aware of it. Generally, it isn’t that the university makes a decision and then reneges on it; it’s that the university institutes general guidelines, but a group on campus does something that goes against them. Because the administration doesn’t monitor everything that student groups do in detail, they aren’t able to rein the group in until the event has some publicity.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

And that was worth people hurting each other?

What do you think the impact of the statue was? What do you think the impact of removing it was?

Everyone will have different ideas about how much weight we should give these impacts based on those values, including whether they justify involving the police, but we should be able to agree what the impacts are, no?

 

[Estro Felino]

A law student at Edinburgh University is being investigated for committing a hate crime after mocking ISIS on Facebook. (Edinburgh University Student Faces Investigation for Mocking ISIS on Facebook (Updated)+)

Lol...actually what happens in UK...it doesn't happen anywhere in Europe. I mean...if the "arbitrary laws about freedom of speech" were applied in my country, literally hundreds of politicians, journalists, TV hosts, commentators would be jailed or fined for "hate speech"
LOL
Adieu...Royaume-Uni...

 

[Vee]

I'm not sure what you're inferring with this question. Sorry, I wish I could be, but I've spoken to a lot of people that would infer this was the town's fault for not wanting to any longer glorify an oppressive cause.

In my opinion a statue is not a good reason for people to fight each other. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those people who were so mad with the removal of the statue had never even looked at it before they heard it was going to be removed. Things like that get blown out of proportion.