Poll: 71% of Americans Say Political Correctness Has Silenced Discussions Society Needs to Have, 58% Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share
Posted: November 1, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Think Tank | Tags: CATO, Conservative, Free speech, Freedom of Expression, Intolerance, Liberal, Opinions, Politically Correct, Tolerance 1 Comment
Emily Ekins reports: The Cato 2017 Free Speech and Tolerance Survey, a new national poll of 2,300 U.S. adults, finds that 71% Americans believe that political correctness has silenced important discussions our society needs to have. The consequences are personal—58%
of Americans believe the political climate prevents them from sharing their own political beliefs.
Democrats are unique, however, in that a slim majority (53%) do not feel the need to self-censor. Conversely, strong majorities of Republicans (73%) and independents (58%) say they keep some political beliefs to themselves.
[Full survey results and report found here.]
It follows that a solid majority (59%) of Americans think people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions in public, even those deeply offensive to others.
[Also see – Free Speech in the Good War
On the other hand, 40% think government should prevent hate speech. Despite this, the survey also found Americans willing to censor, regulate, or punish a wide variety of speech and expression they personally find offensive:
- 51% of staunch liberals say it’s “morally acceptable” to punch Nazis.
- 53% of Republicans favor stripping U.S. citizenship from people who burn the American flag.
- 51% of Democrats support a law that requires Americans use transgender people’s preferred gender pronouns.
- 65% of Republicans say NFL players should be fired if they refuse to stand for the anthem.
- 58% of Democrats say employers should punish employees for offensive Facebook posts.
- 47% of Republicans favor bans on building new mosques.
Americans also can’t agree what speech is hateful, offensive, or simply a political opinion:
- 59% of liberals say it’s hate speech to say transgender people have a mental disorder; only 17% of conservatives agree.
- 39% of conservatives believe it’s hate speech to say the police are racist; only 17% of liberals agree.
- 80% of liberals say it’s hateful or offensive to say illegal immigrants should be deported; only 36% of conservatives agree.
- 87% of liberals say it’s hateful or offensive to say women shouldn’t fight in military combat roles, while 47% of conservatives agree.
- 90% of liberals say it’s hateful or offensive to say homosexuality is a sin, while 47% of conservatives agree.
Americans Oppose Hate Speech Bans, But Say Hate Speech is Morally Unacceptable
Although Americans oppose (59%) outright bans on public hate speech, that doesn’t mean they think hate speech is acceptable. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] JFK: Democrat or Republican?
Posted: June 26, 2017 Filed under: Education, History, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Abortion, Democrat, GOP, Gun rights, JFK, John F. Kennedy, Larry Elder, Liberal, media, Prager U, Republican, Taxes, video Leave a comment
John F. Kennedy lowered taxes, opposed abortion, supported gun rights, and believed in a strong military. And he was a proud Democrat. But would he be one today? Author and talk show host Larry Elder explains.
Source: PragerU
[VIDEO] ‘I Hurt People for a Reason’: Milo Yiannopoulos Spars with Bill Maher
Posted: February 17, 2017 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Amy Schumer, Bill Maher, breitbart, Democratic Party (United States), Democrats, Donald Trump, Free speech, Girls (TV series), Halle Berry, Harvard University, Harvey Weinstein, HBO, Jeremy Scahill, Lena Dunham, Liberal, Milo Yiannopoulos, Real Time with Bill Maher, Triggered Leave a commentThe liberal talk show host and conservative Breitbart editor tried to find common ground during an 11-minute discussion, which made national headlines earlier this week after previously scheduled Real Time guest The Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill dropped out of the show to protest Yiannopoulos’ booking.
“The Democrats are the party of Lena Dunham. These people are mental, hideous people, and the more that America sees of Lena Dunham, the fewer votes that the Democratic Party is going to get.”
James Hibberd reports: Bill Maher and Milo Yiannopoulos had their controversial showdown on HBO’s Real Time on Friday night, though there were fewer sparks than some had perhaps expected.
“I wrote a bad review of the movie. I said she look like a dude, she does. I said she’s barely literate, she is.”
The liberal talk show host and conservative Breitbart editor tried to find common ground during an 11-minute discussion, which made national headlines earlier this week after previously scheduled Real Time guest The Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill dropped out of the show to protest Yiannopoulos’ booking.
“And I simply don’t accept that the star of a Hollywood blockbuster is sitting in a Hollywood mansion crying over mean words on the internet; get over it. Mean words on the internet don’t hurt anyone,”
“The reason [liberals] want to police humor is they can’t control it — because the one thing all authoritarians hate is the sound of laughter,” Yiannopoulos said.
“Nothing annoys people like the truth. Policing humor for racism and sexism is utterly wrongheaded. Not because normally it’s not there, but because that’s how we build bridges and not how we break them.”
“And also because when people laugh they know it’s true,” Maher agreed. “… You are so helped by the fact that liberals always take the bait.”
“I hurt people for a reason. I like to think of myself as a virtuous troll.”
“Nothing annoys people like the truth,” Yiannopoulos concurred. “Policing humor for racism and sexism is utterly wrongheaded. Not because normally it’s not there, but because that’s how we build bridges and not how we break them.”
[Read the full story here, at ew.com]
Yet Yiannopoulos made blatant sexist comments during the interview, criticizing Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman as people who “used to be funny before they contracted feminism.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Campuses Too Obsessed with Diversity, Victimization?
Posted: February 10, 2017 Filed under: Education, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Academia, Books, college campus, Diversity, Feminism, Fox News, Gender, Intersectionality, Liberal, Marxism, media, Progressivism, race, Socialism, Tucker Carlson, University, Victim status, video, White Men Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Liberal: Why I Want Milo Yiannopoulos On My Campus
Posted: February 9, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Academia, Fox News, Free speech, Freedom of speech, Liberal, Milo Yiannopoulos, news, protests, Tucker Carlson, video Leave a comment
Cartoonist Scott Adams Withdraws Support of UC Berkeley; Citing Cognitive Dissonance, Confirmation Bias, and Hitler Hallucinations
Posted: February 5, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Comics, Crime & Corruption, Education, History, Think Tank | Tags: Anarchists, Dilbert, Fascism, Gay, Higher Education, Hitler, Immigrant, Jew, Liberal, Marxism, Milo Yiannopoulos, Radical Left, Riots, Scott Adams, Socialism, Thugs, Trump-Hating, UC Berkeley, Violence, Zombies Leave a comment
Heterodox Academy Combats Academic Uniformity, Leftist Bias
Posted: May 8, 2016 Filed under: Education, Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Bias, Conservative, Feminism, Heterodox University, Jonathan Haidt, Leftist, Liberal, Marxism, New York University, Research, Rutgers University, Scholar, Socialism, The College Fix, The New York Times Leave a comment
Fed Up with Peers’ Blind Devotion to Leftist Tenets, Freethinking Professors Launch their Own Website.
Kate Hardiman writes: In January, a mere five months after the launch of Heterodox Academy, the scholarly blog was cited by professor and columnist Paul Krugman in the New York Times as an example of educators who are “conservative” and “outraged” at “what they see as a sharp leftward movement in the academy.”
“Krugman is wrong—we are neither conservative nor outraged. We are concerned about the loss of viewpoint diversity in the academy because it means that we lose ‘institutionalized disconfirmation.’”
— Jonathan Haidt
But Krugman – like so many of his left-leaning peers – appeared blind to the truth.
“The quality of research produced by politically orthodox disciplines deteriorates. We are working within the academy to try to improve it.”
“Krugman is wrong—we are neither conservative nor outraged,” responded Jonathan Haidt, a professor of business ethics at New York University and co-founder of the website. “We are concerned about the loss of viewpoint diversity in the academy because it means that we lose ‘institutionalized disconfirmation.’”
…speakers and writers are often vilified for presenting contrary opinions to the common narrative. Here’s some of what can get scholars in trouble:
“Suggest some or many aspects of modern feminism are misguided.”
“Claim that affirmative action is dysfunctional.”
“Argue that some psychological and behavioral differences between some groups might have derived from the different evolutionary adaptation pressures on different continents.
“Present evidence that many stereotypes are accurate.”
“Present evidence that children of gay or lesbian parents are not necessarily as psychologically well adjusted as parents of heterosexual parents.”
“Criticize Islam, as a religion and/or set of cultural values and/or political ideology.”
“The quality of research produced by politically orthodox disciplines deteriorates. We are working within the academy to try to improve it.”
[Read the full story here, at The College Fix]
Heterodox Academy was founded in September 2015 by eleven professors of liberal, conservative, libertarian and centrist bents who hail from various disciplines and universities and who have taken up the mission to combat the lack of “viewpoint diversity” in academia, with a special focus on the social sciences. Read the rest of this entry »
The 10 Most Liberal and Conservative Cities in the U.S. – as Judged by Campaign Donors
Posted: December 14, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank, U.S. News | Tags: Conservative, Data, Democrats, GOP, Liberal, Texas, Washington State 1 Comment
Via Twitter
Bonfire of the Academy
Posted: November 11, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Mediasphere | Tags: Activism, Berkley, Campus, Columbia, Columbia Daily Tribune, Constitutional amendment, Cornell, Far Left, Fascism, Law, Lawsuit, Liberal, Missouri, Mizzou, Politically Correct, Progressive, The Frankfurt School, Tim Wolfe, Totalitarian, Tyranny, University of Missouri, Yale Leave a comment
University of Missouri system President Tim Wolfe at the board of curators meeting shortly before he announced he would resign his post on Nov. 9. Photo: Allison Long/Zuma Press
As liberal adults abdicate, the kids take charge on campus.
By bonfire of the academy we mean a conflict of values about the idea of a university that now threatens to undermine or destroy universities as a place of learning. Exhibit A is the ruin called the University of Missouri.
In the 1960s—at Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley and elsewhere—the self-described Student Left occupied buildings with what they often called “non-negotiable” demands. In the decades since, the academy—its leaders and faculties—by and large has accommodated many of those demands regarding appropriate academic subjects, admissions policies and what has become the aggressive and non-tolerant politics of identity and grievance.
This political trajectory arrived at its logical end this week at Missouri with the abrupt resignation of the school’s president, quickly followed by its number two official. The kids deposed them, as their liberal elders applauded either out of solidarity or cowardice.
The cause of President Tim Wolfe’s resignation is said to be his failure to address several racially charged incidents on campus and the threat by its Division One football team to boycott this weekend’s game unless he stepped down.
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
The university’s campus, in Columbia, is not far from Ferguson, Mo. Among the charges against President Wolfe was that his response to the shooting of Michael Brown was inadequate, which is to say, he did not sufficiently take the side of the protesters or rioters. Since Ferguson, the left-wing Black Lives Matter group has come to prominence and intimidated even presidential candidates. This has been accompanied by successive claims of racial grievance against public and private institutions.
In the United States, by now the instinct of the overwhelming majority of people is to address such complaints in good faith, investigate them and remediate where necessary. Only the tiniest minority would wish to see racial grievances bleed indefinitely. Yet the kids assert that America is irredeemably racist. Read the rest of this entry »
[PHOTO] LIVE Television: MSNBC’s Chris Matthews & Rachel Maddow Photobombed
Posted: November 7, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Chris Matthews, Left Wing, Liberal, Media bias, MSM, MSNBC, NBC, Rachel Maddow, Show Business, Television Leave a commentLIBERAL HEADS EXPLODE: Kentucky’s New Lieutenant Governor Jenean Hampton
Posted: November 3, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: African American, Air Force, Conservative, Detroit, GOP, Jenean Hampton, John Fund, Kentucky, Kentucky Election, Liberal, Liberal Heads Explode, Matt Bevin, National Review, Rochester, Single Mom, Tea Party, University of Rochester 24 Comments
John Fund continues:
…Both Bevin and Hampton are Tea Party activists who have never held elective office. Hampton’s path certainly represents triumph over adversity. Born in Detroit, the 57-year-old Hampton and her three sisters were raised by a single mom who lacked a high school education and couldn’t afford a television or a car.
Lt. Gov. Candidate Jenean Hampton shakes hands with Jenny Goins during the ceremony to celebrate the Class of 2015 Veteran’s Hall of Fame inductees.
But Hampton was determined to better herself. She graduated with a degree in industrial engineering and worked for five years in the automobile industry to pay off her college loans. She then joined the Air Force, retiring as a Captain.
[UPDATE – How Kentucky’s New Black Lieutenant Governor Became a Conservative – John Fund]
She earned an MBA from the University of Rochester, moved to Kentucky and became a plant manager in a corrugated packaging plant….(read more)
Source: National Review Online
[VIDEO] Thomas Sowell: The Difference Between Liberal and Conservative
Posted: October 25, 2015 Filed under: Economics, History, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Conservative, Liberal, media, Thomas Sowell, video Leave a commentThree Questions that Destroy Most Liberal Ideas
1) Compared to what?
2) At what cost?
3) What hard evidence do you have?
A Liberal’s Ten Commandments
Posted: October 12, 2015 Filed under: History, Humor, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Climate change, Debate, Guns, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Liberal, Nielsen Company, Progressivism, Ross Perot, Schools, Socialism, The Bible, The Ten Commandments, Victor Davis Hanson Leave a comment
Victor Davis Hanson writes: The best way for liberals to advance their various causes would be to take a pledge to live the rather progressive lives that they advocate. Here are a modest Ten Commandments to lend them credibility in the eyes of the American people.
1. Climate Change. Perhaps the greatest carbon emission sin is jet travel. On an average London-to-New York flight each passenger emits well over 1 ton of C02 emissions, an indulgence that can nullify a year of recycling of other less-privileged Americans. All supporters of government-mandated reductions in fossil-fuel emissions could at least take the following pledge. “I will fly across the Atlantic no more than once every five years.” Private jet travel — the worst
of the mortal carbon sins — of course would be banned, at least until we can transition into solar and wind aviation. Al Gore in the middle seat of Row 44, fighting to put his oversized carry-on into the overhead compartment, would be a symbolic act worth far more than all his heated and well-paid rhetoric.
[Read the full Ten Commandments here, at PJMedia.com]
2. Schools. Most liberals oppose charter schools, support teachers’ unions, and encourage generous immigration, legal and illegal. To further diversity in the schools, create easier integration, and to nullify the insidiousness of white privilege, each liberal should pledge, “I will put at least one of my children in an inner-city public school, or in a school where the white enrollment is in a minority.” What better way to acculturate a young elite to the new world around him? Could not the Obama children attend a D.C. public school?
3. Guns. Gun control is an iconic liberal issue, specifically limitations on handguns and concealed weapons. Too many guns in too many places supposedly encourage violent crime. Again, what better way to make a statement than by having all liberal celebrities, business people, and politicians take the following pledge: “I will pledge that no one in my security detail will ever carry a concealed firearm of any sort”? Surely the pope, of all people, did not need armed guards, with lethal concealed weapons, surrounding his pope-mobile? Read the rest of this entry »
Modern Villain, Modern Hero
Posted: January 11, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, History, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Civil Rights, Communism, Conservative, Homosexuals, Idol, Liberal, Liberalism, Margaret Thatcher, Progressivism, Socialism, Twitter, Tyranny, Tyrant 2 Comments
h/t Amy Mek @AmyMek
Sanity Outbreak: Aussies To Slash 90% Of Global Warming Funding From Budget
Posted: May 19, 2014 Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, Politics | Tags: Australia, Australian Labor Party, Carbon tax, Christine Milne, Daily Caller, Ian Macfarlane, Liberal, Renewable energy in Australia, Tony Abbott 1 Comment
For The Daily Caller, Michael Bastasch writes: Australia’s conservative coalition is set to cut more than 90 percent of the funding related to global warming from their budget, from $5.75 billion this year to $500 million, over the next four years.
“…The carbon tax was basically socialism masquerading as environmentalism, and that’s why it’s going to get abolished.”
Environmentalists and leftist politicians in the country protested the move by conservative Liberal Party Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s governing coalition to slash funding for climate programs, arguing such funding for green energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions were necessary to stop global warming.
But Abbott’s government shot back, saying that the country needed to reduce the size of government and improve the economy. Read the rest of this entry »
Kurt Schlichter: ‘What you call ‘privilege’ is just me being better than you…’
Posted: May 13, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Conservatives, Democratic Party (United States), Ku Klux Klan, Left Wing Propaganda, Leftists, Liberal, Marxists, Party leaders of the United States Senate, Race Baiting, Racism, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, United States 3 Comments
For TownHall.com, Kurt Schlichter writes: Liberals have a new word for what normal people call “success.” They call it “privilege,” as if a happy, prosperous life is the result of some magic process related to where your great-great-great-grandfather came from.
It’s the latest leftist argument tactic, which means it is a tactic designed to preventany argument and to beat you into rhetorical submission. Conservatives, don’t play their game.
Call: “Check your privilege!”
Response: “What you call ‘privilege’ is just me being better than you.”
It’s easy to see that this notion that accomplishment comes not from hard work but from some mysterious force, operating out there in the ether, is essential to liberal thought. To excuse the dole-devouring layabouts who form so much of the Democrat voting base, it is critical that they undermine the achievements of those who support themselves. We can’t have the American people thinking that hard work leads to success; people might start asking why liberal constituencies don’t just work harder instead of demanding more money from those who actually produce something.
“Don’t worry about not making sense. They’re college students. They are used to not understanding what people smarter than they are tell them.”
This “Check your privilege” meme is the newest trump card du jour on college campuses and in other domains of progressive tyranny. It morphed into existence from the “You racist!” wolf-cry that is now so discredited that it produces little but snickers even among liberal fellow travelers. After all, if everyone is racist – and to the progressives, everyone is except themselves – then no one is really racist. And it’s kind of hard to take seriously being called “racist” by adherents of a political party that made a KKK kleagle its Senate majority leader.
So how do we deal with this idiocy? Read the rest of this entry »
Screw Progressives: Restore Classical Liberalism
Posted: November 4, 2013 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Classical Liberalism, Democratic, Jefferson, JFK, Kennedy, Liberal, Reagan, United States Leave a comment
Yes, A Democrat President of the United States really said that
pundit from another planet 