Professors Refer to Conservative Criticism as 'Violence'

It used to be that violence could be identified without nuance. Slapping someone? Violence. Insulting them? Not so much. However, today’s leftists are trying to make the term “violence” as meaningless as “literally” is these days.

From PJ Media contributor Toni Airaksinen at Campus Reform:

A group of education professors recently claimed that Campus Reform “attacks” and commits “violence” against “faculty who represent historically marginalized groups.”

In the most recent issue of the Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11 professors signed onto a joint statement condemning the “violence” perpetrated by news outlets that report on higher education, including The College Fix and Campus Reform.

“The attack on critical scholars within US universities has greatly accelerated with the election, statements, and actions of Donald Trump,” the professors write, later adding that “We know these attacks are only going to grow, and we know we cannot just be in a defensive mode.”

The letter’s lead author is James Scheurich, who teaches urban education at Indiana University, while other signatories include Joyce King, an endowed professor at Georgia State University, and Ira Bogotch, who teaches at Florida Atlantic University.

Scheurich and his co-authors reference several professors that Campus Reform has reported on, such as Z Nicolazzo, who uses zie/hir pronouns and teaches at Northern Illinois University, and Johnny Eric Williams, a professor at Trinity College.

Now, I’ll concede the word “attacks,” but only just barely. “Harsh criticism” and “attack” can be used interchangeably.

Where they lose me is when they pretend such criticism is violence in any way, shape, or form. They close their statement by writing:

We commit to standing against violence directed at these targeted scholars and speaking out against the attempts to censor critical work that addresses systemic inequities and power imbalances in education and society.

By making these ridiculous claims, they’re destroying their credibility should they experience actual violence.

Think about it for a moment. A Leftist talks about all this “violence” against minorities, women, or whomever their cause du jour happens to be. Then, one day, real violence happens. Someone actually does get hurt by an intentional act committed by another.

That same Leftist starts prattling on about violence again, and what happens? Everyone tunes them out.

Leftists try to conflate criticism with violence because they know their inability to handle criticism gets them labeled as lightweight, crybaby whiners. I don’t blame them for not wanting to feed into that particular narrative … but by changing the terms, they don’t help their case. They reinforce it.

News sites, even if they’re biased news sites, aren’t committing any act of violence. What they’re doing is practicing the same free speech we all are allowed to practice.