Could the far-Left wasteland of Leftist indoctrination that is American academia today finally be recovering some semblance of sanity? A hint that it might be came recently from the University of Chicago (UC), which, according to a Friday report in the Daily Caller, “appears to be gearing up to launch a center dedicated to freedom of expression, a listing on a university job board shows.” But those who understand the importance of the freedom of speech as the foundation of any free society shouldn’t get too excited about this. Given the prevailing winds, the UC center is likely to be more properly named the Center for Leftist Freedom of Expression.
That isn’t to say that the university isn’t sounding all the right notes. According to the post advertising for an executive director for the new Center (Oh, pick me, sir! Pick me!), the “new Center for Free Expression that will build on” the university’s self-proclaimed “historic commitment” to “Free Expression and open discourse.” It will “practice to provide a focal point for understanding and advancing free expression, in academia and the broader culture, in the United States and abroad.” It will apparently be about the freedom of expression as a concept more than an arena for the actual exercise of the thing itself, as it will “engage scholars, community leaders, public officials, and policy makers to better understand and advocate for the principles of free expression.”
All this will, we’re told, form students who understand, value, and are able to defend the freedom of expression: the Center “will develop robust programs to encourage students to develop the skills and habits of mind that are essential to scholarly discourse, and it will promote a commitment to free expression and open discourse both within and beyond the University of Chicago.”
Gee, that all sounds swell, but the university is short on specifics. When asked about the Center, Gerald McSwiggan, UC’s associate director for public affairs, responded: “We don’t have information to share at the moment. We look forward to sharing additional details in the following months.” But the ball is definitely rolling. An associate professor in UC’s geophysical sciences department, Dorian Abbot, said happily that the Center would “coordinate academic freedom orientation, lectures, and events. I am excited to participate!”
Far be it from me to dampen young Abbot’s enthusiasm, and I hate to be the one who is throwing the rotting cabbage onto the beautiful new sofa, but there is abundant reason to suspect that UC’s grand new free speech center will become just another mouthpiece for the Left. Even as Leftists grow ever more open in their authoritarianism and effort to silence dissidents, there are numerous examples of them turning around and simultaneously preening as champions of the freedom of speech that they’re otherwise trying to destroy.
Take, for example, the recent efforts to protect children from the sudden proliferation of the most explicit pornography in libraries even in elementary schools. Leftists have responded to these efforts by cynically posing as champions of the freedom of expression nobly standing in the breach against the benighted, ignorant, right-wing yahoos who are adopting Nazi book-burning tactics. As the Leftist Big Tech giants coordinated with the Biden regime to silence dissident voices, the American Library Association was championing a list of “Most Challenged Books” that included not books about Islamic jihad violence, the devastating results of transgenderism, or the COVID hysteria, but mostly books that were “challenged” for LGBTQIA+ content” and because they were “considered to be sexually explicit.”
Related: Could UC Berkeley Lose Its Federal Funding? We Can Hope.
So if you oppose pornography being made available to the youngest children, you see, you’re a neo-Nazi book-burner. Given the state of American academia today, the odds are in favor of UC’s Center for Freedom of Expression becoming just another platform for Leftists to posture about how they’re the champions of free speech, despite their lust to censor their opponents.
But the University of Chicago could still surprise us all. How about they invite some people to speak whom Leftist “academics” shun and deride, and who espouse positions that are forbidden to be enunciated on today’s college and university campuses? They could get Ibn Warraq to talk about the Islamic aspects of Islamic terrorism, Abigail Shrier to talk about the devastation transgender madness causes, and Alex Berenson to discuss the slimness of the evidence underpinning the lockdowns, masking, and the rest.
When they do that, I’ll become a believer. But I won’t be holding my breath.
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