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The "discrimination and harassment policy" of Southeastern Louisiana University lists "offensive jokes," "posters," "cartoons," and "drawings" as "prohibited conduct" that can be considered "harassment."
"This conduct need not have intent to harm; if severe enough, it does not have to consist of repeated incidents; and it need not be directed against a specific individual/group of Individuals," the school's policy states.As
The College Fix notes, the university has received a "Red Light" rating from the pro-free-speech group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - a rating reserved for schools that have "at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech." FIRE's senior program officer Laura Beltz told
The Fix that, although she did not know of any students who had recently been disciplined under the policy, that doesn't mean that the existence of such a restrictive policy was harmless.
"It's important to remember that, even when not enforced, policies that restrict constitutionally protected expression have an impermissible chilling effect on speech," Beltz told
The Fix. "To use two policies at Southeastern Louisiana as an example, students may be discouraged from expressing themselves if they read a policy that requires registration of expressive activities a full seven days in advance, or one that calls things like 'offensive jokes' punishable harassment."
Comment: Robinson states he was embarrassed at being 'had'. But that's not the only thing for him to be embarrassed about. He used his biases and influence to inflame outrage on the right against an already victimized boy. This is no different from what we see on left, most glaringly in the recent incident involving the 'MAGA' kids and Nathan Phillips, the Native American 'elder'. People on both the left and right are having their emotional strings pulled. It's not like this is a modern phenomenon either (although the effects are amplified through technology). We see this same act played throughout history: the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, the lynchings of black people in America, and so on.
The awful reality is that there is something in the human nature of the masses that loves a good public stoning. Ideological possession allows for people to drop their inhibitions and engage their inner animal. It blinds people to the nuances of reality as well as our commonly shared humanity. Tough times are made worse by call-out culture and the vengeance it demands. The public will not develop a better society by 'naming and shaming' their neighbors. We get it namely through the hard work of assuming the small responsibilities in our own world and making productive contributions to others. That comes first. If we master those things, then we might begin to tackle more complicated tasks and build our competence.
Ideally, it would be competent people who are tasked with the responsibility of identifying social harm, as this remains a need. Unfortunately, there are not very many competent people in the media. Many people also give trust away too easily when it comes to accepting what is depicted in the news. This too can be a sign of ideological possession, but it is also an indication of lazy thinking that we all share as a fundamental operation in our minds (Daniel Kahneman describes the process as 'system one' in his book Thinking Fast and Slow). Perhaps some people will learn as these incidents continue and become increasingly more intense. Others, as we see, will continue to favor their fixed beliefs over reality. That's a rough road to travel.