Oh Don Goldman, Where Is Thy Sting?
Hello, all. Couldn’t resist chiming in on this one. It’s almost too good.
First, while it would be deliciously ironic if the Insurgent could be shut down for this, they clearly have the right of the issue here. Alas, I doubt they have the brains to learn anything about the benefits of a free press from this eminently teachable moment.
Secondly, unless this is all a brilliant joke (which I also doubt; see link below) Zachary White really needs to grow a pair:
It struck me as I read it that it is now OK to discriminate against the beliefs of Christians in our campus community, which hypocritically prides itself as being tolerant…
What does it mean to “discriminate against the beliefs of Christians”? To not share those beliefs? To make fun of them? To argue against them? I’m sure the Insurgent’s anti-Christian tirade was as bad as the rest of the stuff they publish, so why not ignore it and go about your day, or mock them right back, or – if you feel you absolutely must – attempt to seriously rebut their points? What does it say about your faith that it needs protection from needling by this bunch of anarcho-halfwits?
Of course, this is only the first piece of the inevitable blowback from allowing religious groups to demand uncritical acceptance of their own various beliefs and practices from the slavering secular hordes. (Insert your own cartoon of the prophet Mohammed here.) White’s insistence that his delicate sensibilites should enjoy administrative protection from challenge or ridicule is childish and (dare I say) un-American, but isn’t this a tantalizing glimpse of the world that the Insurgent collective claims to want? A campus climate in which people can feel accepted, dammit!
I got a weird sense of deja vu after reading White’s op-ed the other day, and sure enough: a little Googling reveals that we have encountered this fellow before. Not much seems to have changed in the interim.
Anyway, it has been a while since we’ve had a round of Tim vs. Catholicism, hasn’t it? I’m going to take a shot every time he says “papist”, and I encourage you to join me.
For the record (and my future job prospects as employeers google my name) while I grew up in Eugene and share a name with this guy, I in no way share his beliefs and have never been a student at UO.
Dubya tee eff? When did the ACLU become involved in what is currently happening at UO? By what standard of measurement is Don Goldman defined as a liberal?
Yeah, I don’t know about Goldmans idea of making Christians wear armbands and shipping them all off to “tolerance camps.” I mean, just because Christians are a minority now, doesn’t mean that it’s OK to destroy their way of life. Oh well, I guess it’s just another chapter in the centuries-old persecution of the faithfull. After all, Christians are really the whipping post of history… so much oppression, and to think that these dumb, ignorant, stoner liberals are in power now and are so full of hate as to take advantage of our meek-will-inherit-the-earth sensibilities…
Oh man… I think I just pulled a sarcasm muscle… I’m gonna get back to Das Kapital now.
So when christians become the minority will the ACLU back us up. NOPE! Why all the christian bashing all of a sudden. Oregon is off my list of best places to live. The hate that these liberals have will one day rear its ugly head. The only hate I see these days are from the lips of ignorant liberals. I spoke to Mr. Goldman the editor of the Insurgent and he spoke like a dumb stoner. Wow gret education in Oregon.
[…] UO Student Zachary White was the first to file a grievance against the Insurgent. Here’s the first post of our coverage on that, and here’s our coverage of when the ASUO ruled against him. […]
Easy now, Mr. White– no need to start feeling bad about yourself. You were trying to do the right thing, but you were lacking a little context, so you got in over your head. It happens. One lesson to take away from this is that your elected governmental representatives (in this case, members of the ASUO’s Program Finance Committee) do not necessarily know whereof they speak or even have their constituents’ best interests at heart.
I agree, I’m kinda a dick.
[…] Congrats to the Commentator for being the only consistent voice for free speech during this debate. And yes, that includes the Insurgent, which had a very different reaction to the virtues of free expression a few years ago when it was the Commentator that was on the hot seat. The Commentator also found time on its blog to respond to the student who wanted to de-fund the Insurgent over its publication of the cartoons — and it got that right, too. […]
Jeff: “Maybe the gay community? the transgendered? blacks? how about the Jews? Would The Insurgent publish raw hate and ridicule of these and still maintain an office and equipment supported by the UofO? Would they still gain your defense of free speech?”
Yup. Doesn’t mean I would agree with the content of this “raw hate and ridicule” – as, in fact, I don’t agree with the content of the Insurgent.
But there’s a huge difference between suppressing speech with which you disagree, and challenging it with more speech of your own. If you allow people to make arguments like this in public, then they can be rebutted in public, and everyone gets to see it in the record. By mounting such a half-assed offensive against Christianity, the Insurgent was actually potentially doing the campus religious community a favor. Arguing that all Christians are violent warmongers, or whatever, is like arguing that gay people are child molestors, or that blacks are criminals. It’s a way for imbeciles to pass the time. It should be easy to dismiss or dismantle, as you see fit.
Instead, we have people arguing that the Insurgent should be muzzled or shut down or (for Christ’s sake) facing criminal charges, which is not helping their side at all. Come on, Jeff: WWJD? Apart from tossing insults around on the internet, I mean.
Man, Jeff, you don’t know us very well do you?
Last year we got in trouble with the PFC busy-bodies for making fun of a student senator with…indeterminate gender-identity status. A couple of years before that, we had a problem with the Voice because we published a satirical article about “Jewish Drinking Holidays” (a parody of an upcoming OV article about Purim). That same issue we called some anti-war protesters “fucking racists” on the back cover in 100 pt font. That, also, caused some headaches. The year before that I ran for ASUO Executive on a McCarthy-ite platform, which got me called a racist in the letters section of the ODE. There’s also a long list of our tribulations with MEChA, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to recap that for you.
For the record, not that Mr. Ruff needs me to defend him, Olly’s statement was that it’s childish for White to expect his precious sensitivities to be protected administratively. If you read the rest of the post, it’s obvious to anyone who passed basic reading comprehension that Olly’s point was all such requests are childish and ultimately stupid. You don’t get a pass because your little feelings were hurt, is the point. Grow up, this is the real world. Last I checked Jack T Chick was still publishing little tracts*, and the Gonzaga Witness was still around, so go publish something about the immorality of some folks’ sexual preferences, or carry around a big sign with a fetus on it if that kind of thing floats your boat. Do whatever you want, offend whomever you wish, but don’t whine that people who offend you should be shut up. That knife cuts both ways.
*For the record, I want to be neither Elfstar nor Debbie.
Ah yes……..the “administrative protected”. Who are they, you fool? Not the Christians/Catholics…….that’s obvious. Maybe the gay community? the transgendered? blacks? how about the Jews? Would The Insurgent publish raw hate and ridicule of these and still maintain an office and equipment supported by the UofO? Would they still gain your defense of free speech? There’s really only one way to find out…….but we never will. Some groups DO enjoy administrative protection while it’s open season on the Christians.
I may begin saying “Papist” more, just so you get blasted. Somehow, this ends up with me profiting and seducing Salma Hayek. The details on that are still being worked out.
Holy shit! So that’s Zachary White. It all makes sense now.