Featured FEN Organizations
June 21st, 2010
Richard Dawkins Draws Attention to ‘New Threats to Freedom’
Thanks to Richard Dawkins for drawing attention to FIRE's video on a FIRE case that Greg covers in the new book New Threats to Freedom. Greg provides a summary of the case and a reason to buy the book:
Back in 2005, Chris Lee, a student at Washington State University, set out to make a comedy musical that, in the tradition of South Park, offended as broad a spectrum of people as possible. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded. His musical—a very loose parody of Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ—earned him protests, death threats, and even an organized attempt among administrators and students to disrupt the play.
...
I chose Chris' story to open up my chapter in the new book, New Threats to Freedom ... because it's one of the best examples in my experience of campus administrations and students working together to try to silence speech they don't like. My chapter, called "Students Against Liberty?", explores the long-term consequences of campus censorship, speech codes, and the failure to educate students about the importance of free speech.Dawkins himself is just one of many people whose appearances on a ...