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The allies of convenience created by this controversy are farcical. DR guys defending the affirmative action hyper-woke presidents of Harvard and their commitment to free speech, now I’ve seen everything.
Calling for genocide is obviously “harassment”, in the same way that citing statistics is “harassment”. On a regular day, harvard students ‘feel unsafe’ when confronted with mild antagonism and unfamiliar ideas, and the administrators use this ‘harm’ to justify censoring offending speech. Now I’m not invested in this line of thought and I’m not that kind of guy, but it should be obvious to anyone that such a vulnerable person would feel even less safe by hearing calls for their genocide, than by hearing a random unorthodox talking point like abortion should be illegal. For harvard, it's a little late to try to catch the first amendment train.
I’m defending precise language when under oath to Congress, which everyone should be doing regardless of the surrounding details.
How can speech that is not spoken to someone, or even in earshot, constitute bullying or harassment?
In the context of teaching students, it may, but not in the context of a published work or some other context. In other words, it depends on the context.
Why are you talking about published work, or speech that is not in earshot of anyone? The context is speakers at protests.
It was a new speaker’s turn to ask questions, and the question was
This broad question exists outside of any previous context, and had the speaker wanted (she did not and succeeded in her actual desire) she could have qualified her question relevantly. The Collins American entry simply defines it as demand, but I think the actual definition of “calling for” in an academic context is “desiring / hoping for the action to be completed”. Greta Thunberg can call for lower emissions, and that’s really what she’s doing, with “demand” not accurately conveying that a call for something can be totally wishful and ineffectual. Academics and politicians do this all the time, eg “we call for an equal number of black astrophysicists” does not imply an effectual action or completed action.
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