"Disinvitation season" used to be a season -- when student activists worked to disinvite usually conservative commencement speakers. Now it's "cancel culture" -- a year-round 24/7 pursuit to muzzle all who fail to embrace ideological purity. The internet enables people with too much time on their hands to vet not only speakers but pretty much anyone for politically incorrect thoughts. Once a damning quote is unearthed, Twitter can broadcast it to the world and another voice is extinguished. Lee Jussim, who leads the Social Perception Laboratory at Rutgers, calls the phenomenon "academia's political purity spiral." Anyone can be a target, as Dorian Abbot well knows. A geophysicist who teaches at the University of Chicago, Abbot was invited to deliver a scientific lecture at MIT last year. Then he was disinvited because he had publicly criticized affirmative action policies. Affirmative action supporters are free to disagree, but many apparently don't know how to or won't counter with fact-based arguments. One student wrote, "I don't feel safe when you object to my premises." "Safe" apparently means not having their sensibilities challenged. Abbot accepted the Hero of Intellectual Freedom Award from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni last week. I used the occasion to ask him when academia stopped being a hotbed of debate and what percentage of students and faculty want to squelch free speech. His answers: The change hit big in 2014. One in 20, or, at most, 1 in 10, want to police the speech of others. Why 2014? "The rise of the social media mob," attorney Samantha Harris offered from the audience. "If it weren't for Twitter," Abbot said, his invitation to MIT would have been the topic of conversation among "a dozen students grumbling in the coffee room." And it would end there. It takes seconds for the mob to create a hashtag -- #FireProfessorX -- that can go viral on Twitter. A platform that was supposed to bring people together serves to shut people up. An ACTA survey found that 41% of students think it is always or sometimes acceptable to shut down a speaker "to prevent them from speaking on campus." A 2016 paper, "Faculty Voter Registration in Economics, History, Journalism, Law, and Psychology," looked at 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democrats and 314 to be registered Republicans. In journalism and communications, the ratio was 20 Democrats to 1 Republican. Faculty registration researchers Mitchell Langbert, Anthony J. Quain and Daniel B. Klein found the Democrat-toRepublican ratio grew since 2004 and looks to be growing. Diversity? The holy trinity in college HR departments -- DEI for diversity, equity and inclusion -- is not about diversity. If academics truly believed in diversity, they'd hire people who think outside their box. But they don't. Debra J. Saunders The Sun Bay Paper Page 8 April 15, 2022 - April 21, 2022 Letters To The Editor Guest Editorial To the Editor, To listen to the president, it’s because of the war, that’s what causing inflation, PUTIN’S PRICE HIKE is making the price of everything rise dramatically? ....… Really? ......... No, not really…… the inflation is coming from the powers that be messing with the supply chain! long before this “war” they started messing with the supply chain of oil and everything else too....! We were a net producer of oil making 5 million more barrels of oil a day before Biden changed all that…. We were making 125% of the oil we needed in the US… now we make only 80% of what we need…. supply chain interruption causes inflation! Remember all those months ago when we had cargo ship after cargo ship sitting off the coast of California, that was the beginning of them messing with the supply chain. they have been messing with the supply chain for quite some time, Yes, the rising gas prices does make it more expensive to deliver our goods to market, but even if the price has doubled, which it has, it wouldn't raise prices like we see happening, let’s say it now cost $1,000 to deliver an 18 wheeler's load to destination, that is $500 more than before, but if you divide that over the individual items inside the truck, it raises their cost only pennies, with smaller items … fractions of a penny. We accept the crazy higher prices because the cost of filling our tank doubled, that's real, so compared to that we don't balk at a 40 to 50% in crease to our goods thinking 'at least it hasn't doubled' And something is fishy about this Russian war, now we are to believe that they blew up a train station, and a part of the missile they used is just laying out on the street parking lot? Really? And that the missile has “for the children” painted on it…to quote our President … ‘Come on man’. These smells of a false flag … no way Russia did this! Brian Greeman Ed. Note: I have heard that about our oil barrel production too, but needed to do some real investigation since you brought it up. We consume about 20 million barrels of oil a day, and although we were producing more during the Trump Administration we did never meet the 20 million barrels a day we consume so we never produced 125% of what we needed and how they call us a net producer ... I do not know. However... The most oil the US produced ever... was 17.045* million barrels a day in 2019 and 16.476* barrels daily in 2020... still short of our daily usage. however with the changes Biden executively ordered on day one of his presidency, we only produced 6.052 million barrels of crude oil in 2021 so actually lets get it right.. the Trump Admin. was producing over 10 million more barrels a day vs. the Biden Admin., not 5 million we all have heard in talking points... *source: https://rb.gy/xtxnsv To the Editor: Does anyone else see something amis with the NY subway shooter? News reports that he has a long rap sheet... from 1992 till 1998... 1998? That’s a long time ago!! It doesn’t seem strange to you that he hasn’t been arrested since 1998... folks that is over 24 years without any interactions with law enforcement...Naw... something is wrong with this! This is too strange for me! And I’m sorry.. I don’t believe a single word the main stream media is feeding us!It will be interesting to see what he pleads in court. I’m guessing Not Guilty and he claims he wasn’t there. They needed to arrest someone and do it fast! They looked on Facebook for an angry scapegoat! Massimo Perez Ed. Note: Wow Massimo! As we go to press he hasnt been to court, I have to admit.... Not getting into trouble for 24 years and all of a sudden doing a mass shooting is strange and when I read that they found his credit card and keys to a rental at the scene, it did seem weird to me. but if he isn’t the shooter then what is going on here? A completely false flag shooting? Why do this? Who would do this? To what gain? .................. What’s the benefit? Quote of the Week We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.” - Robert J. McCracken To the Editor. The country needs you, I found you in Fort Myers but you are loved in Labelle..... you and yours are most welcome at my tiny home. Cameron ‘Bubba’ Gentrey The information contained in this publication is for informational, educational, general information, and entertainment purposes only and is never intended to constitute medical, financial or legal advice or to replace the personalized care of a primary care practitioner, financial or legal expert. PHONE: (239) 267-4000 MAIL: 16970 San Carlos Blvd. #160, Ft Myers, Fl 33908 E-MAIL: production@sunbaypaper.com WEBSITE & DIGITAL VERSION: http://www.sunbaypaper.com The Sun Bay Paper To the Editor, Bless you for your passions. Sometimes we feel so alone and Sun Bay gives us hope, friendship and that feeling of belonging to something more. Without libertarians and conservatives this country would be a heap of sh!t... crazy chaos in less than a week. God is good! Cheryl Pegliardo
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