Professor Jonathan Turley Testifies About Antifa to Senate Judiciary Committee
“They believe that free speech itself is a tool of oppression.”
Professor Turley clearly recognizes the threat this ideology poses to free speech and education.
The Daily Wire reports:
Law Professor Testifies: Antifa Targets ‘Republicans,’ ‘Fear And Intimidation’ Worst Ever On Campuses
Jonathan Turley, Constitutional Law Professor at George Washington University, issued a dire warning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday: “Antifa is winning.”
“If you go through the antifa handbook and look at their literature, it’s quite express, as stated in the handbook, they reject the premise of what they call a classical liberal view of free speech,” Turley said. “Specifically they object to statements like, ‘I may disagree with what you have to say, but I would give my life to defend it.’ They reject that. They believe that free speech itself is a tool of oppression.”
“And that has been the message on campuses. What I thought was disturbing about these statements that antifa is a myth is that many of us on campus have been dealing with antifa for years. And antifa is winning,” Turley continued. “I’ve been teaching for 30 years. I have never seen the level of fear and intimidation on campuses that we see today. Faculty are afraid to speak out about issues. We can’t have a dialogue about the important issues occurring today because there’s a fear that you might be accused of being reactionary or racist.”
“We’ve had law professors who have been physically attacked, have required police protection. That’s the environment that we’re developing,” Turley continued. “And for people that think that antifa and groups like it can be allies, they don’t know antifa. Those of us who have been teaching on campuses can tell you about these groups. And the alarm that I have is because I’m watching my profession, the teaching profession, die, with free speech. … We’re seeing, many of these speakers are being prevented from speaking on campus under various theories. And the message is clear to faculty; it’s clear to students – there’s a new orthodoxy that you should not confront and you certainly shouldn’t disagree with.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Google Leninthink.
The American Compact is something like:
“Here’s a bunch of stuff we aren’t gonna settle one on one, by force. That leaves us more room to each do our own thing. To secure that, here’s a limited list of stuff we have to do together, and how we’ll do it.”
Antifa & related are all about eroding by force the room for people to do their own thing in. I’m not sure that’s a net gain for the rest of us, even if we agree with their other agenda items.
Turley is the only Left-leaning academic that I’ve seen, who possesses some modicum of independent thought and integrity. One wonders why he still chooses to align himself with the totalitarian Left. He really doesn’t belong there.