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U. Miami Builds Democracy Center With ‘Aim of Depolarizing Americans Through Civil Discourse’

U. Miami Builds Democracy Center With ‘Aim of Depolarizing Americans Through Civil Discourse’

Did you know that “civil discourse with people” we think are opposite to us we learn that “we are much closer in views than the cable news shows would have us believe”? Like whoa.

The University of Miami is now embracing free speech. I wonder how long it will last. From Campus Reform:

The University of Miami in Florida recently launched the George P. Hanley Democracy Center with the aim of depolarizing Americans through civil discourse and exporting democracy abroad.

Leonidas Bachas, dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences stated that the university’s “proximity to Latin America also places us in an ideal spot to study democracy in the Americas and beyond.”

Speaking to the domestic mission of the center, George Hanley, entrepreneur and namesake of the center, told News@TheU that “[p]eople need to have civil discourse.”

He continued to explain that through “civil discourse with people, we are much closer in views than the cable news shows would have us believe.”

Political Science professor and chair of the center Gregory Koger stressed the deterioration of democracy in the United States and falling trust in democratic institutions as issues the center ought to address.

Institutions of higher education in Florida have been making strides toward achieving more neutral political environments on their campuses. Governor Ron DeSantis has made it a legislative priority to remove political bias from college campuses in the state.

The University of Miami has had trouble handling free expression in the past.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education gave the University of Miami a “red” speech code rating 2 years ago, signaling that it “ha[d] at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech” over its internet harassment policies.

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Comments

The left is completely in favor of civil discourse. You just have to know that disagreeing with them is always uncivil.

UoM is as lefty as the rest of Florida’s universities, I guarantee the “civil discourse” they mean is nothing but a haranguing monologue.

The project is doomed to failure because the left and intersectional race politics reject reason and logic as “white supremacist.” Logical argument is a tool of white oppression, donchaknow.

Here’s a sample of “the black community’s” approach to debate: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-to-speak-gibberish-win-a-national-debate-title/

In looking at the winners of the 2014 high-school Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) championship, Rod Dreher observes that “the rules of debate don’t have to be followed, that insult and abuse are legitimate forms of argument, and ultimately, that chaos wins, as long as it’s perpetrated by a minority claiming victim status. That’s actually a good strategy for succeeding in academia and community organizing, but not so much in the real world.”

    artichoke in reply to bullhubbard. | March 21, 2023 at 10:36 am

    Note that “Cross Examination Debate” is that crazy stuff, but “Parliamentary Debate” is the normal debate we think of, and there are other flavors with different rules as well. Be very careful if you’re going to a college to be on the “debate team” about which one is being done there.

Yeah, it’s a bit early for this. We have to gain back a lot of territory before the figurative ceasefire.

In before different opinions are deemed “uncivil.”

BierceAmbrose | March 21, 2023 at 4:32 pm

Yes, and…

At the same time willing to play the other way, if that’s what the other people do. For all values of “the other people.”

Non-engagement: call them on it. Shift to other crap: don’t go there. Calumny n insult: point it out, and respons as that deserves.

There was a sad, sad demise to a series of moderated discussions long ago, that started with “Hard Drugs; Hard Choices.” The discussions were brilliant, illuminating, and even entertaining. Whatever you though going in, you camw away smarter about the hard, multi-faceted problem; drugs in the US was only the first.

The last of the series was something economic, perhaps “poverty”. I can’t recall, as the conversation got hijacked and shut down by the snarling, spitting politi-snake they’d inadvertantly let into their midst.

The first step in having a place of this kind of engagement, is holding a space for this kind of enagement. You won’t play nice, you’re out of here. I suspect that’ll be hard to do in any educational unit, these days.