Updated 6:30 p.m.
Middlebury College officials canceled a forum Wednesday that would have featured conservative Polish politician and academic Ryszard Legutko, saying they were concerned that they could not guarantee people’s safety as protestors organized.
But Legutko still spoke informally to students in a Middlebury classroom at the Robert A. Jones House late Wednesday afternoon.
The Middlebury Campus newspaper live-streamed part of the talk. The coverage ended abruptly after political science professor Matt Dickinson approached the camera and told a student to stop streaming. “That wasn’t allowed,” he said. The class was Dickinson’s American Presidency Seminar, according to the Campus.
The episode added to the drama of a tumultuous day. Reaction to the cancellation was mixed.
Organizers of a potentially large protest that had been promoted on Facebook at a page called “Ryszard Legutko is a f*ucking homophobe” emphasized that they were not trying to prevent the event from happening.
“In light of the recent announcement by the Middlebury College administration to cancel the Legutko event this afternoon, we are reiterating that it was never our intention to shut this event down, nor prevent the speaker from speaking,” Taite Shomo wrote. Shomo did not respond to a message seeking further comment.
Jason Duquette-Hoffman, assistant director of the Center for Community Engagement at Middlebury College, agreed. “I think [protesters] were very clear that that was not their intent,” he said.
Others, including former Republican Vermont governor Jim Douglas, said the administration’s decision to cancel was disappointing. Douglas teaches at the school, and he is on the steering committee of the Alexander Hamilton Forum at Middlebury, which sponsored the talk. He said he was not involved in choosing Legutko to speak, but he had planned to attend the lecture.
Canceling was a mistake, Douglas told Seven Days. “I understand that some folks on campus are unhappy with the [speaker], but that’s exactly the point,” Douglas said. “We have to be willing to invite and hear people who have views that we may not agree with. I don’t think an academic institution can be successful in its mission of learning without that.”
Other colleges have bolstered security to accommodate controversial speakers and Middlebury should have been able to do the same, Douglas said. He said he had been “cautiously optimistic” that, after dozens of student protesters shut down an appearance by conservative author Charles Murray in March 2017, the college was moving toward “a time of greater acceptance and tolerance of points of view.”
The college administration talks about free speech but on Wednesday did not “walk the walk,” Douglas said.
Keegan Callanan, a Middlebury assistant professor and director of the Alexander Hamilton Forum, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
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What about the rights of non-gay people & students who wanted to hear this man speak? When does what these gay rights activists are doing become hate crimes against non-special privilege groups? Everything has to be approved and blessed by them or nobody else can have anything to do with it?
Just more of the liberal censorship plaguing our country. Shame on the college for coddling special interest groups.
Gee, what a surprise the vocal outcry of a few suppressing those that wish to hear someone that they don’t agree with.
Really, what a surprise in this political climate.
Who’s next for the Alexander Hamilton Forum? Full fledged Nazis next?
“A cornerstone of any kind of ‘thoughtful citizenship’ should always be listening, and we urge you all to recall the events of March 2, 2017 where the administration, including President Laurie Patton and the PSCI Department, failed to listen to the voices of students,” the letter states.
First the threat of more ideology driven violence, then…
“, we are reiterating that it was never our intention to shut this event down, nor prevent the speaker from speaking,
The true fascists; you shall know them by their deeds.
I do not care what kind of a PHOBE this guy is; for Pete’s sake all you FASCISTS out there ALL people should be free to speak. If you don’t like what you hear fine but you make a FARCE out of a COLLEGE or University when you refuse the opportunity for a person to speak. What do you not understand. It is you people who should be refused the chance to speak because you basically hate FREEDOM unless it is your brand; and that is the essence of tyranny.
Right Wing gibberish is fairly predictable: “Corporate domination is good, anyone who has an abortion or provides abortion services should be put to death, only white people should have guns, all dark-skinned immigrants should be deported , destroying the environment is God’s Will and is great for the economy, Donald Trump is beyond the reach of the law, ultra-wealthy should pay no taxes, all social services and safety net programs should be cut, all government agencies should be privatized so they can be looted. We believe this because we are so Christian.”
Mr. Legutko should be allowed to speak and then suffer any abuse he stirs up. Righties love violence like this, just watch any video of Trump’s rallies, but they sure turn into whiny little girls when they are confronted by any resistance and become instant victims, just like President Bone Spurs.
Middlebury college is a disgrace. Good bye to critical thinking and an ability to respect both sides. I would NEVER send a kid to that damn place.
Hang on, hang on. This in from the protesters’ facebook group:
“Just got out of class with professor Gary winslett who is giving the defense of liberal democracy at the Dana event today at 4:30. He said that when the poli sci department started talking about this event/controversy on Sunday, he pointed out that Legutkos problematic ideology should not be presented to students without a rebuttal. He offered to give that rebuttal to Legutkos face after his lecture tomorrow, but the political science department refused this opportunity for someone to challenge/engage/converse with Legutko.”
What happened to “both sides”, Professor Douglas? Sounds like the only side Middlebury admin wants is the hateful one!
Grey Jing,
The Midd Kids have previously used actual violence resulting in actual injury to actual humans to silence voices they don’t want heard, and you equate that (morally???) with a traveling speaker ignoring the friend request of that one professor you think really ‘Get’s IT’ you know what I mean? Like…he really…gets IT. He taught my “Ancient Poli Sci-1947 to 1949” class. Plus he gets high, so you know he’s cooooollll…
Oh, the white nationalist doesn’t get his day to present his ‘ideas’ for ‘debate’….. Flat earthers, racists, idiots who believe the moon is made of cheese don’t warrant time or day on a college campus.
Wow! Yet another example of the results of an education system run by liberals. These kids have turned out to be intolerant of anything that does not fit their ingrained narrative. College has become mostly indoctrination by the liberals who have infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives. Little do these kids know but they are the useful idiots of tyrannical traitors like Bernie, Hillary, Barack, Nancy, Chuck and other members of the deep state hell bent on destroying this once great nation. Kids; get over yourselves, stop being so lazy, accepting what you are being bombarded with and start thinking for yourselves. Study some true history!
Saysme shames people for coddling, yet wants a protective bubble wrapped around this visiting homophobic nationalist ‘scholar.’
But colleges are places to debate whines the far-right purveyors of stupidity and cruelty to others, as if these ideas are new and worthy of discussion in the search for truth.
Our right to advocate using the government to make LGTB people second class citizens is under attack, says Peter. Woe is us, we’re being persecuted…. Sniff, sniff.
Start thinking for yourself, says PRichards. Young students, open your mind to bigotry and intolerance. You will be happier if your government sets rules that make LGBT people second class citizens. Climb down from your fascist pedestals where you learn of such quaint things as slavery and genocide. Here the stories from the great despots of the world and know that they’ve been wrongly persecuted and had their rights stolen from them by rigid morality.
You should always listen, says Cashman. Listen to us who want to use the government to protect businesses that want to fire LGBT people. Listen to us who want to use the government to allow landlords to kick out tenants he suspects of having Teh Gay. Listen to us who want to let churches set government policy on who can marry and have medical decision rights. You’ll be surprised how enlightened you become. And then you wont’ object to us beating up Teh Gays and leaving them on the side of the road.
Colleges and Universities of Vermont: These topics are now considered up for debate, otherwise you’ve stifled discussion and are purveyors of intolerance:
1) Slavery
2) Electricity is Magic
3) Smoking is Good for Your Lungs.
4) Humans Rode Dinosaurs
Please invite all ‘scholars’ and visiting ‘professors’ on the subjects. Enlighten us and free us from the ‘progress’ of the last century.
More loss of freedom on campus. Apparently anyone with an opinion differing from the PC mob can’t share that differing opinion or be allowed the Constitutionally guaranterd right to express that differing opinion or listen to someone presenting a different opinion. Sad time for so called higher education and diversity of thought.
Perhaps for graduation instead of caps and gowns all the kiddies can wear brown shirts with red sashes.
Rob Schneider, I bet these Midd kids know that the “Constitutionally guaranterd right to express that differing opinion or listen to someone presenting a different opinion” (otherwise known as the 1st Amendment) applies to the Government, not a private institution such as Middlebury College.
A+Trout,
Ya done? good.
“You should always listen’ says Cashman”? Where did I say that? You appear to just be throwing out random claims and then ascribe them to people who hold opinions or beliefs you dislike, much like belief blinded ideologs the world over. No one was being compelled to attend this discussion, it was available to those who wanted to attend until the college hosting it stated”… they were concerned that they could not guarantee peoples safety…”.. I am making an reasonable assumption that the threat of violence, based on past events, was from those holding views that you, I again presume, DO agree with who had used violence before to silence viewpoints and could be expected to do so again. Like I said, the true fascists will be known by their deeds, not their words.
You seem to believe that you get to mark certain topics as “off limits”. They are not, that is not an authority you possess. All topics (ie is electricity magic? do Gingers have souls? does the current leftist cultural hierarchy predicated on the idea that we are all victims to some extent and the degree of victimhood and claimed ‘oppression’ should be used as the rubric to rank and amplify the beliefs of those who claim ‘oppression’ at the expense of those in disfavored classes create a generation of whiny toddlers always looking to claim some little bit more ‘victimhood’ or ‘oppression’ in order to get ahead in their social circle? Are anchovies on a pizza an abomination before God and Man?).
Welcome to America, you are fortunate to be here.
The US constitution guarantees freedom of speech. That means freedom to discuss topics that may be opposed to your own set of beliefs. That is one of the main tenets of our freedom and one that is being ignored more and more.
So who gets to decide what is ok and what is not ok? Just because the opinions differ, they have as much right to express them as you do yours. I find the current trend to silence opposing views by groups like this similar to the way other countries like China now and Germany in the 30s shaped public opinion and people were not allowed to make up their own minds.
Hi, all: This post raises plenty of interesting issues. Can you please address the matters at hand? Let’s keep it civil. We’ve had to pull a couple of comments already and we really don’t like to do that.
This is horrible! USA became the new Soviet Union. What a shame!
“The Reich President was authorized, “if public safety and order in the German Reich are considerably disturbed or endangered,” to take steps to suspend “the Fundamental Rights” established in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153. (Article 48″
Google – A Teachers Guide to the Holacaust
Steve Cain, you nailed it on the head.
To paraphrase the comments from these fine defenders of Legutko “
– I just to hear what the good man has to say
– Oooh, I’m intrigued, tell me more
– I’m curious about this thing called homophobia. Maybe I’ll learn how to do it better, European Style.
– Oh, you say this institution of higher learning decided not to give this sterling intellect a large auditorium? My rights have been oppressed! Help, help, I’m being oppressed. Those gays are ruining it for me by having to approve everything.
A_Trout,
The event was cancelled not because “the gays need to approve” but because a particular ideological group has in the past used physical violence to silence viewpoints they disagree with, and implicitly threatened to do so again. Fascist; judge them by their acts.
I came across this thread and as a citizen of the country currently ran by Mr. Legutko’s comrades,the news about the event being cancelled made me feel relieved.
I strongly disagree that banning Legutko from speaking is a sign of the US ‘transforming into Soviet Union’.
Actually, it is Poland that’s being converted back into a horrendous mixture of Totalitarian Soviet Union, 3rd Reich and George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ by Legutko’s fellow party members. Our institutions are now paying the price after years of allowing people like Legutko to freely express their hateful propaganda. Neo-nazism is not just some harmless ‘different point of view’! The costs of allowing such ideas to be freely expressed might turn out overwhelming. Bringing up 30’s Germany might sound childish, but ultimately that’s the way Legutko and his party are taking, while the rest of the World is just standing there watching.
Hearing about Legutko’s ‘lecture’ being cancelled made my day and actually gave thousands of Poles some hope, that at least in some parts of the World, those bastards are taken seriously i.e. as a threat to democracy and ultimately to humanity. We are thankful for such a gesture, since we feel ashamed and terrified by this government.
Above all, I’d like to point out that most of our citizens are neither xenophobic, homophobic, neo-nazis. In fact, z vast majority are not even catholic and they do not support the church, whose propaganda is just hate speech against immigrants, women, LGBT, or people from any different nation other than Polish.
Please, think about us, when you talk about ‘freedom of speech’ to be granted to criminals. And lastly, keep fingers crossed so that our parliamentary elections this fall are not the very last ones to be held in Poland!
Tom
From The Producers at Middle Scary Marsh Mello College!
It’s Spring Time for Hitler and Germany!
Don’t allow freedom of expression to challenge your views and allow your mind to learn more through the diversity of opinion.
Come and join the Middlebury Rally! Join the Middlebury Party!
Can we burn some books like Huckleberry Finn that is considered offense on many college campuses!?
No time for the advancement in true liberal thinking when taking the exact stance as you are in blocking conservative viewpoints! You no longer are a liberal thinking person and you become all part of a mental nepotism that hates and wants to remove any form of dissent and discussion.
“we are reiterating that it was never our intention to shut this event down, nor prevent the speaker from speaking” Bull-f***ing-sh*t
When was the last time a liberal speaker was threatened and cancelled?
> “[Middlebury College officials said] were concerned that they could not guarantee peoples safety as protestors organized. “
Sadly, this may be a reasonable concern, given the demonstrated inability of Middlebury College to control those thugs who have shown themselves willing to use violence to silence speakers whose views they have taken it upon themselves to decide that no one else should even be allowed to hear.