Speech Police in Full Force Across American Academia

""Generally speaking there are no bigger champions of free speech than journalists and academicians; after all, members of both groups earn their livings publishing news and information.

But a disturbing new trend is taking root in America that promises to chill freedom of speech and, indeed, is already having a stifling affect.

As reported by The Daily Beast here and by NaturalNews here, the University of California– whose president, Janet Napolitano, is President Obama's former Homeland Security chief – has implemented a new speech code that at once aims to celebrate America's diversity while essentially tearing at the fabric of its traditions, culture and heritage.

'That's racist and sexist'

The DB report notes the irony thusly:

Fifty years after the birth of the free speech movement at the University of California, Berkeley, officials across the UC system are encouraging faculty and students to purge mundane, potentially offensive words and phrases from their vocabularies.

Administrators want members of campus to avoid the use of racist and sexist statements, though their notions about what kinds of statements qualify are completely bonkers. "America is a melting pot," "Why are you so quiet?" and "I believe the most qualified person should get the job," are all phrases that should raise red flags, according to the UCspeech police.

Such phrases, we are being led to believe, constitute "microaggressions" - defined as "everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership."

So, the "solution" to ensuring freedom of speech, UC style, apparently is to limit speech.

One such microaggressive phrase: America is the land of opportunity. That's "racist" and "sexist."

So far the UC speech code "rules" are merely requests - but because they come from Napolitano, that gives them much more weight. As The DB reported:

On January 5, Napolitano dispatched letters to UC deans and department chairs inviting them to attend seminars "to foster informed conversation about the best way to build and nurture a productive academic climate." That's bureaucrat-speak for learn to keep your mouths shut.

As further noted by The College Fix, seminars were held on nine of the 10 UC campuses throughout the past school year. One professor who chose not to attend shared some of the details and education materials with the publication.

The "microaggressions" were contained in a handout entitled, "Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send." They were adopted from a book byColumbia University Psychology Prof. Derald Wing Sue, which lists dozens of examples of ordinary statements pertaining to America's founding heritage that are now, somehow, offensive.

Saying, "There is only one race, the human race," is offensive, for example, because it denies "the significance of a person of color's racial/ethnic experience and history."

"America is the land of opportunity," really implies that "people of color are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder."

Asking an Asian, Latino, or Native American "why are you so quiet?" is like giving the order "assimilate to dominant culture."

And so on.

Oh, it's a curb on free speech, alright

The really problematic issue here is how such insanity bodes for the country's future. The California university system is attended by tens of thousands of students every year - students whose minds are filled with this ridiculousness and who carry it forth as they begin their professional lives.

Ironically, in response to an inquiry into the seminars by The College Fix, UC spokeswoman Shelly Meron said in an email that, "These seminars are not an attempt to curb open dialogue, debate or classroom discussions."

That, of course, is patently false; if you are accusing someone of committing a "microaggression," are you not then, by process, requesting that said offender not make such statements in the future?""

http://www.naturalnews.com/050401_free_speech_universities_microaggression.html

FCC Unleashes Full 400-page Net Neutrality Onto the Public

""The document, in several sections, points to legal grounds for its action from three sections of the Telecommunications Act as well as past court cases. The FCC invoked "multiple, complementary sources of legal authority," the document said.

Broadband providers and free-market groups slammed the order, repeating many of the same criticisms they have voiced in recent weeks. In some cases, the criticisms came out minutes after the FCC released the 400-page document.

The document "only confirms our fear that the commission has gone well beyond creating enforceable open Internet rules, and has instead instituted a regulatory regime change for the Internet that will lead to years of litigation, serious collateral consequences for consumers, and ongoing market uncertainty," the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a trade group representing large cable providers, said in a statement.

Senior Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate also criticized the FCC order, and called on Congress to pass a six-page bill that would enact limited Net neutrality protections. They also pointed to President Barack Obama's endorsement of Net neutrality rules that reclassify broadband as a telecom service.

"The world finally gets to read and understand just what the White House, acting by proxy via a partisan FCC vote, has done to impose the federal government's heavy hand to regulate the Internet as a utility," Representatives Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, and Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said in a joint statement. "We look forward to working our way through the 300-plus pages of this Washington manifesto."

Some highlights of the order:

-- Broadband providers are prohibited from blocking or throttling legal Web traffic and from accepting payment to prioritize traffic. [Page 7.]

-- The order justifies a "catch-all" standard against these potential broadband provider actions by quoting statesman Benjamin Franklin: "A little neglect may breed great mischief." [Page 9, paragraph 21.]

-- The FCC will also police future broadband practices. The commission will prohibit, on a case-by-case basis, "practices that unreasonably interfere with or unreasonably disadvantage the ability of consumers to reach the Internet content, services, and applications of their choosing or of edge providers to access consumers using the Internet." [Page 59, paragraph 135.]

-- The commission will allow broadband subscribers and Web companies to file complaints about Net neutrality violations. A description of the complaint process runs from page 104 to 118.

-- Broadband access is now a regulated telecommunications service, subject to some rules governing the traditional telephone network. [Page 10, paragraph 29.]

-- The commission, however, will forebear from applying large parts of Title II of the Telecommunications Act, the portion of the law that covers regulated telecom services, to broadband providers. "This is Title II tailored for the 21st Century." [Page 12.]

-- The order does not apply the new rules to back-end interconnection agreements among ISPs, backbone providers and Web services like Netflix. It does however allow the commission to regulate those deals in the future. [Pages 10 and 11.] While the FCC has more than a decade of experience looking at last-mile broadband practices, it lacks a "similar depth of background in the Internet traffic exchange context." [Page 11, paragraph 31.]""

Welcome to the Regulated Telecommunications Internet:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2896218/net-neutrality/fcc-releases-400page-net-neutrality-order.html