Where did I get those numbers?
asserted
I → get → numbers
I made them up, obviously.
asserted
I → make → them
But I’ve been arguing this point for a long time.
asserted
I → argue → time
The epithet “cancel culture” is overwhelmingly used to express disagreement with speech, not to defend speech.
asserted
epithet → use → speech
Rather than a principled description of people trying to prevent others from speaking, it’s a form of special pleading that some kinds of criticism are too mean, too uncivil.
asserted
kinds → try → criticism
It’s certainly possible to approach a speech incident and analyze it in some kind of methodical way, that’s not the way the term is generally used.
asserted
term → ’ → way
It’s generally used to mean “I disagree with these critics and their values and values I associate with them.”
asserted
I → use → them
President Brown is upset that some students protested and heckled Boston University commencement speaker David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros.
asserted
students → protest → Zaslav
With impeccable timing that only a university administration could achieve, BU announced Zaslav as its commencement speaker the day after the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike.
uncertain
Guild → achieve → strike
This generated controversy.
asserted
This → generate → controversy
This led to letters asking BU to “cancel” Zaslav, protest signs, protests, and some heckling and swearing at the commencement, mostly focused on labor issues.
asserted
This → lead → issues
This, President Brown claims, was CANCEL CULTURE.
uncertain
Brown → claim → ?
Our students were not picking a fight.
asserted
students → pick → fight
They were attempting to implement the cancel culture that has become all too prevalent on university campuses.
asserted
that → attempt → campuses
The hundreds of virtually identical protest emails we received in my office in advance of Commencement came with an explicit “cancel” hashtag, indicating an aim to prevent Mr. Zaslav from speaking.
asserted
we → receive → Zaslav
The attempt to silence a speaker with obscene shouts is a resort to gain power, not reason, and antithetical to the mission and purposes of a university.
asserted
attempt → silence → university
President Brown got a lot of similar emails with #cancel in them because labor groups encouraged students and alumni to write them and provided a form.
asserted
groups → get → form
Moreover, the protests and heckling against Zaslav weren’t because he said something controversial.
asserted
he → say → something
The protests were explicitly about labor issues, which is why the chants included both obscenities and slogans like “pay your writers.”
asserted
chants → include → writers
Now, I recognize that it’s fashionable to claim that everyone knows what “cancel culture” means and that it’s just pedantry and dishonesty to claim you don’t.
uncertain
you → recognize → culture
But are labor protests cancel culture now?
asserted
protests → cancel → culture
Is not paying writers a form of controversial expression that we ought to hear out and react to with refined and well-moderated debate?
asserted
we → pay → debate
Or is that all cynical partisan bullshit, a way to delegitimize certain (usually left-leaning) political views while pretending to be noble and pro-free-speech?
asserted
that → delegitimize → views
President Brown’s complaint is a halfhearted yawp, an old-school pearl-clutch about civility dressed up unconvincingly in cancel culture terminology.
asserted
complaint → dress → terminology
He begins with the obligatory genuflection to free speech:
asserted
He → begin → speech
Some graduating students stood and turned their backs to the speaker and displayed signs.
asserted
students → graduate → signs
For a university committed to free speech, protests are appropriate and common.
asserted
protests → commit → speech
The right to protest and freely express strongly held convictions is essential to sustaining the liberal democracy that we enjoy.
asserted
we → protest → that
The protesters were a minority among the 23,000 people assembled on Nickerson Field.
asserted
protesters → assemble → Field
Students and guests applauded and cheered Mr. Zaslav as he described his life journey and offered advice to the graduates.
asserted
he → applaud → graduates
Others listened respectfully.
asserted
Others → listen → ?
As it should be, Boston University is a noisy place of frequent, vigorous debate and discussion and where no one monolithic point of view dominates.
asserted
point → dominate → view
Protests at graduation — including back-turning, signs, heckling, and the occasional rude word are as American as apple pie or school shootings.
asserted
Protests → include → pie
As commentators have long pointed out, a university’s choice of a particular speaker is an expressive act, and protest is a response to that expressive act.
asserted
protest → point → act
None of the coverage I have seen supports the idea that the protesters stopped Zaslav from speaking or the audience from hearing, as the quote above suggests.
uncertain
quote → see → Zaslav
As I’ve argued before, arrogating to yourself the power to decide who can speak and who can listen is contemptible and could reasonably be described as “cancel culture.”
uncertain
who → argue → culture
No, President Brown seems upset that Zaslav and graduates and their families had to hear some heckling and rude words.
asserted
Zaslav → seem → words
But what we witnessed on Nickerson Field during Commencement veered, regrettably, in a different direction.
asserted
witnessed → witness → direction
A handful of students shouted obscenities at Mr. Zaslav.
asserted
handful → shout → Zaslav
I flinched, as my reaction harkened back to my teen years, over half a century ago, on the south side of San Antonio, Tex.
asserted
reaction → flinch → Antonio
…and 37 more, not listed.
