I'm Not S'posin'

QUESTION: Did someone call "Conservative" intellectuals to the ramparts over Diversity in Academia--I mean so-called Diversity--this week, or is it the only issue they've got left? I mean, Amity Shlaes is always good for giggles--generally her own--but this is twice for Will this week, and he's got all the charm of a prairie preacher with five daughters.

And there is nothing like a George Eff Will column on the evil thought-control tactics of Diversity, Inc. to remind you just what sort of diversity Republicans have favored since the end of Reconstruction, is there? Dive on in; it's the deep end of "conservative" thought:

Suppose such SGA [Johns Hopkins Student Government Association]-recognized student groups as the Arab Students Organization, the Black Student Union, the Hopkins Feminists, or the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance were to link their Web sites to provocative outside organizations or were to counsel persons not to patronize firms with policies those groups oppose. Would the SGA want to deny them recognition as student groups? Of course not. Obviously, the SGA has acted to express animus against the content of VFL [Voices for Life; guess what they're up to]’s speech and to protect students from the discomfort of disagreement.

Oh, let's try that again:

Suppose such SGA-recognized student groups as the Arab Students Organization, the Black Student Union, the Hopkins Feminists, or the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance were to link their Web sites to provocative outside organizations

Why, have they?

Would the SGA want to deny them recognition as student groups?

How much time do I…

Of course not.

Oh, well then.

Obviously, the SGA has acted to express animus against the content of VFL’s speech and to protect students from the discomfort of disagreement.

Obviously. Except for their explanation, which is that they didn't.

Wait, can we do that again?

Suppose such SGA-recognized student groups as the Arab Students Organization, the Black Student Union, the Hopkins Feminists, or the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance

Suppose you weren't a crypto-racist, sexist, right-wing homophobe who's now reduced to trolling Red State for column ideas?

Really, if the Arab Students Organization website linked to al-Qaeda's Pinterest page? Or the Black Student Union linked to the New Black Panther Party? Suppose they'd been denied student government funding because of that? Would you have complained? Obviously not.

Okay, cheap shot, George, but your sources at Breitbart wouldn't have given two shits about free speech.

And why are those your examples, hmmm? What do any of them have to do with it, aside from the fact that they earn your Holy disapproval? Suppose the Protestant Student Union, or the Muslim Student Association, decided they were going to engage in "peaceful, quiet 'sidewalk counseling'” outside the Catholic chapel, especially targeting young women in parlous circumstances seeking help, or handing young boys fliers on how to recognize priest pederasts, because those groups didn't care for anyone else exercising a Constitutional right?  Would their word be good enough for you? Ever seen any "peaceful quiet sidewalk counseling" as conducted by the morally superior beings who have all the answers, and lack merely enough places to scream them at the rest of us? Would you want your rape-victim daughter subjected to one, on the philosophical grounds that she really needs to hear both sides of the argument?

Enshrined alongside the right of free speech, and of a free press, are their limits. You can't use speech to defame, or incite violence; you can't yell "Theater!" in a crowded fire, or read the Koran out loud on a crowded airplane. Such instances are often contentious. What they aren't is de facto violations of the Constitution, any more than the desire for public safety at 30,000 feet is cowardice, any more than "diversity" is a blanket excuse to harass.

This, of course, is not a free speech issue; Life's spokesmen are free to say or publish what they wish. And Johns Hopkins, the sort of private institution which used to get unlimited support from the Right when it denied Constitutional rights, has a right to establish rules of conduct for those who receive student funds. If your VoLers can't just sit back and enjoy the martyrdom, they can withhold their student fees in protest. They can go to class with duct tape on their mouths. They can join the "pro-Life" groups on campus which manage to operate without harassing women. Or there's always Bob Jones.