For some reason, Bud left the TV on CSPAN2 and they were covering a David Horowitz speech at Duke...
I once went and saw Ann Coulter speak at CU in Boulder. I did this for the spectacle of it, and I was not at all disappointed. While Horowitz is not Coulter, and Duke is not Boulder, it was still a fairly impressive display of what passes for “open mindededness” and “free speech” in the world of liberals.
To open the event, the student organizer listed off the organizations which had helped fund Horowitz's appearance. He then listed off the organizations which had declined, and the audience cheered each, as if not being willing to hear Horowitz speak is some sort of badge of honor.
Throughout the speech, Horowitz was being heckled in various ways, though much of it was off mic and hard to hear. It didn't appear to be as rampant and lunatic as the heckling Coulter received when I saw her speak, and at times there was applause for Horowitz's retorts, but it was apparent that the audience was interested in attacking him as visibly as possible.
This was made particularly apparent at start of the Q&A phase, when a woman, ostensibly a professor, “asked” him a series of “questions,” which were really no more than petty personal insults. What made this particularly humorous, was that she was wearing a t-shirt accusing him of censorship, even as she and her cronies attempted to shout him down, and cheered for organizations that didn't want to hear his opinions.
I think there's two major things I noticed that stand out for me:
First is the huge role that public display plays in the liberal mindset. Wherever you find conservative activity going on, there's a good chance you will find a liberal somewhere nearby, attempting to notify anybody who will listen of just how much they disapprove. There's a need in the liberal psychology to repeatedly assure themselves, for the record, that they didn't support this or that. When David Horowitz speaks, they need to show up and get on frame, frowning. When Bush goes to war, they need to march around with signs saying it's not their idea. Liberals seem to think that as long as the record shows that they didn't support something, that's a good thing.
Conservatives march and protest too, albiet far less than liberals, but I think the reasons are different. Marching and protesting are valid, if minimally effective, means of influencing the world. Conservatives will utilize them for that reason. I think liberals understand that as well, but I think they provide the double benefit of allowing the liberal to be SEEN disagreeing.
How many cars have you seen with conservative bumper stickers? How about liberal ones?
The second thing I've noticed concerns race... The last person to ask a “question” of Horowitz was a saucy, confident little halfie girl, who had all sorts of knowledge to drop. She told him her name “cause she wanted him to remember it” ostensibly after the rhetorical ass-whipping she was about to deliver, which basically consisted of telling him that “it's not black studies, it's African and African-American studies.” Like, holy crap, you got him with the “we change our title every 5 years trick, sista soldier! SNAP” He then went into all sorts of detail about different universities with different programs, and various black thinkers who she should read, and it was generally hilarious to watch him give an answer that was twenty times more sophisticated than she could possibly understand.
What this really highlighted for me, though, is that black people in this country are taught to be liberal first, and black second. That's probably why they don't understand that they're being treated like slave votes by the Democrats, and it's definitely how they can attack people like Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Thomas Sowell. It's pretty simple. If you're about “blackness” then Condoleeza Rice is your girl. If she's not, then you're about liberalism first, blackness second.
I'm not saying you can't be... I'm just saying that if you're gonna prance around, acting like you're black above all else, and that's what defines you, then make that the case. Otherwise, admit the truth, admit that you're liberal above all else, and if blackness gets in the way of leftist causes, you'll cut it loose.