David Horowitz speaks on freedom of speech on campus and elsewhere.

By G. Tod Slone on December 22nd, 2009 at 6:20 pm

What I suppose irks me with regards Horowitz and others, on the right and the left, are the thousands and thousands of dollars they rake in by doing campus speeches–100s of them, said Horowitz, which might very well translate into well over a million dollars for his pocketbook. I’ve asked the same question about Teddy Kennedy’s and Bill Clinton’s millions of dollars earned on what they call public service, which has become a sad euphemism for self service and get rich quick. Money tends to pervert everything in America, including and especially democracy. Horowitz gets invited left and right because of his Republican Party credentials. Party-affiliation serves only to diminish democracy and Horowitz’ own pro-democracy stances. Horowitz would be a lot more credible if independent of either of the two corrupt parties ruling over America. He seems to praise Bush, who nearly caused the nation to crash. Where is the logic in that? Moreover, he seemed to indicate during his speech that he was risking leftist insult without remuneration. If he is getting paid, he should inform us. He says he “subjects himself to this because [he wants] to teach.” But isn’t he really subjecting himself to it to make massive amounts of money? If not, he should inform us. Celebrity needs to be questioned and challenged. Instead, citizens worship it blindly. There are plenty of other possible speakers in the country, who have not achieved Horowitz celebrity. They too should be invited to give speeches.

Horowitz should avoid stating “leftists,” as if all leftists think and react the same (e.g., “but of course you can’t conduct an intellectual argument with leftists because all they know how to do is scream and rant and call you names”). By doing that, he simply mirrors the same behavior for which he criticizes the left. Moreover, Horowitz partakes in the same kind of name-calling for which he accuses the left when he states regarding the students who silently stood up and simply turned their backs to him: “These students are either brain dead or they’re malicious.” Peacefully protesting students, who did not really disrupt anything, were requested to leave. How does that jive with free speech?

Finally, how not to agree with Horowitz regarding the anti-Jewish statement on USC’s website? However, if in fact the First Amendment permits such a statement, as I suspect it does, then it should not be removed. Instead, the administrators who double-speak on issues of hate speech should be removed. Moreover, it is important that such Islamist statements of desire to butcher innocent human beings be presented openly for in that sense we can be better informed and know precisely what is in the mindset of the Islamist.

Yes, I’m available for a speaking engagement (hahaha!).

G. Tod Slone, (unemployed) PhD and Founding Editor (since 1998)
The American Dissident, a Journal of Literature, Democracy & Dissidence
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todslone@yahoo.com
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