Tolerating the Intolerable

There's an old saying attributed to Voltaire:  I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.  Such stupidity is what you get when you listen to the ramblings of dead white men.

How can any womyn, she of the sacred interior plumbing, be a political conservative?  Don't they understand that conservative men only want to control them and their ladyparts?  How can they speak of the individual (pfft!) when there's a community of sisterhood out there?  I hate to paraphrase another dead white man, but don't they know that if they don't hang together they shall certainly hang separately?

We progressives are enlightened and tolerant, but that tolerance can't and won't extend to conservatives.  Oh, it will extend to the peace-loving peoples of the Middle East, whom the evil conservatives tell us will essentially enslave womyn (an oppressed group in the West) and torture gay people (another oppressed group in the West), but it does not and can not extend to the evil conservatives who tell these lies.  Well, maybe they're not actually lies, but are rather reactions to the cowboy diplomacy of our previous president.  It's a good thing that we now have smart diplomacy and that America is a respected and valued member of the world community again.  I like knowing that the rest of the world loves us now.

But I'm getting off track--the track that conservative womyn like Ann Coulter should be tied to just before a train comes.  See, Coulter is intolerant.  No one should listen to her.  What she says is bad, is "unmutual".  Kudos to the president of Fordham University for speaking truth:

…Student groups are allowed, and encouraged, to invite speakers who represent diverse, and sometimes unpopular, points of view, in keeping with the canons of academic freedom. Accordingly, the University will not block the College Republicans from hosting their speaker of choice on campus.

To say that I am disappointed with the judgment and maturity of the College Republicans, however, would be a tremendous understatement. There are many people who can speak to the conservative point of view with integrity and conviction, but Ms. Coulter is not among them. Her rhetoric is often hateful and needlessly provocative-more heat than light-and her message is aimed squarely at the darker side of our nature.

I cannot bring myself to congratulate the College Republicans for rescinding her invitation:

When the College Republicans rescinded their invitation to Coulter, saying they didn’t “vet” her properly, McShane said the university had passed its challenge “with flying colors.”

What, should we give them an award or something for finally doing the right thing--for once?  Our universities should not be places where speech like Coulter's is tolerated.

Only positive, enlightened, intellectual speech should be allowed on our campuses.  F*** those Republicans.

 Update, 11/15/12:  It was all a joke, I didn't really turn liberal :-)