Berkeley's Robert Reich agrees no conditions on free speech at campuses; students should be intellectually provoked

by Carolyn Yeager

ON ABC SUNDAY, ANN COULTER AND FAR-LEFT BERKELEY PROFESSOR Robert Reich were on a segment together with moderator Jon Karl. Reich is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, where Coulter was denied the right to speak. Reich, a Jew, served in the Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations.

I ask, does Reich's approval for provocative topics apply to holocaust denial too?

Karl: Are you concerned that there is a growing view among young adults that freedom of speech simply does not apply to *offensive* speech?

Robert Reich: To the extent there is that view I am concerned. One of the purposes of a university education is to be provoked, to examine what the evidence is, and if somebody says something that is offensive, well, that is not per se a violation of any kind of university norm, and quite the opposite. I tell my students all the time, the best way to learn something is to talk to people who disagree with you, because that forces you to sharpen your views, and test your views. And you might even come out in a different place. A university, of all places, is the locus where we want to have provocative views, we want to have views that some people find to be offensive.

"Coming out in a different place" is exactly what the Established Left doesn't want to happen. Universities have become places of one-sided indoctrination, not free and open thought.

But beyond that, this raises the issue of the discipline of Holocaust Revisionism (now always prejudiciously called Holocaust Denial) that is totally forbidden on every college campus. This is tightly enforced by the far left and Jewish academics that control schooling throughout the U.S - so much so that no one would attempt to bring it up on this television program. It is considered completely out of bounds.

Yet, according to what Robert Reich said, it exactly fits what should be allowed on university campuses. What is wrong with this picture?

"Examining the evidence" is what led to the growth of the revisionist influence in the 1970's and '80's. By the 1990's holocaust historians were on the run - they could not answer the questions raised by revisionists about their contrived narrative. The Holocaust Lobby turned to the politicians to enact laws in Europe to make "examining the evidence" a criminal offense. The USA's first amendment stopped them, but they used their media power to demonize revisionism, and in the 2000's managed to deport the best known revisionists, who thought they had refuge in the "free" USA, to face charges in German courts. They were given stiff prison sentences.

After that, revisionists could be described as felons and neo-nazis indiscriminately, and the movement has continued to be attacked from just about all sides. The latest assault: Amazon, the world's largest bookseller, dropped all revisionist titles from it's inventory at the behest of Jewish organizations. On what grounds they don't even say. It can only be "the feelings of Jews." So much for the flowery language that universities are places where provocative, even offensive views are welcome. Write to Robert Reich and ask him to explain his position on 'debating the Holocaust' on college campuses. On his contact form here: http://robertreich.org/  Or at Berkeley here: [email protected]