SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOFT TOTALITARIANISM:

“This is absolutely chilling Have there been racist and offensive tweets by A&M students? No doubt, and shame on them. But what counts as ‘racist’ and ‘offensive’?”, Rod Dreher asks:

Do you trust an American university in this current climate to fairly sort out unambiguously racist tweets and social media posts from ones that simply state an opinion on matters pertaining to protests, riots, and the like, that do not conform to progressive dogma? I do not. I absolutely do not.

How far back do these searches by A&M go? A week? A year? What if an incoming student posted something racist or otherwise offensive in high school, but repented? Is A&M going to deny them a college education now? What if they posted something that was perfectly acceptable six months ago, but which is now considered racist? Drew Brees simply reaffirmed his previous stance on not kneeling during the National Anthem, and he was widely trashed as racist (he apologized). Nobody can know

Nor do I want universities policing the private speech of any student, however offensive. Unless the student is calling for specific acts of violence, or unlawfully abusing (slandering, etc.) someone else at the university, why is it the university’s business to hunt for heresy?

Read the whole thing. As Iowahawk once said:

A lot of academicians apparently view The Lives of Others as a how-to guide for better education:

And note that Stasi-like spying is likely only getting started: