Insanity is just another opinion

A Skeptic on 9/11 Prompts Questions on Academic Freedom

“I want to avoid as much as we can creating some kind of a political test for instructors or faculty, to say that only those whose thinking fits within some predetermined mold are well equipped to teach our students,” Mr. Farrell said. “I think that creates a dangerous precedent.”

There are countless topics which no professor would dare raise in university classrooms all over the nation. "Hate speech" regulations and "diversity" being the buzzwords for a kinder, gentler totalitarianism, insanity somehow slips through the cracks. Let's talk about gender affecting intelligence! Whoops, you're fired.

Anyone who's seen this Barrett nut on TV knows he's at least six or seven slices short of a full loaf. But being in a protected class (Muslim convert) means he can spew any venom he wants to a captive, paying audience. If we offend him he might kill us after all. And it would be our fault for offending Barrett's hypersensitive belief system. As the essayist fjordman notes:

In this age of Multiculturalism and cultural relativism, the only places we can identify evil and fight it are in fictional worlds, be that the Middle Earth of Tolkien or the Hogwarts of JK Rowling. Maybe that's why it's such a relief to visit them, if only for a few hours. In the real West, our Universities would advice us to negotiate with Sauron and identify his legitimate grievances. Our media would say that the real reason why the Orcs kill people is because they suffer from institutionalized racism and Orcophobia. We would all get sensitivity training, invite Orcs to settle in our major cities by the millions and teach our children about the richness of Orc culture.

Barrett's "freedom" to speak is totally and fairly constrained by the subject matter. If I were to teach a class on American history, and I practiced Scientology, it would not be proper to go into a week-long diatribe on Scientology's theory of alien seeding of the planet. Barrett is trotting out the same "theory" one might hear on a seedy street corner in Karachi. Does nobody see the obvious connection between Barrett's newfound faith and his penchant for Jew-hating conspiracy theories?

When did Bush hatred and conspiracy theories, not bordering on, but right in the heartland of insanity become intellectual topics?

The New York Times has overgenerously labeled Mr. Barnett a "skeptic." Really? I thought skeptics were on the sharp edge of Occam's Razor.

You be the judge:

Intellectual?

What about this?

Would you call these people "skeptics"?
The traditional theory suggests people trample crops with boards. Needs a good shaking out perhaps?

Speaking truth to power?

You want credentials?

I have a theory that the Left has become completely unhinged from reality. They could not deal with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and have been rooting aimlessly for something to take down the horrible American Empire ever since. In their desperation they've hitched onto a Seventh Century belief system which features misogyny, beheadings, kidnapping, suicide bombing, and snuff videos. Despite thousands of fatal, brutal attacks, admissions by the culprits on video, celebrations in the Middle East, millions of witnesses, and the lionization of the "Magnificent Nineteen" the Left simply couldn't adjust to 9/11. That particular attack, moreso than the first attack ON THE SAME TARGET in 1993, actually caused Americans to perceive a real external threat. That meant greater support for Israel and more defense spending, violating the two main catechisms of the Left since 1967. Worst of all, they feel George W. Bush stole the 2000 election from Al Gore and will do anything to bring him down.

Think I can get a grant to study it further?