This past February the Janus Forum welcomed scholars Jonathan Rauch and David Shih to debate whether or not free speech should be restricted on college campuses. David Shih, associate professor of english at the University of Wisconsin advocated for restrictions saying,
“The marketplace of ideas is a space where ideas struggle for truth and bad ones fall away or burn away, and what remains is truth to be enshrined as knowledge. This is my claim, the marketplace of ideas paradigm does not change the racial status quo. Hate speech is therefore not a means to a truthful end and it may just be the end. One reason for this is because when it comes to ideas about race in the market, americans are less rational consumers because of their personal experiences or their absence of them”
What are your thoughts: Should hate speech be left to fail in the marketplace of ideas? Or should race be an exception that we regulate?
If you missed the debate you can watch it here: