Justice Dept. wants universities to police and prohibit sexualized speech that anyone objects to

Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2016-05-02 21:13

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Justice Department is telling universities that they have the obligation to investigate and prevent even individual instances of:

  1. saying “unwelcome” “sexual or dirty jokes”
  2. spreading “unwelcome” “sexual rumors” (without any limitation to false rumors)
  3. engaging in “unwelcome” “circulating or showing e-mails of Web sites of a sexual nature”
  4. engaging in “unwelcome” “display[] or distributi[on of] sexually explicit drawings, pictures, or written materials”
  5. making “unwelcome” sexual invitations, and likely
  6. making sexist statements that some listeners or readers find “unwelcome.”

This is not limited to material that a reasonable person would find offensive. Nor is limited to material that, put together, creates a “hostile, abusive, or offensive educational environment.” (I think even speech codes that would have these requirements are unconstitutional, but the speech codes that the government is urging would in any event not have these requirements.) Every instance of such speech of a “sexual nature,” under the government’s approach, would be “sexual harassment,” and would have to be investigated when a complaint is filed, and prevented for the future. And the same logic, if accepted, will likewise extend to racially themed speech that some people find offensive, plus probably also anti-gay speech and the like.'

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Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Pay everything you got.

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Submitted by el cid on Mon, 2016-05-02 21:31

http://www.cato.org/policy-report/januaryfebruary-2010/criminalization-almost-everything

"In his foreword to my book, Alan Dershowitz discusses his time litigating cases in the old Soviet Union. He was always taken by the fact that they could prosecute anybody they wanted because some of the statutes were so vague. Dershowitz points out that this was a technique developed by Beria, the infamous sidekick of Stalin, who said, “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.” That really is something that has survived the Soviet Union and has arrived in the good old USA. “Show me the man,” says any federal prosecutor, “and I can show you the crime.” This is not an exaggeration.

How does this play out in the United States? To some extent, the weapon is aimed at unpopular citizens and groups. It isn’t the primary impetus, but it is certainly a tool, for example, for going after Muslims or any political opponents who seem to be standing in the way of a prosecutor’s political ambitions. For the most part, though, these prosecutions are random. They sometimes have to do with the ambitions of prosecutors and sometimes there are prosecutors who think it’s their job to clean up the world or country. But, fundamentally, I don’t understand the motives behind the use of these weapons. I’m not a sociologist, I’m not a psychiatrist or psychologist, I can just tell you that these weapons are sprung with alarming and increasing frequency."

And the biggest "unpopular group" du jour is... you got it!

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2016-05-03 00:43