Dean Saxton, a student at the University of Arizona, is hanging out on campus with a “You Deserve Rape” sign. Because you’re dressed like a whore, of course, so you’re asking for it. The University says there’s nothing they can do, because he hasn’t violated the student code of conduct. I would suggest that maybe it’s time to rewrite the student code of conduct?
Question: what is preventing a group of normal students from accompanying this freak everywhere with signs saying, “You Deserve Rape, Dean Saxton”? They could also chant this phrase at him loudly. If the campus allows him to do it, I’m sure everybody else can do the same. And if the students are too toothless to do that, then whom can they blame for their toothlessness?
I don’t get the people who complain that the university isn’t doing anything about this while refusing to do anything about this either. If he bullies people, he needs to be bullied back, hard. Everybody who stands by impotently while he is doing this is complicit in his actions. The entire campus is to blame for this.
Clarissa's Blog 
If only I would be be there, the entire thing would be finished.
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Such things can only happen when there is a tacit collective agreement to make them possible.
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““I think if he’s trying to, you know, get people to know God, I think he’s just doing it wrong,” said Paola Gonzalez, a pre-pharmacy sophomore. “It is free speech, but I still disagree that he should be able to call other people names and we can’t call him names. He shouldn’t be able to call us names, either.””
WTF????
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You should call him names, this is the only thing that he can understand.
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I agree completely.
What’s with just sitting there, waiting for the “grown-ups” to take care of things? This is not the issue for the administration. This is an issue for the students.
Of course, this is also an excuse for endless committees of bureaucrats to get started to address the problem.
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Can this jerk be compelled by the uni. to meet with a psychologist in order to assess his condition?
If the jerk is just a jerk and not an incipient schizophrenic, I recommend ignoring him. If one simply can’t resist the urge to say something, it should be on the order of “Who cares what you think, dude?”
It is pleasant to contemplate a parade of swimsuit-clad women marching past the jerk, and waiting for said jerk to lose it. But jerks like this thrive on attention and wither when deprived of attention.
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“Can this jerk be compelled by the uni. to meet with a psychologist in order to assess his condition?”
– He’d have the right to sue, I’m sure.
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“Question: what is preventing a group of normal students from accompanying this freak everywhere with signs saying, “You Deserve Rape, Dean Saxton”? They could also chant this phrase at him loudly. If the campus allows him to do it, I’m sure everybody else can do the same. And if the students are too toothless to do that, then whom can they blame for their toothlessness?”
What you suggest would certainly work. And I would love to see a group of students take that approach to his vile behavior. But, in my personal view, students shouldn’t _have_ to resort to such aggressive tactics in order to experience a basic level of respect and safety on campus.
I’m very assertive and the thought of following someone and getting in to an aggressive argument makes me feel tired and stressed– and that’s not why I went to a university and certainly not why I teach in one now. HE is the problem–not the students who aren’t ready to confront him. Students shouldn’t have to take time out of their days to explain to this hateful bigot why his poster is unacceptable amongst civilized human beings.
I believe in free speech and I’m a strong supporter of protests but not all speech is protected. The most classic example is that someone can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theatre. In the same vein, slander and libel are both actionable offences and hate speech is banned on most campuses and workplaces. I feel certain that the student would be prohibited from displaying a sign that celebrates the holocaust or from holding a sign that proclaims that lynching was a great idea. By the same token, the student shouldn’t be able to proclaim that violence against women is justified–especially given the sad reality that many female college students have been victims of rape and that many “college rapes” remain unreported.
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The real reason is that people fear they would be lowering themselves to his level. Passive behavior maintains an aura of goodness and perfection, but participation in real action risks the possibility of failure or distress. Why sully one’s unblemished “A” in morality by doing anything? After all, you paid money to the educational facility to give you a slip of paper that will enable you to earn more than before. That is why you are here. Not to risk involvement or to address ethical issues.
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“I believe in free speech and I’m a strong supporter of protests but not all speech is protected.”
From what you write here it doesn’t follow that you believe in free speech. Quite the opposite, actually. Seems like you’re saying ‘free speech is fine, as long as it is not offensive to me’. Which is the whole point of free speech, no?
“The most classic example is that someone can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theatre.”
-The most classic. And the most wrong. More here: http://civil-liberties.yoexpert.com/civil-liberties-general/is-it-legal-to-shout-%22fire%22-in-a-crowded-theater-19421.html (Cliff notes: Not illegal).
“In the same vein, slander and libel are both actionable offences and hate speech is banned on most campuses and workplaces.”
Well, slander and libel are specific claims made about a person. ‘She is a thief, who stole $xxxx and has a bank account in the Cayman Islands where she keeps her stolen money, tax-free’. Calling someone an idiot, or a slut, or whatever is generally classified as opinion, which makes it different, and allowable. I think one of the greatest things about the US is that, unlike most countries, it allows all kinds of rubbish, filter-free hate speech. You’d probably get sued in the UK for calling the prime minister an idiot, and here you have Alex Jones having his own radio show with millions of listeners claiming 9/11 was an inside job by the government, haha.
“I feel certain that the student would be prohibited from displaying a sign that celebrates the holocaust or from holding a sign that proclaims that lynching was a great idea. By the same token, the student shouldn’t be able to proclaim that violence against women is justified–especially given the sad reality that many female college students have been victims of rape and that many “college rapes” remain unreported.”
I disagree. Arresting someone for holding a sign saying holocaust didn’t exist is downright scary. If it’s a private institution they get to make their own rules, but someone peddling their gibberish on public property (a public university, for instance) should not be stopped from expressing their opinion. Would you ban Klan rallies on the streets? I wouldn’t. ACLU routinely defends Klan members, and rightly so. Those people deserve their rights too, no matter how heinous their opinions.
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I think people should be allowed to say whatever they want on the street. In the workplace? At a university? There should be basic rules guiding civilized discourse.
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Yeah, of course. What is he doing that is so threatening? Is he being violent? Is he shouting or in any way drowning out all opposition? He seems like an attention-seeking idiot holding up a sign. Maybe he’ll an enlightening conversation with a feminist and will change his mind. His life is screwed anyway. Let’s see how a potential employer feels about him when they google his name. What will he ever do in life to make up for the #1 search result on his name NOT be about ‘you deserve rape’? He’d have to cure AIDS AND Cancer for the internet to forget about this issue.
Plus, isn’t a university the *best* place for, say, a holocaust denier’s opinion to be challenged? Where else will a person like that learn the error of his ways? You ban him and all his conspiracy theories come true (‘They don’t want the truth to come out. Feminazis control the campus.’ etc.)
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GOOD point about the guy’s potential job search. I feel very comforted. Thank you!
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In the workplace? Sure. In university-organized events? Of course. But applying the university’s authority to keep a student from spouting his drivel on the campus of (I presume) a publicly-funded university crosses a line, I think. The university continuing to allow his sign-waving does not in any way constitute an endorsement of his views. In fact, having the university stop him would be counterproductive – one-man protests like his are usually founded on a me-against-the-world, speaking-truth-to-power attitude, and the power noticing him would only validate his delusions of grandeur. Naaah, what you do with this sort is public mocking by his peers, which has the added benefit of making the people who feel threatened by what he says an active part in stopping his sermons, which should help them feel they have more control over any similar assholes they might encounter.
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Bullying him like that is harassment. There’s nothing stopping people from forming their own protests or taking some sort of action. But as soon as it targets an individual it becomes harassment. He’s on a public campus, and unless he’s naming or talking about specific individuals, he’s covered by the First Amendment. It might seem horrible, but it’s still true. Students who disagree with him are allowed to protest, or go to the administration and ask for a public dismissal of his actions. Unless somebody asks for that, the administration is likely to do nothing. Which is fine, and in no way constitutes endorsement. But at the point where students are telling this particular student that he deserves rape, that crosses a line and could be seen as harassment.
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So? Create a sign that says, “Those who incite rape deserve rape.”
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If it’s stuff that can be construed as directly threatening, such as saying he deserves rape, I agree. What I had in mind was more like a bunch of people showing up with signs ranging from contradicting his views in the same generalised way in which he express him to ones mocking him and his views whenever he starts preaching on campus. Seriously, if no young woman shows up and stands next to him with a completely blank expression on her face, appropriately modest clothes and an “I’m with stupid” t-shirt, the students are failing at life. You’d need a bunch of people around to get the dynamic right, but if it got to this point, it shouldn’t be a problem.
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In which he expresses them, not in which he express him. Bah.
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Also, do they make “I’m with stupid” aprons? An apron over an old lady dress would work even better. Especially if accompanied by the proper glassy stare.
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This is a great idea. Carnavalesque strategies work great.
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You have some really good ideas. I was responding to the post, though. 🙂
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In this case, it would be super easy to stand in front of him and claim his sign addresses you personally. And then have him up on charges of harassment.
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When groups like the “Genocide Awareness Project” (An anti-abortion group who compares abortion to massacres like Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide, the Bosnian genocide, Wounded Knee, Holodomor, and others) comes to university campuses in Canada, university’s local pro-choice groups will counter-protest. I remember when they came to UBC, my friends went over there armed with protest signs warning people that there was graphic, disrespectful/lying imagery ahead, warned people to take another route if they wanted to avoid it, and also protested in front of them with signs like “If I wanted the government in my vagina, I’d fuck Stephen Harper” and other pro-choice slogans.
When I was at university in the US, we had similar incidents with anti-choice groups, but the response was much more lukewarm and less proactive. I’m not sure what the difference was.
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There’s no threat when you say “Dean Saxton deserves rape”. This is not “We will rape you, Dean Saxton”.
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