In response to the Wall Street Journal editorial which I just posted, with the permission of the Journal, I wrote the following letter. I don't think they ever had space to print it, so I reprint it here. This standard is absurdly vague. MIT administrators can't tell me, but they do confirm they might punish me if I violate the standard. Regrettably, campuses are no longer the only places in society without free speech.
Most speech takes place in schools and commercial establishments.
And college administrators are able to hide their restrictive speech codes behind EEOC guidelines and harassment laws, allowing them to evade criticism from students challenging censorship and ideological persecution. Unconstitutionally, the government uses our schools and employers as intermediaries in a war on free speech. By their own definitions, many harassment policies constitute harassment. Many reasonable people at MIT find that the vague and arbitrary constraints on their speech create a hostile, offensive, and intimidating environment. Inoffensive speech needs no protection, since no one wants to ban it.