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Thursday September 14, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 65
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Ivy Professors say ‘Think for yourself’ ON CAMPUS
By Jeff Zymeri and Sarah Warman Hirschfield Senior writers
BRENDAN BUSH PHOTOGRAPHY
Professor Robert George, one of the co-authors of the statement
best antidotes to bigotry.” Lastly, they explain that a bigot is “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.” “The only people who need fear open-minded inquiry and robust debate are the actual bigots,” they add, “including those on campuses or in the broader society who seek to protect the hegemony of their opinions by claiming that to question those opinions is itself bigotry.” On Aug. 30, George appeared as a guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight, a nightly news series on Fox News. On air, he noted that liberals and conservatives alike share the conviction that scholars should be
U . A F FA I R S
committed to truth. He also warned against name-calling, which he described as “out of bounds.” “Epithets like ‘bigotry’ are used all too often to shut down debate,” he said. George added that he wanted to release the statement before classes started in order to reach students. He contacted colleagues who “share this conviction” about truth-seeking to sign the letter. George, a prominent conservative scholar, has defended freedom of thought and expression several times. In March 2017, he coauthored a statement with University professor emeritus Cornel West, currently a professor at Harvard, encouraging academic comBEYOND THE BUBBLE
Twitter account for Ted Cruz ’92 accidentally ‘likes’ porn video
By Sarah Warman Hirschfield senior writer
Sara Cosgrove, TigerCall Manager
COURTESY OF SARA COSGROVE
Annual Giving sets record with donation campaign By Katherine Wang staff writer
When the numbers were finally in, the University community had done it again: Annual Giving had set another record campaign total, raising $74.9 million, the highest total in Annual Giving history, and the first year it raised over $70 million. Annual Giving has supported many unique programs since 1940, enabling the University to provide unparalleled intellectual
In Opinion
munities “to engage with anyone who is prepared to do business in the currency of truth-seeking discourse by offering reasons, marshaling evidence, and making arguments.” Signatories to West and George’s statement included professors, students, parents, and members of the clergy. University professors whose names appear on the letter include George, Maria Garlock, Joshua Katz, Thomas Kelly, John Londregan, and Michael Reynolds. Other signatories include Yale professors Paul Boom, Nicholas Christakis, Carlos Eire, and Noël Valis; and Harvard professors Mary Ann Glendon, Jon Levenson, Jacqueline Rivers, Ty-
opportunities and need-based financial aid. According to the official campaign website, undergraduate alumni accounted for more than 80 percent of the total amount raised, with the Class of 1967 raising the greatest amount — more than $11 million. This cycle marks the sixth consecutive year that graduate alumni have raised more than $1.5 million, totaling $1,684,413 from 2,862 donors, and the tenth consecutive year University parents have conSee GIVING page 5
Senior Columnist Liam O’Connor criticizes class-based affirmative action, and Senior Columnist Hailey Siegel challenges Wonder Woman as a feminist icon. PAGE 8
The Twitter account of Senator Ted Cruz ’92 liked a porn video on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, Cruz clarified that a member of his staff accidentally liked the post from @SexuallPosts. It took an hour before the video was unliked early Tuesday morning. “[T] he offensive tweet posted on @tedcruz account earlier has been removed by staff and reported to Twitter,” tweeted Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier just after 2 a.m. Later that morning, Cruz told reporters the incident “was a staffing issue and it was inadvertent. It was a mistake.” He added that a “number of people” had access to the account and that he was not the one who liked the video. Later, he joked that “[p]erhaps we should have done something like this during the Indiana primary.” Cruz’s denial fell on the deaf ears of @SexuallPosts, which thanked the senator “for watching.” “Follow for the Same Porn @TedCruz Watches,” reads its Twitter bio. Cruz quickly became
subject to mockery from screenwriter Craig Mazin ’92, Cruz’s freshmen year roommate, who tweeted, “Now imagine Ted Cruz is doing this four feet below you in the bottom bunk bed.” “Sadly, the fact that Ted Cruz jacks off to mediocre porn spam is the most human thing we can say about him. This is actually his high point,” he wrote on Twitter. Mazin declined to comment for this article, writing “I’ve said all I have to say about it,” in an email. In 2007, as a Texas solicitor general, Cruz defended a state law banning the sale and advertisement of sex toys in order to protect “public morals.” His legal team argued that “obscene devices do not implicate any liberty interest” and that “any alleged right associated with obscene devices” is not “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” “There is no substantive due process right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship,” reads the brief.
Today on Campus 5 p.m.: Nassau Street Sampler at Princeton University Art Museum. Featuring fun food, fine art, and all your friends.
“Ted Cruz thinks people don’t have a right to ‘stimulate their genitals.’ I was his college roommate. This would be a new belief of his,” tweeted Mazin last year. Cruz explained in an interview on Wednesday that he was just doing his job as solicitor general, saying that he thought the law was “stupid” and “idiotic.” He also asserted his belief that “consenting adults should be allowed to do whatever they want in their bedrooms,” and criticized the media for being “obsessed with sex.” Cruz’s presidential campaign team also drew criticism when — unaware of her background — it cast a porn star in a campaign video. In his book, “A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America,” Cruz recounts how he, as a 26-year-old law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, watched porn with some of the justices in order to determine whether Internet porn should be regulated. “As we watched these graphic pictures fill our screens, wide-eyed, no one said a word,” Cruz wrote.
WEATHER
On August 29, a group of professors from Princeton, Harvard, and Yale released a statement encouraging students to “think for yourself.” The statement was posted on the website of the University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, an institute headed by one of the letter’s co-authors, Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence. The program is “dedicated to exploring enduring questions of American constitutional law and Western political thought,” according to its website. “‘Think for yourself’ used to be a platitude,” reads the statement, “But in today’s climate of political correctness, it’s radical advice.” Quoting English philosopher John Stuart Mill, the authors warn students about “the tyranny of public opinion,” which discourages minority thinkers from challenging prevailing moral and political views. “Since no one wants to be, or be thought of as, a bigot or a crank, the easy, lazy way to proceed is simply by falling into line with campus orthodoxies,” the letter says to students, telling them to “Think for [themselves].” The authors encourage students to seek truth in their intellectual pursuits. “Open-mindedness, critical thinking, and debate are essential” to this end, they write, and “are our
ler VanderWeele, and Adrian Vermeule. Debra Parker, program manager for the James Madison program, deferred comment to Politics Professor John Londregan, one of the statement’s signatories. Londregan explained that the commitment to free speech does not change in a world of “alternative facts.” “When [Counselor to the President] Kellyanne Conway coined the term ‘alternative facts,’ our exercise of free speech turned her into a laughing stock,” he said. “In a world of censorship, Conway’s feelings, which were doubtlessly hurt by the derision she prompted, would have led to silencing of her critics, and Conway would have shifted from buffoon to Orwellian tyrant.” Londregan also noted the perception that fringe skeptic groups place pressure on freedom of speech. “Unhinged groups are those that are most marginalized when the inconsistencies of their reasoning are exposed through open discussion,” he said. “Of course, sometimes there are groups on the fringes who have an argument worth listening to, and with free speech, we are able to sort through both sets of arguments, discard the craziness, and benefit from the useful – if unpopular – insights of others.” Londregan presented a full account of his decision to appear as one of the statement’s signatories in an letter to the editor for the ‘Prince.’
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