[helen___keller]

In a pre-internet society I think universities rightfully earned reputations as being the closest place to a true bastion of inquiry and free speech. There were conflicts and exceptions over the years, but generally universities would lead the way on introducing, refining, and testing the radical discourse that might later go mainstream (or not!)

On the contrary, in the 21st century I don’t think universities own this privilege nor should we pretend that they do. Radical discourse is now almost exclusively introduced, refined, and tested on the internet, then later brought to other venues (including universities). And this is for good reason - the internet is simply more efficient and with less barriers.

To that end, as someone who is not a university professor, I frankly could not give a crap about the state of universities wrt free speech. Every student carries a phone in their pocket with a cellular connection that offers all the free speech and inquiry they could want.

[Biologist123]

I really like this idea. There’s obviously a point where an idea crosses the membrane between individual human and human collective for the first time. And that is obviously not in universities anymore.