Why we call them jackboots - today's edition

In a world at least a little less insane, these thugs would be out on their ears:

James Damore, the author of the widely-publicized Google memo, was interrupted during his remarks at Portland State University over the weekend. Activists planned a walk out and smashed sound equipment as they exited the event hall.

A group called the “Free Thinkers” hosted Damore, along with secular free-speech writer Helen Pluckrose and former Evergreen State College professors Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, to discuss the topic of diversity in the workplace. The panel was moderated by Peter Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State, who wrote the parody-style hoax academic journal entry “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct.”

Leading up to the event, Antifa made threats to the event organizers and posted flyers around campus.

“James Damore was fired from Google for going on a sexist tirade in a company memo… His misguided and anti-scientific rhetoric is not acceptable at PSU,” the flyers read in part.

But you see, the world is that insane. These goose-steppers were enabled by their own campus administrators:

College administrators also organized three counter events, totaling seven hours of programming.

Portland State spokesman Chris Broderick told Fox News that the university rejects Damore’s “ideas as sexist stereotypes.”

However, Damore mentioned during his remarks that his memo included ways to better women in tech and that failing to identify the problems only hurts the outcome of women in STEM fields.

His criticizing of the company’s internal gender diversity policies were an attempt to better diversity, not the other way around.

This did not sit well with protesters, however. A member of the audience screamed that the panel on diversity was not diverse enough.

Student organizer Andy Ngo says that he invited many professors from the women’s studies department at Portland State in hopes that they might present an opposing viewpoint, but none accepted his offer to contextualize the event. 

While it becomes increasingly hard to find something banality-free to say about these all-too-frequent stompings on free speech and thought, we must take care not to become inured.  This is a war for our civilization, and it's won or lost one such incident at a time.