Barrett Faculty Reply
Did they have a sound argument?
Three of the Barrett Honors College faculty who signed the letter calling Dennis Prager a white nationalist bigot replied in an opinion piece in the Az Republic. Keep in mind, these are professors who teach honors students. They expect their students to learn how to think and how to offer sound arguments with evidence and citations in papers. Parents of potential ASU honors students, is this the level of thinking you want the professors who will teach your children to display in public? Their original letter, and now their defense of that letter, gives you a look into their thought process and will let you be informed as to whether Barrett is a good fit for your child. Donors, consider how these faculty treated Mr. Lewis and the insults they hurled at him.
They begin by looking at how Robert George and Cornel West, who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, are able to interact civilly and respectively. And they should follow that example. But they didn’t. This is the group of faculty who immediately resorted to insults about their political opponents. You won’t find George or West behaving that way toward each other. These faculty should follow that example and not merely mention it. Do as they say, not as they do.
The faculty write that they stand by their argument. What was their argument? When you read their original letter, you won’t find an argument. You will find insults supported by citations from Media Matters (a radical leftwing resource). This behavior is on display for the public to see. This is how these Barrett Honors faculty conduct themselves in public. Do you have any reason to think they can teach students to think critically, carefully construct arguments, and support those arguments with objective evidence?
They tell us that they didn’t want the event canceled, they just didn’t want it in ASU’s premier setting, Gammage Auditorium. Let’s follow that line of thinking. They tell us that the speakers are white nationalist bigots who will hurt ASU students. But then they say their only concern is the venue. So they want white nationalist bigots to speak at ASU? Well, no. But they also don’t want them canceled. See the self-contradiction? They backed into this argument after getting called out on their attempts at denying free speech, which only makes their argument more incoherent.
So they began with insults (ad hominem attacks), then contradicted themselves about whether they wanted the event held at ASU or not, and told us they stood by their argument. But what was their argument? They never gave one (not one that got above informal fallacies). Why didn’t they take time to show why Dennis Prager’s view of morality and marriage is false? Dennis Prager believes that God made man male and female and that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. Can they show there is no God? Or that God exists but did not make man male and female? Or that while God did make male and female, He does not limit marriage to one man and one woman? They cannot and didn’t even try. And this is because they operate in the category of “power” not “truth.”
Parents, potential students, and donors, the thinking process of these Barrett Honors Faculty is on display. No professor would give a good grade to a paper like this from a student. How can a professor who thinks this way teach others? They’ve told you who they are. Believe them.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2023/06/25/asu-faces-threat-democratic-debate-not-from-faculty/70347432007/