A right-libertarian professor got caught up in a political correctness controversy, and talks about how the ACLU helped him resolve it.

From the professor’s version, it appears he went out of his way to show that he is not too sensitive to gay people, and this led to some complaints. Then, rather than smooth anything over, he threw a little gas on the fire.

Whatever, we’re a bit too sensitive these days in many settings. I point out this story because it shows what happens when the “system” gets triggered.

In the case excerpted, the student may have been too sensitive first, but then the professor got his dander up and became too sensitive in return and inflamed the situation.

No one wins this kind of fight. The student’s “cause” gets bad press and he hurts his own movement. The professor’s reputation gets damaged.

Who’s more to blame? The professor, I think. He knew he was playing with fire by illustrating an economic principle using the lifestyle of homosexuals.

Is it political correctness to add sexaul preference to the list of things that we’d better be diplomatic about in private discussion? For example, we are usually careful before, face to face, ridiculing each others’ religion, or income, or family, etc. When a teach teashes, he is having what amounts to a private conversation with his class, and he should be diplomatic.

Then, when he writes his articles and books, or give a lecture that is by invitation or admission fee only, he can “let it all hang out.”

My Battle With the Thought Police by Hans-Hermann Hoppe: “I have long regarded the political correctness movement as a threat to all independent thought, and I am deeply concerned about the level of self-censorship in academia. To counteract this tendency, I have left no political taboo untouched in my teaching. I believed that America was still free enough for this to be possible, and I assumed that my relative prominence offered me some extra protection.

When I became a victim of the thought police, I was genuinely surprised, and now I am afraid that my case has had a chilling effect on less established academics. Still, it is my hope that my fight and ultimate victory, even if they can not make a timid man brave, do encourage those with a fighting spirit to take up the cudgels.

If I made one mistake, it was that I was too cooperative and waited too long to go on the offensive.”