RUTHFULLY YOURS

A student at the University of California–Santa Barbara had to deal with someone threatening to stab him because he dared to write an op-ed with a conservative point of view.

Jason Garshfield wrote a piece in the Daily Nexus, the school’s official newspaper, criticizing the Department of Feminist Studies.

Basically, Garshfield’s piece argued that the department violated the the University of California Regents Policy 3201, which forbids using the classroom “for political indoctrination.” He explained that he himself once took a course in the department, and that it promoted ideas such as gender as a social construct and the “recognition of male privilege,” and that the lessons were taught as fact without giving students the opportunity to contest or debate them.

“How can an academic department which is explicitly named after a political movement possibly claim to be ‘aloof from politics?’” Garshfield asked. “Imagine how you would feel if there was a Department of Objectivist Studies at UCSB. The department was dedicated to promoting Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. All of the professors were Objectivists, and students in the department were taught heavy doses of Objectivism without being exposed to a single dissenting opinion. Would you consider such a department to be ‘an instrument for the advance of partisan interest?’ You probably would.”

Now, you may disagree. But one of his peers, Claire Dorothea, went way, way further than that: She posted on Facebook that she “wanted to stab Jason Garshfield” because of his piece.

After backlash, Dorothea eventually changed the word “stab” to “slap,” but not before a screenshot of the original post was captured by Campus Reform.

Now, whether you think Garshfield has a point or that his article is misogynistic drivel, you should still ask yourself one question: What might the response have been if someone had been threatened for writing an article supporting feminism?

— Katherine Timpf is a reporter for National Review Online.