Neighbors turning in neighbors for wrong-think cultivates the habits of an unfree society. We shouldn’t train students to do it—and we certainly shouldn’t build hotlines for it.
So much of what you do at FIRE is just common sense if one truly believes in the 1st Amendment's guarantee of Free Speech. As I read this, I was kind of surprised that you were only coming to this particular position now, because it, too, is just good common sense. And that's before even getting to the added sociological issue of whether or not to stand in opposition to "snitch" systems, for which authoritarian regimes are so notorious - of course we should be standing against them. While I am surprised it took you this long to get here, a hearty "Congratulations!" on doing so.
Once again you make me feel good about my FIRE membership. This is very important work if we are to maintain our free society. It is time for me to watch Fahrenheit 451 again. What Greg is describing is perfectly portrayed in the 1966 film, where public fireboxes/mailboxes are provided by the authorities so that citizens can snitch on their neighbors for reading or hiding books. Burning those books can earn the destroyer a larger house.
We are in a perilous situation where universities, most of which are arms of the government, are realizing what were only dystopian nightmares. Do they not know what dystopian means? Do they not understand that it is bad? Have they earned the right to shape our young people?
This policy shift at FIRE is a massive win for civic resilience. My name is Daniel and I work with the newly formed Center for Self and Civic Rationality (CSCR), we look at this through the mechanics of 'Touch' and 'Friction.'
A functional public square requires 'High-Touch' (body-to-body) and 'High-Friction' (uncomfortable) conflict resolution. Bias reporting systems do the exact opposite: they train students to default to a 'Low-Touch, Low-Friction' cowardice. Instead of looking a neighbor in the eye and dealing with the raw Signal of a disagreement, students retreat to a sterile, anonymous digital form. You cannot build a resilient mind or a free society if the immediate reflex is to outsource your friction to an administrator.
I appreciate FIRE taking up this issue and particularly appreciate the subhead: "neighbors turning in neighbors for wrong-think cultivates the habits of an unfree society. We shouldn’t train students to do it—and we certainly shouldn’t build hotlines for it." As you write, this was an idea that originally found some favor as a way to avoid speech codes but has morphed into a problematic hedge on free speech. As the subhead previews, it also normalizes a kind of tattle-tale surveillance state that is destructive of a democratic community.
I note, though, that the examples you provide are of reports for a common set of "woke ideas" about police, vaccines, etc. While no doubt still relevant and concerning, I'd recommend naming some emerging issues, for example, around support for Palestine or anti-Zionist ideas, discussions about policies associated with DEI, or discussions of literature that may offend Conservative students.
I also think it's worth noting that the tattle-tale hotlines have also entered workplace culture in the invitation to government workers to report their colleagues for wrong-think or parents to report teachers, usually at the K-12 level, for comments that may have made their children uncomfortable. While workplaces represent slightly different situations, it is the culture of the hotline that is similar and worth calling out.
You should also add an equal-application, equal-protection, requirement. If whites are expelled for calling blacks the n-word, then blacks who call whites the n-word must also be expelled.
Of course blacks do use this language towards whites, with very vicious threat-intent, about a hundred times more often than any white ever tells a black he's an n-word.
This is not unexpected, when only one kind of racial slur is punished.
Make it the same for all racial slurs: cracker, white-trash, etcetera. The double standards have got to go.
I get the impression from the text and a comment or two posted that there's some confusion about vaccines. Since when have vaccines been "woke"? Be careful about painting with too wide a brush. For example, vaccine mandates are well established to reduce and sometimes eliminate infectious disease (see also smallpox, measles, poliomyelitis & there are more). So this is the weight of evidence and argument in science. Others may dislike vaccines and vaccine mandates, and that's free speech. But those opinions aren't "backed by scientific data".
And -- please! -- don't conflate this (complex) vaccine mandate question with other issues such as the sex binary -- male and female, a fundamental biological reality, thoroughly established and only recently under subversion and attack by post-modern culture/science ideologues. The arguments for "sex spectrum" for example, are not generally well received in science despite the recent publicity. To paraphrase Helen Joyce -- gender-woo breaks law, science, medicine.
During COVID, I was pro-vaccine, anti-mandate. I still am. Mandates are an assault on bodily autonomy.
But from a free speech perspective, it matters not one whit whether I am right or wrong here. I, and everyone in America including university students, have a First Amendment right to express our opinions without being intimidated or snitched on by the university thought police.
This is a dystopian nightmare. You could see a scenario where FIRE is criticized for criticizing the suppression of free speech. After all don’t universities and other institutions have the right to turn in neighbors and other students and expect punishment for offenders ?. Is that free speech also ? That’s how they seem to think.
Well said. The UK is dealing with this full scale - let’s not turn into that.
The UK is full of nazi shitheads who voted for corbyn
https://open.substack.com/pub/marlowe1/p/job-chapter-29?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=sllf3
yeah. and not to mention the crushing transphobia.
Well said.
It is great that you are looking into this institutions that support suppression of speech and freedom
So much of what you do at FIRE is just common sense if one truly believes in the 1st Amendment's guarantee of Free Speech. As I read this, I was kind of surprised that you were only coming to this particular position now, because it, too, is just good common sense. And that's before even getting to the added sociological issue of whether or not to stand in opposition to "snitch" systems, for which authoritarian regimes are so notorious - of course we should be standing against them. While I am surprised it took you this long to get here, a hearty "Congratulations!" on doing so.
Once again you make me feel good about my FIRE membership. This is very important work if we are to maintain our free society. It is time for me to watch Fahrenheit 451 again. What Greg is describing is perfectly portrayed in the 1966 film, where public fireboxes/mailboxes are provided by the authorities so that citizens can snitch on their neighbors for reading or hiding books. Burning those books can earn the destroyer a larger house.
We are in a perilous situation where universities, most of which are arms of the government, are realizing what were only dystopian nightmares. Do they not know what dystopian means? Do they not understand that it is bad? Have they earned the right to shape our young people?
👏👏👏👏
stop making so much sense, Greg, or I’ll need to place a call to the Nonsense Hotline(tm).
Thank you for working to curb this dangerous trend of reporting people.
This policy shift at FIRE is a massive win for civic resilience. My name is Daniel and I work with the newly formed Center for Self and Civic Rationality (CSCR), we look at this through the mechanics of 'Touch' and 'Friction.'
A functional public square requires 'High-Touch' (body-to-body) and 'High-Friction' (uncomfortable) conflict resolution. Bias reporting systems do the exact opposite: they train students to default to a 'Low-Touch, Low-Friction' cowardice. Instead of looking a neighbor in the eye and dealing with the raw Signal of a disagreement, students retreat to a sterile, anonymous digital form. You cannot build a resilient mind or a free society if the immediate reflex is to outsource your friction to an administrator.
Daniel J Cogan
I appreciate FIRE taking up this issue and particularly appreciate the subhead: "neighbors turning in neighbors for wrong-think cultivates the habits of an unfree society. We shouldn’t train students to do it—and we certainly shouldn’t build hotlines for it." As you write, this was an idea that originally found some favor as a way to avoid speech codes but has morphed into a problematic hedge on free speech. As the subhead previews, it also normalizes a kind of tattle-tale surveillance state that is destructive of a democratic community.
I note, though, that the examples you provide are of reports for a common set of "woke ideas" about police, vaccines, etc. While no doubt still relevant and concerning, I'd recommend naming some emerging issues, for example, around support for Palestine or anti-Zionist ideas, discussions about policies associated with DEI, or discussions of literature that may offend Conservative students.
I also think it's worth noting that the tattle-tale hotlines have also entered workplace culture in the invitation to government workers to report their colleagues for wrong-think or parents to report teachers, usually at the K-12 level, for comments that may have made their children uncomfortable. While workplaces represent slightly different situations, it is the culture of the hotline that is similar and worth calling out.
You should also add an equal-application, equal-protection, requirement. If whites are expelled for calling blacks the n-word, then blacks who call whites the n-word must also be expelled.
Of course blacks do use this language towards whites, with very vicious threat-intent, about a hundred times more often than any white ever tells a black he's an n-word.
This is not unexpected, when only one kind of racial slur is punished.
Make it the same for all racial slurs: cracker, white-trash, etcetera. The double standards have got to go.
I get the impression from the text and a comment or two posted that there's some confusion about vaccines. Since when have vaccines been "woke"? Be careful about painting with too wide a brush. For example, vaccine mandates are well established to reduce and sometimes eliminate infectious disease (see also smallpox, measles, poliomyelitis & there are more). So this is the weight of evidence and argument in science. Others may dislike vaccines and vaccine mandates, and that's free speech. But those opinions aren't "backed by scientific data".
And -- please! -- don't conflate this (complex) vaccine mandate question with other issues such as the sex binary -- male and female, a fundamental biological reality, thoroughly established and only recently under subversion and attack by post-modern culture/science ideologues. The arguments for "sex spectrum" for example, are not generally well received in science despite the recent publicity. To paraphrase Helen Joyce -- gender-woo breaks law, science, medicine.
During COVID, I was pro-vaccine, anti-mandate. I still am. Mandates are an assault on bodily autonomy.
But from a free speech perspective, it matters not one whit whether I am right or wrong here. I, and everyone in America including university students, have a First Amendment right to express our opinions without being intimidated or snitched on by the university thought police.
One interesting trend here is how bias-reporting systems are now getting enshrined by new right-wing higher ed reforms. Indiana now allows anyone to file a complaint against "intellectual diversity": https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/iu-has-almost-50-intellectual-diversity-complaints-against-faculty
Texas now has an "ombuds" office designed to consolidate reporting of things that make students feel uncomfortable: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/16/gov-greg-abbott-names-head-of-new-office-to-investigate-higher-ed-complaints/
The irony that systems initially set up by the left to police speech are now being gladly adopted by the right.
FIRE is on fire. Thank goodness for them
This is a dystopian nightmare. You could see a scenario where FIRE is criticized for criticizing the suppression of free speech. After all don’t universities and other institutions have the right to turn in neighbors and other students and expect punishment for offenders ?. Is that free speech also ? That’s how they seem to think.
if it was saying the earth was flat and getting a zero. sure. i think the student is doing the same but… this is a police stazi. this is snitching.