Free speech and individual rights
ARE his (and evidently "their"?) thing. I certainly don't begrudge them that, and defend their right to engage in public discourse on the subject.
But he does have a history of courting media attention and controversy on the subject, exploiting his professional position to do so, and that article from 7y ago is only one such example. I bear it in mind (and mention it here) only because he's willing to throw pretty much anyone under the bus in the name of pursuing that idealogical goal (individual rights, apparently).
http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/04/wither-goes-free-speech-at-harvard/“In Unlearning Liberty, author Greg Lukianoff describes a perfect storm of highly-tuned cultural sensitivity, bureaucratic bloat, and fear of litigation that has created a stultifying atmosphere on campuses nationwide where unpopular ideas and offensive language are policed to an absurd extent.” — Erika Christakis and Nicholas A. Christakis, Time
He
does have an agenda, whether or not one agrees with it. I'm pointing out that he seems to be an idealogue, operating in the service of that larger agenda. It is what
led to that op-ed in BMJ, and I strongly suspect that it led to his wife's e-mail and him standing in a quad surrounded by agitated and screeching students.
He went there for the express purpose of making his point. In light of that,
of course he was calm-- the wilder the undergrads got, the better his point is made, after all. He does understand how to work the media to make a point.
The ivory tower is filled with idealogues. He's unusual in that his views are more Libertarian than most in that particular milieu.
On a side note, yeah-- won't mom and dad be proud of
that video? Ouch.
