University of Florida stripped Jeffrey Harrison of emeritus status. Here is the initial post:
There is a lot of commentary about Charlie Kirk. It’s not that complicated. He was a evil person spounting [sic] all kinds of hateful messages. I did not want him to die. I reserve that wish for Trump. But let’s face it, even members of the Gestapo and guards at the concentration camps had children. That does not make them heros [sic], nor does it make Charlie Kirk someone to be admire.
When that blew up, he posted this:
I am getting a lot of hateful commentary about a recent post in which I did not want Charlie Kirk to die but it would be fine with me if Trump did. The latter sentiment i have seen on Facebook scores of times. This avalanche of hate came after someone reposted my original post on X. This leads me to ask if X has gone over, even more than Facebook, to Trumpers?
UF announced the loss of emeritus status on Friday.
The comments (and thanks to the Florida Phoenix for quoting the posts) are telling because–again–the only piece that could basically warrant sanction has nothing to do with Kirk. Offering negative, hyperbolic opinion about the dead does not create a sufficient disruption to warrant employment sanctions. Only wishing death on Trump comes close to the line and I doubt it crosses it. So whatever censorship wave targeted anti-Kirk comments has morphed into targeting people who criticize dear leader.
The nice question is how we understand emeritus status. Do academic freedom and First Amendment protections continue to apply, as they would have when Harrison held an active job and tenure?
I will close with a link to Eric Segall’s new post highlighting (in a very Segallian way) how precarious things seem right now.