Scroll down to read this post.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands. Instead, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation:

4. A Paypal subscription:


5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.


Pushback: University eliminates “bias reporting” option that allowed any student to anonymously squelch dissent

An afterthought at Southern Utah University
An afterthought at Southern Utah University

Bring a gun to a knife fight: After receiving a threat of legal action [pdf] for violating the first amendment rights of its students, South Utah University (SUU) eliminated a “bias reporting” option on its website that allowed any student to anonymously squelch dissent, simply because he or she did not like what the other person said.

Southern Utah University (SUU) removed a tab from its campus safety website where students and officials could report alleged “bias” or “hate” incidents after the Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), a non-profit legal group, challenged that it violates students’ rights to free speech, SLF confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

SUU defined a reportable incident as a “form of expression or action that is motivated wholly or in part by prejudice or bias” which may not “rise to the level of criminal activity or illegal or prohibited discrimination, but its effect is to discriminate, demean, embarrass, assign stereotype, harass, or exclude individuals” based on characteristics or status, according to an archived version of the website. Non-criminal reports were relayed to the Office of Human Resources or the Dean of Students Office.

The original website, with the “bias incident” tab, is archived here. The language in that tab was incredibly vague, and gave university officials the right to punish anyone for practically anything they said, based on accusations that could even be anonymous.

The university’s official website no longer includes this tab, but if you are student at SUU you should still be prepared to be sanctioned if you publicly disagree with any leftist or queer. First, the website still allows students to make accusations anonymously, as noted at the bottom of every tab: “Any report can be made anonymously by using EthicsPoint,” which links to a webpage providing the ability to make accusations on a “totally confidential and anonymous basis.”

Second, the university still allows complaints using very similar and vague guidelines under its discrimination tab:

Discrimination is partiality or bias in the treatment of a person or group that is unfair or illegal. One can be subject to unfair treatment that is not illegal under university policy or state or federal law. An example would be being treated unfairly because someone doesn’t like you or because of your political affiliations. Discrimination in violation of university policy is treating someone differently based on a protected class. A protected class is a group of people protected against discrimination by university policy or by state and federal law. At Southern Utah University, the protected classes are: color, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, veteran’s status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and genetic information. Complaints also may be filed for harassment, including sexual harassment, and retaliation. [emphasis mine]

The likelihood of this university protecting any conservatives if they are “treated unfairly because someone doesn’t like you or because of your political affiliations” is slim to none. These rules are there solely to protect the left and its allies in the queer community, and to silence any dissent by conservatives.

Nonetheless, the effort of the Southeastern Legal Foundation in this case did bear some fruit. Southern Utah University recognized it was legally liable, and took action to reduce its liability. Its administration also now probably realizes that if it abuses the rules it has kept in place, such as the discrimination rules above, it is being watched and will be caught doing so.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation also sent similar letters to eleven other colleges, with another producing similar positive results at the University of Maine. As with SUU, Maine revised its bias reporting website to make it clear that it continues to honor free speech.

The Bias Reporting Team (BRT) website now links to the university’s Free Speech Policy and clarifies that constitutionally protected speech is “not subject to the university disciplinary processes or a formal investigation.”

The kind of adults modern universities want to produce
The kind of mindless adults modern universities want to produce

That universities need to have the First Amendment explained to them tells us how bankrupt modern academia is in the United States. Rather than making free thought and healthy debate as their primary teaching goal, universities now promote close-mindedness and censorship, in order to protect the feelings of their students.

Thus, victories like this are mere pinpricks in the gigantic mass of oppressive intolerance being taught at these schools. Better to never attend them then to go there and fight constantly for the right to speak freely. If enough college-age students avoid such intolerant institutions, the lack of new students could hopefully force reform. And if these universities still refuse to change, they will then face a well-deserved bankruptcy.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

15 comments

  • Ray Van Dune

    Hey kids, your opinion on free speech is worthless if you think it applies only to speech you agree with!

  • mpthompson

    Thus, victories like this are mere pinpricks in the gigantic mass of oppressive intolerance being taught at these schools.

    Lancing a festering boil starts with a pinprick.

  • Evergreen College (Tacoma WA), famous for it’s Progressive culture, has seen enrollment fall 28% since 2019, and they have cut their tuition by 30%. The joke in Washington is that you meet many who have attended Evergreen, but none who have graduated..

  • Max

    Zimmerman finished the article by saying;
    “If enough college-age students avoid such intolerant institutions, the lack of new students could hopefully force reform. And if these universities still refuse to change, they will then face a well-deserved bankruptcy.”

    Although I agree with this statement… Fascism will not give up control to the unwashed masses, it will continue to indoctrinate our future. No woke university or college will have “lack of funding”. It’s a public/private partnership thing.
    Gives an entirely new perspective on Bidens education debt forgiveness…

    “Colleges and universities received $1.068 trillion in revenue from federal and non-federal funding sources in 2018“.
    (A breakdown of numerous federal agencies spending billions on “politically correct” education.)
    https://usafacts.org/articles/what-do-universities-do-with-the-billions-they-receive-from-the-government/

    In another article, I was reading a question asking why so many universities are still recommending vaccination shot, which is proven “not to be safe or effective”… The answer was, universities receive twice as much funding from the government as it does from the students…

    I’ll try to find the article.

    As for SUU (Southern Utah university in Cedar city…)
    Most of my family, three sisters and a brother and numerous nieces and nephews got their education there.
    (Dixie college was recently made into a university, 50 miles further south in St. George, but was forced to change its name to Utah Technical University because of wokness standards)
    SUU is mostly for a small local town/region and very conservative university. Just goes to show that the “fundamental transformation of America” is affecting everywhere! There is no corner that is being overlooked.

  • Max wrote, “Universities receive twice as much funding from the government as it does from the students.”

    This is approximately true, coming from either the states and the federal government either in direct budget funding, grants, or tuition guarantees. It is why I repeatedly say voters need to demand their elected officials, especially at the state level, take action, using the power of the purse to make these colleges feel real pain.

    Just passing bills that ban things like critical race theory is pure failure theater without cutting the financing to these schools.

  • Cotour

    For the New Year: It’s all related.

    THE POPE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE CHURCH?

    (Understand, there are always two conversations underway, and the conversation that you are a part of does not always count at the highest levels)

    Power is power and those who possess and control it do not surrender it willingly and in time will certainly abuse it. Whether that power be deep within government, deep within corporations, or deep within the church (Any church). The potential is ever present, bet on it. Where does the foundation of Liberal / Socialist thinking live and thrive? Within our ideological government agenda, within our ideological corporate agenda and within the ideological Catholic church’s agenda.

    Socialism DOES NOT WORK! There is no contrived version of it that works, it can only result in desperation, oppressive control of the masses, death and destruction. You are a modern “progressive” (D)? You are “woke (D)”? You believe the current proposed ideological flavor of Socialism is superior to the flavor that Mr. Hitler proposed? Well, it’s not! It is the same exact thing that results in the same exact results.

    The only practicable solution lies within the confines of the Constitution, and the Constitution has been highjacked by these ideological deep state operatives within our government, our corporations and within the church and it now permeates our culture and society.

    And like it or not it is up to you the people to somehow wrest your freedom back and away from these abuse of power actors. Be not confused or complacent.

    Archbishop Vigano: “5. They would like to transform the Vatican into a retirement home for popes emeriti, demolishing the papacy and securing power: exactly the same as what happens in the deep state, where, as I have already said, Biden is the equivalent of Bergoglio (current Pope Francis).”

    Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò (QTE) on Twitter: “5. They would like to transform the Vatican into a retirement home for popes emeriti, demolishing the papacy and securing power: exactly the same as what happens in the deep state, where, as I have already said, Biden is the equivalent of Bergoglio.” / Twitter

    There is the Deep state government mafia I.E the DOJ, FBI, CIA etc. and their agenda that we are coming to better understand is really who is choosing politicians in America through their control, influence and manipulations regarding media and empowered politicians.

    How much does truth cost in America today? $44 billion dollars. Most everything else is a half-truth or a straight out lie.

    And then we have the “Deep state Catholic church mafia” which is defined as being driven by the “St Gallen mafia” deep within the highest ranks of the church.

    *The St. Gallen mafia would meet at a Benedictine monastery called “Fischingen.” The group of high-ranking prelates strategized their “regime change” by attempting to shift the Church’s teachings in a more liberal direction, notably on the following issues:

    Priestly celibacy
    Offering Communion to divorced-and-remarried Catholics
    Voting for pro-abortion politicians
    Ordaining women priests
    Normalizing homosexuality
    ————————-

    GOD & SPIRITUALITY V RELIGION V BUSINESS V POLITICS

    1. The business of religion of all stripes at every point in human history has been used and abused in the quest of the few in pursuit of control and power over the many.

    ​2. The business of religion of all stripes at every point in human history has acted not always in the interests of what they have purported to represent themselves to be acting in the interests of.

    ​3. The business of religion of all stripes at every point in human history has been used as a ruthless tool in the abuse of power in the furtherance of business and politics.

    ​4. The business of religion of all stripes at every point in human history selectively teaches the exclusion of some.

    5. Humanity needs God, spirituality and religion and must be cognizant of their nature as it relates to those subjects and where the business of religion in all of its forms and politics can deliver them.

    6. All intellectual structures, entities and concepts of man have the potential to be perverted, corrupted and the power derived there of abused. jgl 4/3/21

  • pzatchok

    Anonymous reporting of anything just lends itself to the spreading of falsehoods. Lies,
    Even the police do not like anonymous tips. They want some way to follow up on evidence.

  • Max

    A new book showing how it’s all related… Epstein, Bill Gates, and trump all had a connection. How the deep state got its power. (I always wondered why the media and Democrats endlessly promotes Trump even when he’s out of office, they can’t seam to let him go… Perhaps they are not done with him yet and need him back)
    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/12/joseph-mercola/one-nation-under-blackmail/

    There are other unusual articles On this website including about some of the nefarious history of the Catholic popes… and digital prison for us all.

    Just one which details the Covid vaccine is a must read. It is a product of “the department of defense” under operation warp speed and that the pharmaceuticals really had no connection to the product. They were told what materials to mix, how to distribute them and how to store them. They didn’t even know what was in the shot and under emergency authorization, they don’t have to tell them or you. That’s why there was no insert with the shot in violation of federal law.
    Fauci was working for the department of defense. Under this arrangement, no other vaccine manufacturer can compete and will soon be bankrupt. This is just the beginning of the complete takeover of the healthcare system by the DOD. Try telling the military “my body my choice!“

    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/12/no_author/evidence-of-the-conspiracy-to-commit-mass-murder-by-the-dod-hhs-sasha-latypova/

  • Cotour

    THE BLUEPRINT, FINALLY YOU WILL UNDERSTAND

    (I write this as a middle of the road reasonable and respectful Conservative and offer those in the “Progressive” camp to attempt to read this with some degree of objectivity. We are all being gaslighted. I apologize for the volume of this email, but it is what it is and you must understand this. IMO of course.)

    What will you understand? All of the insane un and anti-American actions your government has been so desperately taking in as fast a manner as possible. The insane destroy the economy economic policy, the insane open border importation of illegals, the forcing of the trans issue and promoting gender and sexual confusion on children and women, the feminizing of men, destroying the definitions of words and terms, destabilizing and destroying religion and the church, the ability to mandate the population to accept the injection of experimental drugs into their bodies as directed, the destruction of all current social and cultural norms. This is all elite ideology, and it all must be destroyed! Why?

    It is essential to destroy / raze what *IS* in order to rebuild society in the manner as some “visionaries” insist it must be reformulated and rebuilt. And that is exactly what we are all witness to in the incongruous actions of our current American government (D).

    Hillary (D) was supposed to deliver what we are all witness to today, but someone threw a big orange monkey wrench into what was supposed to be. And he and the country and the world continue to pay dearly for his traditional American resistance and audacity to stand in the agenda’s way.

    Do you remember how much truth costs in America today? $44 billion dollars. See: E. Musk.

    And this all really began in earnest IMO with the George H. W. Bush (R) administration where he always stressed the “New World Order”, “A Thousand Points of Light” agenda. Democrat, Republican, RINO, Liberal, Leftist, it’s all ideologically the same in the end. And this agenda has continued with the Clinton, Bush jr / Cheney, Obama, Biden administrations. They have all served up America to this Globalist agenda.

    It is about absolute political power and absolute control of everything, PERIOD!

    In my constant combing through Youtube and the media / news as it is presented, I have finally arrived at what the “Progressive” / “Woke” / Democrat / RINO, we must destroy America in order to reformulate America in order to make it more “equal” and the actual philosophical blueprint it is primarily based on. Your country is being destroyed for a reason.

    Have you ever heard of Jacque Fresco and The Venus Project? Jacques Fresco is apparently the person that is the architect and social engineer and has the vision and philosophical ability to 180 degrees change the world and human nature. Wow! No money, no banks, no work, no crime, no need for laws or law enforcement etc. Human beings are apparently fundamentally good and there is no need for such things in Mr. Fresco’s opinion.

    Remember as per the World Economic Forum: In the future you will own nothing, and you will be happy”. This is apparently where that comes from.

    James Madison: “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

    You see it being expressed in our country currently in the “Progressive” dominated (D) state and Federal government policies. This Venus Project appears clearly to be the ideological blueprint for most all of it. It is all the same though.

    Mr. Fresco in his youth rejected Marxist / Socialism, but in the distillation of his long life he has essentially designed a world bathed in Marxist / Socialistic ideology of control and the Globalists have latched onto his “truth” and made his dream utopian world their own.

    Any of this sound familiar?

    Jacque Fresco, U.N. award, “Reengineering our Future”: https://youtu.be/lVNZBHIXMlw 6:34 min.

    Jacque Fresco, industrial designer, “Social engineer”: https://youtu.be/_EkMjTnWk14 4:39

    The Venus project: The Venus Project

    Zeitgeist: Addendum: https://youtu.be/3FvKzSBSQcc 2 hrs. Both truth and propaganda.

    My assessment: If you have taken the time to view this rather long email and the Zeitgeist: Addendum video you will be witness to every evil, perversion, corruption and deadly potential that the power of Capitalism can express within the confines as it is of the Constitution. Pure Strategy Over Morality.

    Unregulated by the people Capitalism is just as equally deadly and oppressive as the worst that Socialism and Communism can promise and deliver. Bank on both, it is a sure bet.

    The other side of the equation which is conveniently not gone into in the Zeitgeist: Addendum is the guaranteed evil, perversion, corruption and deadly potential that Socialism and Communism deliver every time it is tried. The video only focuses on the evils of the Ying (Capitalism within the confines of the Constitution) and apparently gives the Yang (Socialism and Communism which is from its inception authoritarian, tyrannical, despotic and deadly) a pass in order to adopt some of its more “attractive” principles of control and compliance in effecting the Venus Projects principles and agendas?

    The Constitution, which is a proven social experiment in governance, although it has been dragged way, way, waaaay too far into the perversion and corruption of a particular worldwide uni party political power model of control is still the only socio-political model of governance that offers any hope.

    That is if the people of America can understand how they are being gaslighted and deceived by their leadership in both parties and the media who are in power and reclaim their power. It may in fact have gone too far and we are on a road that no one desires. But we may in fact be there. Tell me, what was the last thing that came out of the government that you considered truthful and not plain manipulation?

    The Venus Projects “Progressive” / “Woke” / Socialistic model promises a new world organization where in order that it can succeed all of the people on planet earth MUST be made to obey, comply and surrender most all and every personal desire regarding their freedom, their self-interests and their self-determination. Is the Venus Project realistic? Not without great violence and oppression IMO.

    The Constitution is the only mode of governance that has any chance of battling this current abomination in American governmental perversion, corruption and the dragging of things back into some measure of a reasonable middle ground.

    The first thing that the Constitution structures is political warfare, and so we must fight the war and its battles every day and therein lies all our salvation. That struggle is what keeps our system healthy and viable and when it becomes usurped, perverted and corrupted as it has become, and the people cannot wrest their rightful power back from these really evil players on both sides of the political equation then all is lost.

    The “progressive” Venus Project and the hopeful “Brave New World” that it promises many IMO is a fraud and a gaslighted head fake that must result in absolute power over an obedient mass of the population of the earth.

  • Cotour: I’ve said this to others and now I’ll say it to you. If your comment goes to moderation posting it a second and a third time won’t change anything. Instead, just be patient and I will eventually get there and approve it.

  • Cotour

    Sorry, thought there was a glitch, there is usually a “You have already posted that” page that comes up which did not appear.

    Happy New Year :)

  • Cotour

    How much does truth cost in America today?

    $44 billion dollars: See: E. Musk.

    https://youtu.be/j2LcqaQvSvY

  • Max

    As a follow up on Evergreen College, all of California schools are in trouble. Three years of declining enrollment, they might even have to start laying off teachers and staff…

    “No group of students was immune. Across racial and ethnic groups, enrollment of Black and Native American students declined at the highest rates, followed by Latino and Filipino students. A higher share of men left — 20% — although more women actually dropped out. And the system lost a third — 47,000 — of its oldest students, those 55 and over, between fall 2019 and fall 2021”

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-18/california-community-college-enrollment-plunges

    Reason I’m reporting this is that it was on the news locally in Utah that college boosters and promoters from the north east, south west, and California are actively pursuing students in Utah because Utah has children.
    Some are promoting that they will pay for the tuition if they come to their schools to keep their schools open. But they must finish and graduate.
    Mr. Zimmerman‘s prediction is coming true, online enrollment has proven the campuses are no longer relevant or it’s too much work to actually show up.
    My brother sent me a show that’s way too long discussing why so many people are not going back to work. Big brain stuff. 1:10 minutes long but you get the gist of it in the first 15 minutes.
    https://youtu.be/GFb4rXMADvg

  • Cotour

    Related: An excerpt from a discussion I am having with a “Progressive”:

    “Progressive”: *I disagree that socialism is by nature corrupt and perverted.*

    Me: All and every form of governance (and religion for that matter), formulated and conceived by man (and woman) any and all have and have proven throughout time to have the absolute potential to become corrupt. No matter how idealistically perfect they may sound. Why is that?

    Because these are structures and concepts of governance crafted by man (and woman), they as a result accumulate and acquire real power over people, resources and treasure (Money). All and every model of governance from its inception has and will without doubt deliver corruption. And socialism is right up there with the best.

    Socialism over time must result in communism and absolute control over people, places, treasure and thought. And it will result in the selection of certain kinds and classes of people who need to be let’s say removed from the equation :(

    You cannot name a successful model of socialism that delivers freedom and self-determination, if that in fact is what you believe is essential to your and humanities existence that is. No model of socialism that has ever existed or exists right now on planet earth delivers freedom and self-determination without there being severe authoritarian measures up to and including execution without recourse to ensure obedience and compliance. None.

    All models of governance, and I include in those models what the Constitution structures, without the mechanisms included that structure the ability of the people to in some way shape or form to wrestle their freedom back from those who become empowered who seek to rule or own them are no better than any other structure of governance.

    Now we are talking about America and the Constitution. The Constitution is the only structure of governance that provides the mechanisms within its founding concept documents which includes the people being able to take back their freedom and self-determination.

    And that is precisely what all people in America who believe that socialism is in some way a “Better” solution need to understand in its proper context. (I know you love context). The solution is middle right middle left politics within the structure of the Constitution that is still the solution and not throwing it all out the window and the further adoption of socialism. Wrong and deadly.

    That is why I have identified this particular elite ideological U.N. awarded thinker, Mr. Jacque Fresco: https://youtu.be/xsJqPfUHhho

    Mr. Fresco intellectualizes man’s (and women’s) nature, and he believes that people will behave. People do not behave. In order for his dream of a new world to exist where we all live in flying saucer houses and all drive flying cars there must be some flavor of socialism or communism enforcement, or worse, installed to make everyone through fear be controlled and to “behave” as required.

    And that is incorrect. What is the proper self-regulating method of ensuring for the most part the people in America and the world behave? Rational and reasonable consequences for actions taken. And as an extension what makes the politically empowered behave? Ultimately the fear of the people being able to reliably replace them, and in extreme situations, the Second Amendment.

    The Constitution is the only structure that provides that solution. And that reason is why those who believe that socialism is the utopian solution to the world’s problems must destroy the Constitution, it stands in their way. And that is primarily what we are all witness to in our politics today. A strong and cohesive political party is dominating a weak and disconnected opposition party. In the political warfare that the Constitution structures there must be equal forces deployed to fight the battle. And when the one is able to dominate the other there emerges imbalance either Left or Right. And that is what in America needs to be solved for.

    “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.” James Madison.
    Men (and women) are not angels.

    Corruption? They all have the potential to be corrupt and they will become corrupt if there is no mechanism in place to stop it. What can stop it? Socialism?

  • Edward

    Robert Zimmerman,
    You wrote to Cotour: “If your comment goes to moderation posting it a second and a third time won’t change anything. Instead, just be patient and I will eventually get there and approve it.

    This happened to me a couple of weeks ago, too. After you notified me that it had gone into moderation I remembered that it had happened to me a year or so ago, and I had decided that if my comments disappeared like that then I would wait a day to see if it was in moderation. Over the past year, with posts so rarely going to moderation, I had forgotten about that policy of mine and accidentally double posted.

    A couple of years ago, or so, when something went into moderation it was noted on the feedback post on our own page. This notification stopped, but it might be useful if your webmaster can reinstate this feature. It was very helpful information.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *