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SwellJoe 12 hours ago [-]
Nothing says freedom like being forced to go to a re-education camp.
trhway 9 hours ago [-]
War is Peace, Government Mandated is Intellectual Freedom. Somehow it surfaced in my memory how in USSR they were explaining that the elections with only 1 candidate, put on the ballot by the Party, were the pinnacle of democracy.
jamesgill 12 hours ago [-]
At first, I thought the saddest part was:
"The nonprofit Common Sense Institute reported student interest and enrollment was low — with just eight students in one class. The report said enrollment is unlikely to grow unless the state mandated students take the classes, which is exactly what Republican lawmakers passed."
But despite the overtly Orwellian effort, the Democrats responded in typical ineffectual, tone-deaf fashion:
"Democratic Sen. Janet Petersen slammed that idea, arguing it will drive up costs for Iowa college students and their families."
Costs. Yeah. That's the problem.
rafram 12 hours ago [-]
Cost of living is the only message that seems to work in the Trump era. I understand why they’re using it.
enoint 50 minutes ago [-]
Iowa produces 1 in 8 eggs, and the 2024 election was about egg margins. It’s more honest to concentrate on relating egg margins to Iowans prosperity, than to try promoting intellectual freedom in a country which already has a first amendment.
karmakurtisaani 12 hours ago [-]
"Common Sense Institute"? Life imitates satire once again, it seems.
hn_acker 13 hours ago [-]
The original title is:
> Iowa lawmakers move to mandate students take Center for Intellectual Freedom classes amid low enrollment
rasz 12 hours ago [-]
Likely Homelander's Freedom Camps.
doublerabbit 12 hours ago [-]
What is "center" in this context?
kibwen 12 hours ago [-]
"Center for Intellectual Freedom" is the doublespeak for the reeducation camp.
pstuart 12 hours ago [-]
I checked out their website -- it was carefully clean of leaking any agendas or biases out.
I'm all for challenging assumptions and what not, but that should come with a willingness to change one's mind when confronted with compelling evidence. I see a paucity of that from the people who push this kind of stuff.
cyanydeez 11 hours ago [-]
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea has requested a 15 minute job interview regarding your skepticism.
pstuart 7 hours ago [-]
Personal insults don't move the conversation forward.
My point is simple: the opaque nature of the site is suspicious, and the wording about "debating" CEOs, etc is an interesting choice as well: rather than "engaging", "learning from", "hearing from" etc.
I'm all for what they ostensibly represent: social/poltical science and the constitution. Both subjects all citizens should be able to have critical reasoning skills about.
The fact that the current regime is flagrantly ignoring the constitution, that it's adherents don't mind at all, and that they are likely aligned with this org is worthy of scrutiny.
dfansteel 3 hours ago [-]
The University of Iowa has a Social Sciences department that has professors in for Political Science, Anthropology, Public Policy, and other fields. It’s an accredited institution.
Bud 12 hours ago [-]
[dead]
cratermoon 12 hours ago [-]
Things to know that the article doesn't mention:
Christopher Rufo was the invited speaker for the opening event,
and the interim director is UI economics professor Luciano I. de Castro[1].
In 2025 de Castro cited extreme bias in advocating for the creation of the center[2].
The sponsor of the bill to create the center, Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis also said while working to advance an earlier bill to ban DEI spending at public universities, "the bill is needed because the three universities are spending too much on DEI officers and programs. He said the salaries for the top four DEI professionals across the regents universities add up to about $750,000 per year."[3]
The Republican Party is a big proponent of the freedom to force their speech on everyone — willing audience or not.
sieabahlpark 10 hours ago [-]
[dead]
0xbadcafebee 10 hours ago [-]
You mean the Ministry of Truth?
TylerJaacks 11 hours ago [-]
I went to Iowa State, and I am so glad I missed this shit, cause this is insane.
bilbo0s 8 hours ago [-]
Not to be that guy, but you know this is gonna hit Iowa and Iowa State in the recruiting department. Athletics was part of the way some of these schools thought they’d make up for cuts in research and declining revenue elsewhere given increasing costs. “We’ll just get rich off football and basketball!!!”
realistically though, the rest of the B1G is definitely going to negatively recruit against this. Just like they are being told to negatively recruit southern states around the voting rights act stuff. Not that Iowa State cares about the B1G but they are generally going after the same guys. Now the B1G schools have wayyy more money, and the recruiting high ground.
It’s gonna get ugly in college sports.
akramachamarei 10 hours ago [-]
You can lead a horse to water, but can't make him drink. The students might not even be that thirsty anyway.
Simulacra 11 hours ago [-]
This is really light on details. What exactly is this? Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I think intellectual freedom is a cornerstone of democracy and freedom. We should want people to have freedom of thought. The headline makes it seem like some crazy right wing nut job, indoctrination camp, but don't we want people to have free intellectualism?
summermusic 11 hours ago [-]
It was almost named after Charlie Kirk. It is, in fact, an indoctrination camp.
akramachamarei 10 hours ago [-]
This is a confusing comment. Charlie Kirk was killed by someone because they don't like what he says. Seems apt that his name would be used by a center promoting civil debate and intellectual diversity.
array_key_first 1 hours ago [-]
Charlie Kirk was killed by someone because he had an apathy for gun violence in education which, inevitably, then happened to him. In a way, the death of Charlie Kirk is an almost perfect encapsulation of his own beliefs.
If we are to listen to Charlie Kirk, then we must acknowledge that his death was merely a freak accident, and the price of freedom in this country. We should do what Charlie would want us to do, and move on.
amanaplanacanal 9 hours ago [-]
I missed something. Did Charlie Kirk promote civil debate and intellectual curiosity?
0xy 9 hours ago [-]
What about Charlie Kirk's conduct was not civil? Did he advocate or perpetuate violence?
BrokenCogs 9 hours ago [-]
Yes
akramachamarei 6 hours ago [-]
Source?
enoint 1 hours ago [-]
Having “some gun deaths every single year” was a cost worth paying. The alternative, under gun control laws preventing school shootings, is not “rational”.
BrokenCogs 6 hours ago [-]
He called for the military to use "lethal force" against migrants at the southern border. He also repeatedly demanded "Nuremberg-style trials" for medical providers who offer gender-affirming care.
Well, being that gender "care" has been pretty much debunked, that seems fine.
array_key_first 1 hours ago [-]
Debunked in what sense?
In the sense that it doesn't work? Well it definitely works, gender affirming care like TRT helps men all the time. Breast implants help women after breast cancer related mastectomies. Vaginoplasty also commonly helps traumatic rape victims, too.
Or, do you mean debunked as in debunked in helping people with gender dysphoria? Because that's wrong too, we know that gender affirming care leads to less suicide in that population.
akramachamarei 6 hours ago [-]
Uh, yeah. That was like, one of the major things he was known for, earning the epithet of a "debate-me bro".
1qaboutecs 11 hours ago [-]
generally when you want people to have free intellectualism you don't force them to take your courses
rchaud 7 hours ago [-]
> intellectual freedom is a cornerstone of democracy and freedom.
Indeed. And what better way to prove it than by mandating six credit hours worth of tuition fees on the topic?
"The nonprofit Common Sense Institute reported student interest and enrollment was low — with just eight students in one class. The report said enrollment is unlikely to grow unless the state mandated students take the classes, which is exactly what Republican lawmakers passed."
But despite the overtly Orwellian effort, the Democrats responded in typical ineffectual, tone-deaf fashion:
"Democratic Sen. Janet Petersen slammed that idea, arguing it will drive up costs for Iowa college students and their families."
Costs. Yeah. That's the problem.
> Iowa lawmakers move to mandate students take Center for Intellectual Freedom classes amid low enrollment
I'm all for challenging assumptions and what not, but that should come with a willingness to change one's mind when confronted with compelling evidence. I see a paucity of that from the people who push this kind of stuff.
My point is simple: the opaque nature of the site is suspicious, and the wording about "debating" CEOs, etc is an interesting choice as well: rather than "engaging", "learning from", "hearing from" etc.
I'm all for what they ostensibly represent: social/poltical science and the constitution. Both subjects all citizens should be able to have critical reasoning skills about.
The fact that the current regime is flagrantly ignoring the constitution, that it's adherents don't mind at all, and that they are likely aligned with this org is worthy of scrutiny.
1 https://www.thegazette.com/news/gop-invited-to-center-for-in...
2 https://www.thegazette.com/news/education/university-of-iowa...
3 https://www.iowapublicradio.org/state-government-news/2023-0...
realistically though, the rest of the B1G is definitely going to negatively recruit against this. Just like they are being told to negatively recruit southern states around the voting rights act stuff. Not that Iowa State cares about the B1G but they are generally going after the same guys. Now the B1G schools have wayyy more money, and the recruiting high ground.
It’s gonna get ugly in college sports.
If we are to listen to Charlie Kirk, then we must acknowledge that his death was merely a freak accident, and the price of freedom in this country. We should do what Charlie would want us to do, and move on.
Also there's this: https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63814717/
In the sense that it doesn't work? Well it definitely works, gender affirming care like TRT helps men all the time. Breast implants help women after breast cancer related mastectomies. Vaginoplasty also commonly helps traumatic rape victims, too.
Or, do you mean debunked as in debunked in helping people with gender dysphoria? Because that's wrong too, we know that gender affirming care leads to less suicide in that population.
Indeed. And what better way to prove it than by mandating six credit hours worth of tuition fees on the topic?