Michael
Kim reread the message from Jack Oiler:
My concern is about one Michael Zareny, who is using his University identity to post comments in Reddit and elsewhere and to send messages with extremely derogatory claims about gay men. Normally I would be most solidly against censorship, but if similar remarks about the immorality of Jews or Blacks were made, they would probably be illegal. I have tried at great length to reason with MZ, but his prejudices seem to be beyond reason. He was previously using an account elsewhere before he moved to the University. I am disappointed to see Zareny’s trash emanating from the University. I also think that if the hate laws covered gender orientation, he would be in violation of the law.
Could you please respond to my plea? As I said, I am very uncomfortable with censorship of any form, but MZ has been going on for more than three years now, and his views are quite beyond rational comment. I have suggested that we take the debate to philosophical journals instead of the Internet (he suggested the same thing, but shows no signs of doing so, despite my having published papers on issues underlying the topic), since there are some established standards there. He has made unsubstantiated remarks about my character and relations with my students, that if I might consider taking legal action over.
This, Kim thought, was going to be a tough one. Kim went to the keyboard computer, fired up Reddit, and went looking for Oiler and Zareny.
© 2013 Gregory A Jackson
This case is to promote discussion, not to document good or poor handling of a situation. All names have been changed.