Berkeley Chancellor on Maher Uproar: Education Isn’t About Making You Comfortable

Nicholas Dirks, the chancellor for UC Berkeley, today defended letting Bill Maher give a commencement address on campus last month despite student protests over his supposedly bigoted views on Islam. And Dirks wanted to make it clear that he personally “didn’t like” what Maher had to say about the Muslim faith, but told HuffPost Live that wasn’t enough for him to uninvite a guest.

Maher mocked the students for their “bullshit” petition and told them repeatedly real liberals don’t shut down debate like that or refuse to hear from someone with a different opinion. Dirks, more or less, agreed with that sentiment.

“Education is not about making people feel comfortable,” Dirks said. “It’s often, in fact, about confronting people about things they don’t like, but teaching them as well how to engage, how to make arguments that ultimately will prevail in the court of public opinion.”

Watch the video below, via HuffPost Live:

[h/t Red Alert Politics]
[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!