Media And Universities Tolerate Terrorists But Not Critical Thinkers

There's a very disturbing story out of Florida today where officials at Florida Atlantic University have taken steps to terminate a tenured professor, James Tracy, who has questioned the government narrative on a number of high-profile shootings, including the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, and terrorist events like the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing and the Boston Marathon bombing. The Sun-Sentinel newspaper owned by The Tribune Company appears to have led the charge to convince FAU officials that people like Tracy who espouse what the newspaper considers to be "wacko conspiracy theories," are too dangerous to be allowed to teach at a pubic university. A strongly-worded editorial by the newspaper today applauded FAU officials' move to terminate Tracy.

Should professors be able to espouse hurtful and offensive opinions while hiding behind the protective shields of academic freedom and tenure?

In our view, academic freedom is not a license to do or say whatever you want, consequences be damned. So we welcome the termination proceedings begun against Tracy this week by FAU, a university he continues to embarrass with his "didn't happen" conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School slaughter, the Boston Marathon bombing, the San Bernardino shooting and other mass attacks.

Like all freedoms, academic freedom has its limits. And Tracy has gained national notoriety not because he's a blogger spouting wacky theories, but because he is a tenured professor at FAU, where he has influence over students.

Yes, freedom of thought and expression should flourish at universities, but so should high standards of research. If a professor wants to be famous for controversial theories, let him first offer some peer-reviewed proof . . .

Well, this is quite a slippery slope. I have encountered in my lifetime dozens of respected people working in academia who subscribe to the belief that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was the result of the actions of a conspiracy involving rogue elements within our own government, not the lone gunman theory advanced by the government in the now widely-discredited Warren Commission Report. Tens of thousands of government documents related to the Kennedy assassination remain under seal more than 50 years later, further fueling suspicions the government has something to hide from us. Should every professor who believes the CIA orchestrated the assassination of President Kennedy be fired from their jobs?

Why does the American Left have so little tolerance for people who have a good faith basis for questioning what we're told by the government since history tells us government leaders often lie to the citizens, particularly on matters that would undermine their credibility or hold on power if the truth came to light? After all, it's not been that long ago since it was people on the Left who rightfully questioned our government's narrative about Vietnam, Watergate and Iran-Contra. All of these shameful episodes in American contemporary history involved conspiracies committed by those at the highest levels of our government. What would have happened in each of those instances had the media joined hands to condemn everyone who questioned why we were involved in the Vietnam War, believed Watergate was more than just a second-rate burglary or dismissed the notion our government was trading arms for hostages, or illegally funding a revolution in Nicaragua with proceeds from illegal drugs smuggled into the U.S. from Central America?

By contrast, the American Left and their friends in the media had no problem with Weather Underground Terrorist Bill Ayers being a tenured professor at the University of Illinois. Ayers admitted his unrepentant role in the bombings of the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and the New York Police Department as a form of protest against the Vietnam War. Ayers' long-time university employer more recently hired another notorious terrorist, James Kilgore, who was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army. As a member of the SLA, he participated in the kidnapping of Patti Hearst and the armed robbery of a California bank during which an innocent bank customer was shot and killed. Kilgore assumed a false identity of a deceased child before fleeing the country. Kilgore earned degrees at a university in Australia using his false identity. Kilgore was later found in South Africa where he was a teacher after nearly 27 years of being on the lam. He was extradited back to the United States where he was prosecuted and sentenced to six years in prison for second degree murder. Kilgore had no problem obtaining a research job with the University of Illinois following his release from prison, and the media and academia largely defended the university's employment of Kilgore.

I totally understand people's discomfort with discussing the possibility that our own government would stage mass shooting and terrorist events to manipulate public opinion and engineer consent towards the ends it seeks, but anyone who is a student of history knows that those in power have been doing such things as long as governments have been instituted among men to maintain the desired civil order. The Sun-Sentinel's complaint that Professor Tracy's beliefs lack peer-reviewed proof is laughable. Firing him from his job is the newspaper's fall back position since law enforcement concluded there was no basis for arresting him for supposedly committing a crime because the parents of the victims, each of whom have collected millions of dollars in public donations following the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, believed he is engaged in unlawful harassment. Why those parents choose not to sue him for defamation for suggesting they were paid for their roles as crisis actors in a drill, not a real shooting where they lost a child, is a question they should answer if they believe they've been harmed by his public views.

Please listen to Professor Tracy's discussion of modern propaganda techniques utilized by the corporate state to effect anti-democratic and destructive policies. If our country has no tolerance for the participation of rational and reasoned ideas of persons like Professor Tracy in academia, then we truly are no better than Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or Communist China.

If you wonder how someone with a Phd could conclude that "Nobody Died at Sandy Hook" because it was just a FEMA drill to promote gun control, I would urge you to read this well-researched work found in this on-line book by clicking here, which Amazon.com has barred from sale on its website. Critical thinkers would allow for a free discussion of their research and debate about the very strange facts they turned up in their efforts to learn the truth about Sandy Hook and unprecedented changes in the state's freedom of information law to block access to otherwise available public records in the event's aftermath.

From the horse's mouth, Attorney General Eric Holder explaining how the government is going to "brainwash" people into viewing guns differently, which is precisely what Professor Tracy theorizes is behind the need for staged events.
Author and professor Jim Fetzer summarizes it all succinctly here: