Fordham University is persecuting a student for speech that shouldn’t even be all th𒁏at controversial. Surely tಞhe Jesuits who run the school aren’t afraid of honest debate?
At issue are two Instagram posts last month from Ausಌtin Tong, age 21: one implicitly criticizing anti-police protests and another showing himself holding a rifle to memoriali🦹ze the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The first showed a photo of former St. Louis Police Capt. David Dorn, killed by looters as he tried to protect a friend’s pawn store, which Tong captioned “Y’all are a bunch of hypocrites.” It was plainly a political statement — s𒀰lamming those furious about George Floyd’s murder at police hands but indifferent to Dorn’s killing.
Also political was his other post, with the ꧑caption “Don’t tread on me” for a picture taken with a legal rifle on his own property — which he says was meant to show the Tiananmen massacre would’ve had “fewer casualties” if the victims had guns.
Yet D💛ean of Students Keith Eldredge claimed Tong’s posts made “members of the Fordham community” feel threatened. Does it even matter that those feelings were irrational — or that feelings aren’t supposed to trump reasoned argument?
The Jesuits should send D📖ean Eldredge on a long retreat: This nonsense is a gross insult to the order’s founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, and ﷺits principles.