Remembering the Persecution of Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Writes Vin Suprynowicz in the Las Vegas Review-Journal today:

The forces of political correctness once vowed that, should they ever take over, their free expression on all kinds of issues — from gay rights to amnesty for illegals to space aliens inspiring the pyramids of ancient Egypt — would no longer be censored.

Censored? Heck, spouting the PC line is now mandatory, as many a professor lately hauled before a college Star Chamber on charges of having “given offense” now learns.

Internationally renowned Austrian economics professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe used a standard textbook example of investment time preferences in a classroom lecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a few years back, pointing out that gay couples often invest with shorter time horizons because they are less likely to have children to profit from investments that mature after they’re gone. A gay student filed a complaint — initially with the benefit of anonymity.

At this next lecture, Mr. Hoppe apologized. The student then complained that the apology offended him. UNLV’s diversity police wanted professor Hoppe to give up his next raise and his next sabbatical in penance. They backed down when Mr. Hoppe hired a lawyer and went public. Needless to say, Hans-Hermann Hoppe is no longer at UNLV, where benighted Keynesianism again reigns unperturbed, teaching Nevada’s youth that Tim “Tax Cheat” Geithner’s plan to print billions more greenbacks and use them to buy Treasury bonds is bound to work out just fine.

(Thanks to Deanna Forbush)

Share

1:46 pm on June 7, 2009