YouGov poll re: attitudes to free speech - students vs public

[boatyardblues]

YouGov have polled the wider public and students to free speech on a range of controversial topics including climate change, creationism and transgender. The link below is the covering story. There are links to PDFs of the separate groups’ results at the foot of the article. Unsurprisingly, students are more supportive of no platforming re: transgender.

yougov.co.uk/news/2018/06/27/are-students-really-more-hostile-free-speech/

yougov.co.uk/news/2018/06/27/are-students-really-more-hostile-free-speech/

So a noisy minority. The medical students etc are too busy to be heard of know what's going on.

They were asked if they'd ban a speaker who 'believes that transgender women are not 'real' women'.

I wonder how many of the respondents understood the question. (I wonder if I do!)

That's rather dispiriting in a way, it seems to show that while students are not much less tolerant than the general public, a large %age (40-70)of everyone thinks that various speeches should not be allowed.

StillettosandanOvenglove YouGov are usually quite decent as pollsters go but I share the concern about the intended meaning of the question and how people understood it.

Matthew Smith (data scientist in link) is usually quite good at looking further into things.

Very interesting. It shows that nearly 50% of people, and a clear majority of students, would object to a speaker who says that trans women are not women.

On Mumsnet we still have a lot of people saying day-in-day-out that trans women are not women. We now have evidence that a significant - and growing - part of the population objects to people saying that. I

Very interesting. It shows that nearly 50% of people, and a clear majority of students, would object to a speaker who says that trans women are not women.

On Mumsnet we still have a lot of people saying day-in-day-out that trans women are not women. We now have evidence that a significant - and growing - part of the population objects to people saying that. I

Apologies for the double post. Glitch this end I think

Snappity, however many people object to the statement that transwomen are not women, it doesn't make it any less true. Biological facts aren't affected by public opinion.

I wonder how many of the respondents understood the question

It is very ambiguous. To me transgender woman = woman who is transgender, or they would have used "transwoman"?

In a recent conversation, my former professor referred to the current crop of undergraduates as ‘vacuous bi-peds’

I thought he was being unnecessarily harsh at the time, but I am now revising my opinion.

That was not the question. They were asked if they were real.
Idiotic push polling.

I wonder what the pollsters were instructed to answer when someone asked 'what is a transgender woman?'

YouGov is an internet polling service.

Thanks Bewilderness.

My son is about to start his second year at University and is as dismayed as I am about the student attitude to free speech. he believes that anyone should be able to say anything and is anti no platforming. In fact he gets very upset about it.

he is very clear that there are laws in place to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence or threats to kill - but that all else should be left alone.

he gets into some very heated debates with his friends on this as they accuse him of being right wing etc. Strangely though, they agree to the concept of free speech, but think that people should only say "nice" things about other people and keep nasty things to themselves.

Surely this is how "nasty" people fly under the radar and grow in numbers - if we all pretend these people don't exist they can spread their ideas underground.

Not all students think like this - but a very high number do.

Universities are no longer teaching critical thinking - something has gone wrong.

Snappity, however many people object to the statement that transwomen are not women, it doesn't make it any less true.

But I think it does show that MumsNet were right to moderate more tightly and that they might not yet have done enough to satisfy the majority of people.

Depends on what people understand as trans though. Many will make the assumption that every individual has undergone SRS. If they were aware of Stonewall's trans umbrella they may take a different view.

A commenter xeon zinc who ran the data said 28% of the gen pop wanted to no platform the transwomen aren't real woman speaker v 43% students.

MNHQ can do what they like, a single poll is not going to result in the kind of restrictions of speech that you would so like, @Snappity. Do you know you come across as desperate to shut women up? It's unpleasant.

Snappity
Leaving aside the obvious flaws in the survey. Do you believe majorities are always right?

The problem is that decisions are made by a small number of students sharing the same beliefs. Dissent is crushed much like the
Labour Party. What worries me is the rest of the students just let them get on with it.

they might not yet have done enough to satisfy the majority of people.

The 'majority' of people are totally clueless and utterly disinterested in politics, especially human rights and all those uncomfortable matters of not niceys.

FWR is one of those havens where people that actually use their noggin on occasion get a chance to discuss the important matters that the 'majority' want swept under the carpet in order to continue to live in ignorant bliss.

The 'majority' is satisfied by watching BGT, cheering on the new royal baby and planning what to wear on the weekend.

Why the fuck they should be dictating what is discussed on FWR is beyond me. Please explain your reasoning.