5 comments

  • SwellJoe 1 hour ago

    Nothing says freedom like being forced to go to a re-education camp.

    • hn_acker 1 hour ago

      The original title is:

      > Iowa lawmakers move to mandate students take Center for Intellectual Freedom classes amid low enrollment

      • rasz 25 minutes ago

        Likely Homelander's Freedom Camps.

        • doublerabbit 1 hour ago

          What is "center" in this context?

          • kibwen 57 minutes ago

            "Center for Intellectual Freedom" is the doublespeak for the reeducation camp.

            • pstuart 45 minutes ago

              I checked out their website -- it was carefully clean of leaking any agendas or biases out.

              I'm all for challenging assumptions and what not, but that should come with a willingness to change one's mind when confronted with compelling evidence. I see a paucity of that from the people who push this kind of stuff.

              • cyanydeez 7 minutes ago

                Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea has requested a 15 minute job interview regarding your skepticism.

        • jamesgill 56 minutes ago

          At first, I thought the saddest part was:

          "The nonprofit Common Sense Institute reported student interest and enrollment was low — with just eight students in one class. The report said enrollment is unlikely to grow unless the state mandated students take the classes, which is exactly what Republican lawmakers passed."

          But despite the overtly Orwellian effort, the Democrats responded in typical ineffectual, tone-deaf fashion:

          "Democratic Sen. Janet Petersen slammed that idea, arguing it will drive up costs for Iowa college students and their families."

          Costs. Yeah. That's the problem.

          • rafram 51 minutes ago

            Cost of living is the only message that seems to work in the Trump era. I understand why they’re using it.

            • karmakurtisaani 20 minutes ago

              "Common Sense Institute"? Life imitates satire once again, it seems.

            • cratermoon 1 hour ago

              Things to know that the article doesn't mention: Christopher Rufo was the invited speaker for the opening event, and the interim director is UI economics professor Luciano I. de Castro[1]. In 2025 de Castro cited extreme bias in advocating for the creation of the center[2]. The sponsor of the bill to create the center, Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis also said while working to advance an earlier bill to ban DEI spending at public universities, "the bill is needed because the three universities are spending too much on DEI officers and programs. He said the salaries for the top four DEI professionals across the regents universities add up to about $750,000 per year."[3]

              1 https://www.thegazette.com/news/gop-invited-to-center-for-in...

              2 https://www.thegazette.com/news/education/university-of-iowa...

              3 https://www.iowapublicradio.org/state-government-news/2023-0...

              • Simulacra 14 minutes ago

                This is really light on details. What exactly is this? Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I think intellectual freedom is a cornerstone of democracy and freedom. We should want people to have freedom of thought. The headline makes it seem like some crazy right wing nut job, indoctrination camp, but don't we want people to have free intellectualism?

                • summermusic 9 minutes ago

                  It was almost named after Charlie Kirk. It is, in fact, an indoctrination camp.