#Fordham University’s shocking betrayal of reason

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Fordham University student Austin Tong got into trouble with college officials over two controversial Instagram posts.
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Fordham University is persecuting a student for speech that shouldn’t even be all that controversial. Surely the Jesuits who run the school aren’t afraid of honest debate?

At issue are two Instagram posts last month from Austin Tong, age 21: one implicitly criticizing anti-police protests and another showing himself holding a rifle to memorialize 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 — slamming those furious about George Floyd’s murder at police hands but indifferent to Dorn’s killing.

Also political was his other post, with the caption “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 Dean 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 Dean Eldredge on a long retreat: This nonsense is a gross insult to the order’s founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, and its principles.