Freedom for Furman Faculty?

The communist purge of dissident thinkers marches on, and as our Puppet-in-Chief has declared, "White supremacy" is the preeminent threat faced by the nation. Today January 6th participants languish in prison, and pro-life activists have their homes raided by the FBI while getting ready to take their children to school. The claws of the empirical thought police even reach into the past. The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, upon which I have reported extensively, is a faint memory to many. But the ill-fated Virginia rally, which in another timeline might have been a seminal event in a nativist uprising, is still alive in the minds of so-called anti-fascists who center their identity upon stalking “Nazi, White supremacist” boogeymen wherever they may be found or invented.  Even today, anti-fascist researchers meticulously scan photos of the Unite the Right crowd, seeking to identify thus-far anonymous attendees.

Last week, one of the Unite the Right attendees was identified as Dr. Chris Healy, a computer science professor at Furman University. He is currently on suspension while the university investigates him for possible connection to White supremacist groups. To be clear, Healy is not suspected or accused of doing anything other than simply attending the event. Furman President Elizabeth Davis released a statement saying, in part, “The views of the organizers of the Unite the Right rally do not reflect the values that I hold, and they are not the values that we have committed to in our vision, mission and values statements. They are harmful to members of our community, diminish a sense of belonging, and inhibit each individual’s opportunity to thrive.” The statement provided numbers for half a dozen counseling resources for those who are traumatized to learn that they may have been unwittingly in the presence of a faculty member who was not a left-wing ideologue.

Campus freedom advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has taken up the cause of Healy, writing, “not only is Furman violating its binding contractual obligations, it is also defying a South Carolina law that prohibits employers from dismissing employees like Healy for their protected political activity.” The group has demanded that Healy be returned to the classroom immediately. Predictably, many others are clamoring for his immediate removal.

Meanwhile, “fash researchers” are doing high-fives on Twitter, celebrating their collection of another scalp for their cause. One anonymous tweeter responded to the account that doxxed the professor with the statement, “For all the people celebrating this, you're all jumping to conclusions that are false. I know Chris Healy personally. He's a very good, moral man and would never wish harm or discrimination on another person. It's like you're attacking Mr. Rogers. I'd stake my life on this.”

​Is this anonymous claim true? I don’t know, and neither do those cheering for his ruin. But to the bloodthirsty crowd, tragically, it doesn’t matter.