“Diversity and Exclusion”: Lindsay Shepherd talks ideological conformity & her new book

By Rebel News
|
April 12, 2021

Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis

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Lindsay Shepherd made headlines in 2017 after she, as a grad student and teacher's assistant, played two clips from Jordan Peterson discussing gender identity and expression. For the thought crime of playing these videos, Lindsay was summoned to a meeting with her bosses, supposedly after a complaint was raised. Lindsay had the forethought to record the meeting and after it was made public the audio went tremendously viral. Lindsay subsequently filed a lawsuit against two professors, a staff member and a student from Wilfried Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

Following this, Lindsay then became an activist focused on academic freedom and free speech.

Now, Lindsay has written a new book discussing the culture of exclusion by those who push back against social justice talking points, what it's like being the central figure in a national controversy, having gone from a nobody to viral fame

To talk about her new book and more, Lindsay was the guest on a recent episode of The Ezra Levant Show.

Explaining how she wasn't particularly involved political advocacy prior to becoming the centre of a national discussion, Lindsay told Ezra:

I went from going from a nobody to going viral. So I had no social media accounts, I was not active in that kind of sphere at all.

This book tells the story of being thrust into those issues and learning about free speech and political correctness, those kinds of issues, really quickly and immersing myself in them because I just kind of found myself in the middle of something and at a time when it was also very culturally relevant — which it still is.

I mean, the pandemic has taken over the cultural relevancy, but yeah, it was just kind of the right moment where people were paying attention to things like gender pronouns and all that. and I fell into it.

After having created such controversy, Lindsay also told Ezra how difficult it is to get into the academic field without pledging loyalty to social justice ideologies:

To get hired in academia today, you have to sit through these... You know, you have a panel of people interviewing you, and their main concern is right now is do you abide by the tenets of diversity and inclusion.

And what I did is say that Jordan Peterson's view on compelled speech and pronouns was a valid viewpoint. I'm seen as antithetical to their mandate of diversity and inclusion, so that's why I'm a fan of the title of my book: Diversity and Exclusion.

The full interview with Lindsay is available in the video above. You can also buy Lindsay's new book, Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis by clicking here.

For the full episode of The Ezra Levant Show, become a SUBSCRIBER to RebelNews+ today.

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