Discuss “Letters to the editor”

Intellectual laziness leads to misinterpretation

The article “Administration whitewashes ‘threat’ ” in last week’s issue of The Tartan shows an example of a threat to free speech which is both subtle and, unfortunately, common on the Carnegie Mellon campus. That threat is intellectual laziness.

Perhaps intellectual laziness is the last thing most would expect of the Carnegie Mellon community, given our academic reputation, but it exists nonetheless. The mechanism is simple: One person reads something with half an eye, and incorrectly gleans from that work a message which he or she finds abominable above and beyond any legitimate tastelessness in the message itself.

“MEXICO. No illegals, no burritos; you better think twice,...