In his column “The fight for free speech” (Oct. 9, TribLIVE), Walter Williams suggests that America is great because of “Western values.” I disagree. America is great because of our dedication to experts and the truth.
We have succeeded where other democracies have spiraled down into fascism because our politicians are experts who study the norms of our institutions and act as gatekeepers to insure that demagogues who would tear down those norms do not gain power.
These same experts and truths are what the signers of the Philadelphia Statement are trying to destroy with their factual relativism. They want the freedom to create their own facts and to not have to run them through the marketplace of ideas that is academia. They want their made-up facts to only have to pass through their own gut check, and then stand on equal footing as facts that have gone through a rigorous process of verification.
If we allow this to happen, it will not only be the end of our democracy but the end of the scientific revolution and the rise of a new dark age.
Michael Garing
North Huntingdon