Richard Dreyfuss slams Berkeley, laments ‘nightmarish’ political … – Washington Times

Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss, the same man who once called President Trump a dangerous pig and his celebrity supporters whores, found some common ground with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Friday night on university political correctness and the importance of free speech.

The 69-year-old Jaws star cited the recent canceling of conservative author Ann Coulters speech at the University of California, Berkeley, as an intrusion into freedom of speech.

I am totally, incontrovertibly on your side about this, the actor told Mr. Carlson, who hosted Ms. Coulter on his show a day earlier. I think that any intrusion into freedom of speech is an intrusion into freedom of speech. And when [Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks] said, this is a school, not a battlefield, I said, no, it is a battlefield of ideas and we must have dissonant, dissenting opinions on campuses and I think its political correctness taken to a nightmarish point of view.

Mr. Dreyfuss went on to say that he is not a partisan ideologue, but a constitutionalist, who believes that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights must be central and the parties must be peripheral.

Civics has not been taught in the American public school system since 1970, and that means that everyone in Congress never studied the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as you and I might have, he said. And that is a critical flaw because its why we were admired and respected for so long, it gives us our national identity, it tells the world who we are and why we are who we are, and without a frame that gives us values that stand behind the Bill of Rights, were just floating in the air and our sectors of society are not connected.

People come from all over the world or are born into this nation without the values that we have here, he continued. Thats why they came here, to get them. And what are they? You can put them in opportunity, rise by merit, mobility and freedom. Thats what we sell. And if you dont want that, youve chosen the wrong place. And you dont get a pass by being born here, you have to learn it. Even the Ten Commandments are not known at birth. You must learn them. And we must learn our values and if we dont, we are fatally, fatally wounding ourselves. We will not have any way to really combat the ideas behind ISIS because we wont know our own.

Mr. Carlson, who is famous for conducting heated debates on his show, didnt have much to add to Mr. Dreyfuss argument.

Typically I interrupt our guests and I expected to debate you, but I agree with every single word of that and I just want to say thank you very much for coming, the conservative host said. Cause I think its important.

Mr. Dreyfuss urged Fox viewers to visit his website, TheDreyfussInitiative.org, and sign the preamble to the Constitution as a show of support for bringing civics back into American public education.

If every parent and teacher and school superintendent and public political commentator signed the preamble as a gesture of support for the demand to bring civics back to the grades below high school graduation, Ill call a civics strike and we will get the attention of all the people that deserve to pay attention, the actor said.

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Richard Dreyfuss slams Berkeley, laments 'nightmarish' political ... - Washington Times