When Invisible Red Lines Keep Moving, How Do You Respect Or Honor Them?

I am discouraged by moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s discussion of increasing “red lines” and self-censorship in U.S. academia. I fear this is one of the ways America is becoming authoritarian, similar to what I experienced in the Middle East.

While teaching at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, UAE, I knew there were invisible “red lines” in UAE culture, at the university and in the classroom with Emirati students. I never criticized the government, the ZU administration, or Emirati culture. Indeed, I went out of my way to empathize and show that I understood and respected their different cultural perspectives, even on laws and regulations that would be perceived as very oppressive in the West.  I appreciated that I was a guest in the country and felt I should work hard and show gratitude for the opportunity to be there, earn good money and advance myself professionally.

I could not, however, ethically deny to students that there were other perspectives, and I could not ethically silence students who wanted to voice those perspectives.