The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has been playing second fiddle in recent years on college campuses.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” it reads.
Those 45 words are part of what makes America the greatest country on Earth. However, now, many young people are actually in favor of taking away that inalienable right from those who espouse ideas to which they find offensive.
A Brookings Institute survey finds that only 39 percent of college students say that the First Amendment covers hate speech. Fifty-three percent of college students say that “prohibiting certain speech or expression of viewpoints that are offensive” is more important than creating “an open learning environment where students are exposed to all types of speech and viewpoints.”
This notion is extremely dangerous. To some, it seems like a good thing to crack down on “hate speech,” but in reality, the right to say whatever you want, no matter how offensive someone may find it, is the basis for freedom in the U.S.
Unfortunately, this sentiment is getting lost in present-day America because of an increased focus on feelings, rather than common sense. This “feelings first, rights second” culture would suggest that this sort of censorship could result in America going down an ideologically slippery slope. Young people who support the curbing of their First Amendment rights do not understand the possible ramifications in the long run.
If we let those in charge decide what is acceptable speech, we are in danger of losing our right to free speech all together. The Founding Fathers gave us basic freedoms and we should be pushing the government to protect those freedoms, not to inhibit them.
It would be easy to sound the alarms and declare that the new wave of young, liberal thinkers will end free speech as we know it. However, that thinking would not be consistent with history. In the past, as people aged, they became more conservative. To say that the attitudes of millennials now will be the attitudes of millennials 20 or 30 years would simply be misinformed. This however, doesn’t mean that we should take a sigh of relief and exit the culture war for free speech, either.
The First Amendment is arguably the most important amendment of our Constitution, and even though there is a movement to suppress it, the fight for liberty, not censorship, will win in the end.
