You know you’re dealing with a universal truth when the Atlantic agrees with conservatives on something. They recently ran an article entitled, “It’s Disadvantaged Groups That Suffer Most When Free Speech Is Curtailed on Campus.”
The simple principle that freedoms protect the minority in race, class, and thought is synonymous with our founding. We were never a country built for mob rule. And our educational institutions should not be subject to mob rule either.
Harvard President Drew Faust claimed that free speech “is paid disproportionately by” students who are not “white, male, Protestant, and upper class.”
In response, the Atlantic asserts, “Disadvantaged groups are also among the primary beneficiaries of vigorous free-speech protections.”
The takeaway — it’s hypocritical for liberals to only protect the free speech of fellow “progressives” and if we want to preserve free speech, we must preserve it for all.
I’ve seen this concept play out on my own campus. Milo Yiannopoulos was on stage at Florida State University, speaking freely. The hundreds of Students for a Democratic Society agitators were far away, however — in the free speech zone. The protesters weren’t able to effectively protest the Milo event because they were restrained by the very “free speech zones” meant to protect them.
One important thing to note is the fact that ideological diversity is just as important as any other type of diversity. What can be sincerely lacking in today’s discourse, especially on college campuses, is diversity of thought. High schools and universities are run by an overwhelming majority of liberal staff, at a rate of 5 to 1. This bias can also seen in the student body.
We shouldn’t curtail free speech rights whether they’re on the left or on the right. The Atlantic’s article’s subtitle alone makes an incredible point:
“If progressives are committed to protecting freedom of conscience and freedom of expression for women and minorities, then they need to protect free speech across the board.”
Progressives are losing the ability to claim the moral high ground (as if they ever had it) when they squash free speech on campus the way they do. If you don’t let conservatives have their supervillains, then why should leftists be allowed to host people like Bill Ayers, Linda Sarsour, and Lisa Durden?
However, free speech isn’t on a liberal versus conservative paradigm anymore; it’s an ideas versus ideas suppression paradigm — and most people fall on the side of ideas.
Even President Barack Obama told college graduates to ditch the safe space culture and Bill Maher called UC Berkeley “the cradle for f***ing babies.” It seems as though many, from presidents to talk show hosts, are beginning to find themselves agreeing upon a common truism: free speech should be free regardless of the content.
The day you silence Richard Spencer is the day they silence Linda Sarsour. The day they silence Linda Sarsour is the day they silence Milo Yiannopoulos or Steven Crowder and so on and so forth, with a snowballing effect that chills speech and everyone shuts up purely out of fear. Very few people truly want to take the dangerous journey down that slippery slope if they follow the consequences to their dire end.
So, here’s to you the Atlantic, and anybody else who agrees that protecting free speech is an essential part of what makes America so great. It’s going to take a team of free speech warriors to keep our freedoms intact, especially on campus.
