Kirsten Powers: 'Safe-space' America dangerous to dissenters Accusations of hate speech are so mainstream, they scare or force opponents into silence

Kirsten Powers | USATODAY

Christina Hoff Sommers has been speaking on college campuses for two decades challenging students to embrace what she calls "equity feminism" over "gender feminism." In her view, the former is focused on legal equality between men and women, the latter on disempowering women by portraying them as perpetual victims of the patriarchy.

This heretical view now requires campus security.

Prior to a mid-April lecture at Georgetown University, the American Enterprise Institute scholar was deemed a "rape apologist" by campus feminists for challenging statistics that she says overstate the rate of rape on campus. "The postings were so frantic that Georgetown sent undercover security into the audience," Sommers told me.

An Oberlin College lecture a few days later met the same fate. The Oberlin Review published an open letter, "In Response to Christina Sommers' Talk: A Love Letter to Ourselves" two days before Sommers' visit. Usually people wait to offer a "response" until after an event has occurred, but not so in our Brave New World. The students wrote that Sommers' presence on campus was "harmful," and lamented that "her talk is happening, so let's pull together in the face of this violence."

In case you missed that: A differing viewpoint is an act of violence.

A sign outside the lecture read "Rape Culture Hall of Fame" with the names of past and present members of the libertarian and Republican student group that invited Sommers. The Oberlin Review reported that "activists organized a safe space … (that) was attended by approximately 35 students and one dog" as Sommers spoke."The irony is (the complaining students) postings were so extreme that the administration provided me with security," Sommers said.

At Georgetown, a sign outside Sommers' lecture provided a "trigger warning" to alert students that her talk could trigger traumatic feelings. Another sign pointed students to a "safe space" for those who were upset by Sommers' presence and promised that "hate speech" would not be allowed. The implication was clear: Sommers' views were "hate speech." As Sommers spoke, students lined the back of the room holding signs such as one that read, "Trigger warning: anti-feminism (safe space in (room) 103)."

The (Georgetown) Hoya editorial board condemned the College Republicans for inviting Sommers and accused them of "endors(ing) a harmful conversation" on sexual assault. They wrote, "this back and forth about whether or not certain (campus sexual assault) statistics are valid is not the conversation that students should be having."

But the lecture was not about sexual assault. Even so, how can the editors possibly believe it's a waste of time to determine the validity of campus rape statistics? Moreover, why do they believe it's up to them to determine what conversation students should be having?

The piling on continued when Lauren Gagliardi, assistant director for Georgetown's Center for Student Engagement, demanded the College Republicans tell the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute — which co-sponsored the event — to edit out protesters from the video of the public speech. When the institute did not comply, Gagliardi emailed, "What was the response from Clare Boothe Luce about the video? I see that is still up online. Please let me know ASAP as an edited version needs to be released without students who did not give permission to be taped. If they are unwilling or unresponsive to the request, Georgetown will need to step in."

Authoritarian group think on campuses has indisputably drifted from the fringes into the mainstream. "Since they early 1990s, when I would go to campuses, everyone was nice including the women's studies professors," Sommers said. "They would come to argue. In one case, a professor prepared his whole class and they came to argue, and that was fine. They wanted to debate me, which is what was supposed to happen. In the past students would prepare themselves to debate, now they object to me to being there."

Welcome to the future of America.

writes weekly for USA TODAY and is author of the upcoming The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech

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