Does anybody know why college professors have something called a “tenure”. Among other reasons, college professors enjoy the perks of this job security because they are at the forefront of progressing society. Professors and academics must be able to challenge the conventional and accepted beliefs of society in a scientific manner without fear of upsetting special interests. Without this protection, these special interests may retard progress, just like when the church persecuted Galileo for his scientific publications/discoveries. It is integral that we remember this when dealing with free speech on campuses and the censorship that is currently plaguing our higher education institutions in America.

The most recent election brought out the absolute worst in the intolerant left and truly showed the extent to which individuals are losing their right to free speech in America. Prominent political commentators and speakers are forbidden from coming to certain campuses and/or their events are so severely disrupted that their right to speak is being limited. For example, Ben Shapiro, an acclaimed lawyer, speaker, and journalist is prohibited from stepping foot on Depaul University’s campus in Chicago because of his political rhetoric. Just recently, Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at Berkeley was disrupted by liberal protesters, so severely that Milo had to cancel his sanctioned event as the protests grew violent. Sadly, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to Milo. At his event at UCLA, a bomb threat was called in to his event, which caused the University to be forced to cancel the speech. Can you imagine is a prominent liberal activist came to speak on campuses and a conservative crowd of thugs started burning things down and attempting to cancel the function; CNN would have a field day. I ask the necessary questions that, regrettably, people aren’t asking. Have we totally forgotten about the constitution? Do we have any regard or respect for the law of the land? Do we remember that free speech is in the first amendment? People forget that limiting free speech is one of the first steps to developing a tyranny. We are flirting with this and it should terrify you.

Just recently, Canada passed legislation that makes you acknowledge someone’s gender pronouns. For example, if an individual goes by the pronouns “they, them, theirs”, you have to call them those pronouns or you may be arrested/fined. Regardless of your opinion on the gender/pronoun issue, the very thought of legislation that forces an individual to speak a certain way is nothing short of tyrannical.

Furthermore, I think it is utterly remarkable, and very clever, that the leftist narrative has marketed the GOP and republican platform as “dangerous”, which is the mechanism that liberals are using to censor those who disagree with them. It is very easy for you to shut somebody up for having a different opinion when you have everybody convinced that that opinion will lead to physical danger. Trust me, saying “Build that wall” isn’t going to directly incite physical danger and somebody should have every right to say it. That is just one example of a statement that the left would classify as “emotionally dangerous” or “hate speech”. What is even worse is that those in power, such as university administrators, are totally buying this farce and evil tactic that is oppressing the conservative side’s right to free speech.

I encourage everybody to think about something… If we cannot have open discussion and debate at our institutions of higher education, where can we have it? As noted with the idea of a tenure, our universities were founded on the principles of challenging ideas and pushing forward through discussion between parties who disagree with one another. The diversity of thought that exists in our young generations is extraordinary and is what makes our country great and prosperous. George Orwell once said, “Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.” I believe this quote is perfectly appropriate. We are dying as a nation, we are no longer fostering an environment for thought and debate, instead one where we continually paint a picture of the other side’s platform with the intent of censoring their ideas.

I have had this discussion with my group of friends here at a public university (VERY liberal). Many of them are individuals who identify as liberals, and agree with the course our country is going in, so it is inherently difficult to have intelligent conversations with them since they’ll simply call you a bigot or a Nazi if you disagree with them (see first article). However one day we were discussing how Trump supporters felt like they couldn’t express their political beliefs on college campuses because they feared repercussions from other students and administrators, using the previously discussed mechanism of generalizing all non-liberal beliefs as “dangerous”. One of my more liberal friends stated, “If the only oppression somebody has faced in their lives is not being able to express their support for Donald Trump, they should consider themselves lucky.” Now on the surface, this quote may be harmless, but once you peel back the layers, two main issues arise.

First, just because somebody hasn’t faced oppression for their skin color or sexuality, which the left is highlighting for political gain, doesn’t mean they should be oppressed or discriminated against for other things. More importantly, I think people have forgotten that intellectual diversity is the most important diversity of all. Eliminating discrimination and oppression or all forms is important and something I am very passionate about, but protecting our humane right to think, and express different ideas is far more important. The intolerant left has totally forgotten that diversity of thought created this nation and should be protected far more than diversity of skin color or sexaulity, which the left seems to think is far more integral to somebody’s identity than the way they think.

As you can probably imagine, I was absolutely shocked during this conversation, my friend almost explicitly alludes to the oppression of Trump supporters on a college campus, again a place where free speech and diversity of thought should be encouraged most, as “not a big deal”. In my opinion, this is a result of the left identifying themselves more by how they look, than how they think, which is crippling and will only hurt them/our nation in the long run.

To conclude, I am extraordinarily concerned for free speech on American campuses so long as the intolerant left markets the GOP and non-liberal beliefs as dangerous and “oppressive”. Diversity of thought is what we should be protecting most, instead of limiting it so people’s feelings aren’t hurt. I don’t want a safe space, I want a space where somebody challenges me on my ideas so we can both improve and gain new perspectives. Just remember that the truly dangerous oppression is the one that limits thought.

Hopefully Trump makes the pendulum will swing the other way.