Tuesday, I wrote that the approaching wave of college graduates opposes free speech, a fact evident from a recent survey. The trend discredits the notion that college is a place for expanding one’s horizons and engaging with challenging new ideas.
As it turns out, even liberals perceive the problem. The Christian Post reports on a panel including a Ahristian pastor, a liberal author, and an atheist professor who each agree that college speech codes increasingly resemble religious witch hunts of yesteryear. From the article:
The discussion was inspired by [Kirsten] Powers’ new book The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech. In the book, she lists the numerous examples of how liberal colleges across America are punishing people, even some fellow liberals, for dissenting from certain liberal viewpoints on issues like gay marriage, abortion, Islam and others by, for instance, taking away honorary degrees or uninviting scheduled guest speakers for things they have said.
In explaining the purpose behind her book, Powers, who previously worked for the Clinton administration and now serves as a contributor to USA Today and Fox News, stated that colleges are attempting to silence opposing viewpoints on certain social issues in an attempt to avoid having to debate these viewpoints.
It’s encouraging to see recognition of this problem beyond the conservative echo chamber. Indeed, free speech should be a value that transcends political orientation, at least for anyone whose orientation excludes totalitarianism.
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