The Dictionary of Ideological Defense Mechanisms

Although there are a few jobs that do not require college degrees, instead requiring a high school diploma, vocational school, or on-site training, many jobs still require at least an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in something before accepting a candidate. It is more likely that a high-paying job is associated with a college degree, rather than a high school diploma.

Unfortunately, some college students intentionally limit their educational and career development to a route that limits free speech and impedes the university's theoretical mission of higher learning. 

The college students may be fearful of growing up and needing to defend an argument based on how it benefits the larger world, rather than just assuming everyone would automatically believe this argument.

Many of these examples were from 2023, but students are still throwing similar tantrums as of late, and these historical examples were possibly burned in the public consciousness. College students may also be copying these examples. 

Dictionary of Defense Mechanisms to Intentionally Stifle Intellectual Growth 

Making a Conservative Club Suffer Funding Cuts: In May 2023, the University of Buffalo student government wanted to cease funding a student club because the club promoted an event with Michael Knowles, a conservative speaker, two months earlier. This was likely the brainchild of "agitator" type students who are bent on making a difference in the community or making societal change happen but are confused on how to do it properly. 

Fling: The bully throws props such as flyers, student organization swag, and models from a manned booth or table with the likely intention of breaking them. Still in May 2023, an adjunct art professor at Hunter University threw materials off of a conservative display and cursed at the students hosting it for their beliefs. This grown woman verbally attacked some polite students. 

Unfair Termination: Some conservative teachers have lost their jobs over their beliefs. This environment has extremely negative effects on faculty and some students, doubtless.

Loud and Obnoxious: Most infamously, students who disagree with a speaker might try to shut down his speech by chanting or playing loud music to distract the listening audience. In the University of Buffalo Knowles event, students were chanting to distract the audience. Thankfully, security escorted the troublemakers out.

Vandalism: Flyers or other advertisements promoting conservative events can get hacked, liquid-damaged, defaced, torn, stolen, and even burned. Angry students actually torched the flyers for a February 2023 event featuring Matt Walsh in the cloak of night. This year, a video billboard on a bus at Columbia was loaded, if not hacked, with an anti-Semitic sign.

Fear of Offending: Conservative students have had assignments downgraded just because of what they believe and are either afraid to share their beliefs because of what others would say. Or, the student had been trying to be even-handed and still made an important figure upset.

For example, a controversial teacher's assistant said that Samantha Fulnecky's University of Oklahoma "gender norms" essay, which almost landed her in trouble for the fall 2025 semester, "doesn't answer the questions for the assignment," but the content and parts of the writing style seem more polished than the teacher's assistant gave her credit for. Her sentences give the impression that she was trying to give her answer depth and actually respond to the article, although the sentence structure would occasionally benefit from tweaks and revisions so that the phrases are less choppy. Fulnecky was also not trying to offend her professor, despite his comments.