Gov. Cox and Free Speech

Despite pressure and a warning shot across the bow from the ACLU, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Friday that he would not veto Utah House Bill 77. The bill, which passed on Friday, bans public buildings and classrooms from displaying Pride flags. 

Cox has an interesting record. On the one hand, he caught heat for using his preferred pronouns during a video address to the state's youth, and he received some kudos from the Biden administration for his cooperation in DEI matters in schools. On the other hand, he signed a bill providing for constitutional carry into law and has taken up the fight to reclaim some of Utah's public lands from the federal government. Cox may be a mixed bag, but politicians are gonna politick. 

KUTV reported that on Friday, "several hundred" protesters showed up at the state capitol equipped with a super-sized Pride flag and the requisite chants. They opposed the bill and wanted a veto out of Cox. The bill passed the legislature, and Cox passed on the veto. One demonstrator remarked, "I am a trans woman. I think being visible is very important."  

The Utah branch of the American Civil Liberties Union dashed off a letter to Cox warning him that the bill threatened free speech for everyone. But Cox made an interesting observation. He asked the Pride supporters if they would like to see MAGA flags hanging in classrooms.  

Why, no, they would not. They were quite adamant about that.

I have come down on the opposite side of Cox on a few things, but here, I think he can declare check and mate. 

I know you are way ahead of me here. For free speech to be free, a MAGA flag should hang beside every Pride flag in every classroom in the nation. But you also know that that is not how free speech works in the progressive mind. 

For those of you who have never wandered the halls of the Left, the rationale is that for too long, conservatives, white people, straight people, whoever, have had free speech. The belief is that historically, they have had too much free speech. In order to achieve equity, progressive speech must not just counter but replace other speech, especially since the other varieties are hate speech by default because of their sources and very existence. Therefore, free speech is speech that the most vocal of the angry masses has approved, which means it is not free at all. 

Back in my corporate days, a young woman, a co-worker, walked into the office one morning. She was going to college at night and said she had to make sure that her latest project was up to snuff because of her privilege. She did not say that phrase with any sense of irony or sarcasm. She honestly believed it, and the pained, dejected look on her face said it all. 

I wanted to say to her, "Kid, you live in a trailer, work in a cube farm, and barely clear minimum wage before taxes. Who told you that you were privileged?" I know who told her, and so do you: the instructor from whom she hoped to earn a decent grade and other teachers, as well. And in her mind, she really was privileged. The system had broken her, and she didn't even know it.

Recently, I saw a post on X from someone accusing the Trump administration of trying to shut down the Department of Education to ensure that students would remain uneducated and thus be easily dominated. But students can barely read, write, add, subtract, multiply, or divide now. They certainly can't wrestle with the questions of free speech or debate the pros and cons of one philosophy versus another. 

But, as the above story shows, they can tell you all about privilege or, on occasion, their pronouns. The goals of the people who demand Pride flags in classrooms but would throw up at the sight of a MAGA flag and those who will howl to save the money movers at the DOE are the same. They don't want critical thinking. They want compliance. As usual, the opponents of tyranny are thinly veiled tyrants.

For the record, I would not want a Pride flag in my child's classroom. I would also not want a MAGA flag there, either. I wouldn't want them indoctrinated in either direction. I would want them to be able to reason, debate, and think for themselves. Honest brokers would not have a problem with that.

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