Freedom of Speech Madness and Viewpoint Suppression
NEWSLETTER CONTENTS:
The Freedom of Speech Problem Begins in High School
Where There’s Smoke of Free Speech Suppression—There’s F.I.R.E.
The Transformation of Hate Speech
Generations X, Y, and Z have been denied many sapient ideals and values as a result of free speech suppression and multi-media illiberalism. Lacking in viewpoint diversity, intellectual humility, and critical thinking skills, impressionable young minds are being imprinted by progressive ‘regressive’ indoctrination.
A timeless quote from Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Most college students in the United States should be able to expect that freedom of expression will be upheld on their campuses. After all, public institutions are legally bound by the First Amendment, and the vast majority of private colleges and universities promise their students commensurate free speech rights.
In spite of this legal landscape, far too many colleges across the country fail to live up to their free speech obligations in policy and in practice. Often, this occurs through the implementation of speech codes: university policies that restrict expression that is protected under First Amendment standards.
University censorship regimes are teaching some students not only to live with but to embrace the conformism of thought inculcated through university speech codes, speaker dis-invitations, “safe spaces,” “trigger warnings,” and campus shout-downs of invited speakers, the report demonstrates.
Too many students feel afraid to speak honestly on campus for fear of offending someone, a new national survey of college students says.
Furthermore, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) surveyed the written policies of 466 colleges and universities, evaluating their compliance with First Amendment standards and their college rankings are disturbing.
The Freedom of Speech Problem Begins in High School
In 2015, Dr. Jonathan Haidt (pronounced “height”—not “hate”), a leader at the Heterodox Academy, had a bizarre and illuminating experience at an elite private high school on the West Coast that he generically calls “Centerville High.” From this encounter, the Heterodox Academy posted his article, “The Yale Problem Begins in High School” and the beginning of this chapter is quoted directly from it.
Haidt gave a version of a talk on “Coddle U vs. Strengthen U” that he first gave at Yale a few weeks earlier to approximately 450 students, from grades 9-12, in the auditorium. There was plenty of laughter at all the right spots, and a lot of applause at the end, so he thought the talk was well received:
But it wasn’t and after the discussion began it was the most unremittingly hostile questioning he’d ever had. Haidt doesn’t mind when people ask hard or critical questions, but he was surprised that he had misread the audience so thoroughly. His talk had little to do with gender, but the second question was “So you think rape is OK?”
Like most of the questions that followed, it was backed up by a sea of finger snaps. “I had never heard snapping before,” says Haidt. “When it happens in a large auditorium it is disconcerting. It makes you feel that you are facing an angry and unified mob—a feeling I have never had in 25 years of teaching and public speaking.”
As Haidt describes the rest of the encounter, after the first dozen questions, he noticed that not a single questioner was male, so he began to search the sea of hands and I did find one boy, who asked a question that indicated that he too was critical of his talk. But other than him, the 200 or so boys in the audience sat silently.
After the Q&A, a line of boys came up to Haidt to thank him and shake his hand—but not a single girl came up to him afterward.
The next session involved 60 students who had signed up for further discussion as was moved to a large classroom. The last thing he wanted to do was to continue the fruitless arguing, so Haidt decided to take control of the session and reframe the discussion:
“What kind of intellectual climate do you want here at Centerville?” he asked the group. “Would you rather have option A: a school where people with views you find offensive keep their mouths shut, or B: a school where everyone feels that they can speak up in class discussions?”
Can You Speak Freely or Are You Walking on Eggshells?
“OK, let’s see if you have that,” Haidt continued. “When there is a class discussion about gender issues, do you feel free to speak up and say what you are thinking? Or do you feel that you are walking on eggshells and you must heavily censor yourself?
Just the girls in the class, raise your hand if you feel you can speak up?” (about 70% said they feel free, vs about 10% who said eggshells). Now just the boys? (about 80% said eggshells, nobody said they feel free).
Now that the students had a personal stake in the conversation, Haidt continued. “Now let’s try it for race. When a topic related to race comes up in class, do you feel free to speak up and say what you are thinking, or do you feel that you are walking on eggshells and you must heavily censor yourself? Just the non-white students?” (the group was around 30% non- white, mostly South and East Asians, and some African Americans).
A majority said they felt free to speak, although a large minority said eggshells) Now just the white students? (A large majority said eggshells)
“Now, let’s try it for politics,” he added. “How many of you would say you are on the right politically, or that you are conservative or Republican?” (6 hands went up, out of 60 students). “Just you folks, when politically charged topics come up, can you speak freely?” (Only one hand went up, but that student clarified that everyone gets mad at him when he speaks up, but he does it anyway. The other five said eggshells.)
Haidt presses on. “How many of you are on the left, liberal, or Democrat?” (Most hands go up) Can you speak freely or is it eggshells? (Almost all said they can speak freely.)
Let Me Get This Straight: You Do Not Have Such a School
Dr. Jonathan Haidt explains: “So, let Me get this straight. You were unanimous in saying that you want your school to be a place where people feel free to speak up, even if you strongly dislike their views. But you don’t have such a school. In fact, you have a school in which only people in the preferred groups get to speak, and everyone else is afraid. What are you going to do about this? Let’s talk.”
After that, the conversation was extremely civil and constructive. The boys took part just as much as the girls. They talked about what “Centerville” could do to improve its climate, and Haidt said the most important single step would be to make viewpoint diversity a priority. On the entire faculty, there was not a single teacher that was known to be conservative or Republican. So, if these teenagers are coming into political consciousness inside a “moral matrix” that is uniformly leftist, there’ll always be anger directed at those who disrupt that consensus.
Haidt continues. “And then… they go off to college and learn new ways to gain status by expressing collective anger at those who disagree. They curse professors and spit on visiting speakers at Yale. They shut down newspapers at Wesleyan. They torment a dean who was trying to help them at Claremont-McKenna. (These incidences mentioned are covered and explained in Chapter 3).
And in all cases, they demand that adults in power ‘do something’ to punish those whose views offend them. Their high schools have thoroughly socialized them into what sociologists call victimhood culture, which weakens students by turning them into “moral dependents” who cannot deal with problems on their own. They must get adult authorities to validate their victim status.
So they issue ultimatums to college presidents; and, as we saw at Yale, the college presidents meet their deadlines, give them much of what they demanded, commit their schools to an ever tighter embrace of victimhood culture, and say nothing to criticize the bullying, threats, and intimidation tactics that have created a culture of intense fear for anyone who might even consider questioning the prevailing moral matrix.”
The Only Hope for High Schools and Colleges
The only hope for Centerville High and America’s colleges is to disrupt their repressively uniform moral matrices to make room for dissenting views. High schools and colleges that lack viewpoint diversity should make it their top priority. Race and gender diversity matter too, but if those goals are pursued in the ways that student activists are currently demanding, then political orthodoxy is likely to intensify.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Progressivism Madness to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.