The Washington Post: Wendy Kaminer: 'The Progressive Ideas Behind The Lack of Free Speech on Campus'

The Washington Post: Opinion: Wendy Kaminer: The Progressive Ideas Behind The lLck of Free Speech on Campus

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on WordPress

I don’t want to say this is true about every college in America, but it is true about too many of them especially where the faculties lean very left. And I’m not talking about liberal or center-left, but much further left than that to the point that they not only believe certain speech is wrong and offensive, but to the point that they don’t even believe it should be considered. And see it as dangerous to the point it shouldn’t even be heard let alone considered. And this affects their student bodies and turns them into essentially campus fascists. Where they won’t allow alternative views to be heard.

If there is any place in the country where freedom of thought and speech and new ideas would be heard, it would be on college campus’. Where young adults whose minds aren’t completely developed would be able to access all sorts of ideas and be able to consider them themselves. While their teachers give them the history and facts about those ideas and philosophies. In other words teach their students how to think and to examine things. But not what to think and leave that up to them once they are trained in how to examine ideas and thoughts. Because now they would be able to see those things for themselves.

And I’m sure there are already colleges like that in America, Otherwise political correctness would be a hell of a lot popular instead of losing support. But as a teacher or professor or dean if you don’t promote the idea of freedom of thought and speech at your school, you’re essentially telling your students that you don’t trust them. That even though they are smart and did well in school to the point they are now students are your college, they can’t be trusted to think for themselves. And as a result you end up promoting a collectivist society where people at the top decide what is right and wrong in society. Instead of a free society where people have the freedom to think and speak for themselves.