The consequences of leftwing censorship
Two stories today illustrate the consequences, both good and bad, of the left’s effort to stifle free speech on campuses:
- The Left Silences Debate
- The student Left’s culture of intolerance is creating a new generation of conservatives
The first story describes how a California law banning any university interaction with four states that have passed anti-transgender bathroom laws (laws that prevent men who are making believe they are women from entering women’s bathrooms) has prevented three California debate teams from attending the nationals.
This week the nation’s top debate coaches released their recognition of the top collegiate policy debate teams. This exceptional group of sixteen teams receives pre-bids to the National Debate Tournament at the end of March and will have strong potential toward winning the national title in debate at the tournament to be held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Two of the nation’s top teams that made this elite selection are from Berkeley, a campus recently racked by violent demands for the suppression of free speech. Incredibly, Berkeley’s teams and one other team from California who made the cut, will not attend the National Debate Tournament. That is because the state of California has banned all university related personnel from traveling to four states around the nation: Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, on the specious grounds that these states have all passed “anti-LGBT legislation.” All debate teams from California state schools are practically banned from attending the national debate tournaments being held in the state of Kansas in March.
In other words, the intolerance by California to all alternative points of view has succeeded in literally shutting down all debate. As the author notes,
The refusal of the State of California to allow some of the nation’s best college debaters to attend the National Debate Tournament in Lawrence, Kansas is a testament to the complete closing of the American mind as it existed in college campuses located in the state. The dogmatic insistence that everyone oppose President Trump or hide in an appropriate fetal position is essentially un-American, antidemocratic, and despotic. The Democratic party must now or soon account for its long violent relationship with the Alt Left cultivated on college campuses. Whether fabricating hate crimes to cast shade on conservative speech or direct acts of violence, the Alt Left organizing within academia needs confrontation and remedy by state and local authorities.
The second article however gives us hope. It describes how the left’s intolerance and recent fascist behavior in Great Britain is not only failing to persuade anyone, it is working to make the newest students in colleges there the most conservative generation since World War II.
Analysis from market research firm, The Gild, shows that ‘Gen Z’ is the most conservative generation since 1945. The research reveals that ‘Gen Z’ Britons are more likely to favour conservative spending, dislike tattoos and body-piercings, and oppose marijuana legislation.
The youth and student members of the British Left have given up trying to win arguments on principle, preferring to shut down the views of those they opponents. But ‘Gen Z’ live in the time of mass media where anyone’s political views can be shared worldwide at ease. By pushing a “you can’t say that” attitude, the young Left in the UK and the US are reducing their opportunity to respond to conservative ideas, and, as a result of this, conservatism is on the rise.
These statistics are also mirrored in the U.S. While the trend is not yet certain, that it is increasingly becoming evident is a hopeful sign for the future. This younger generation doesn’t have to agree with all conservative values. All they have to do is agree that censorship and violence in opposition to free speech is wrong. It appears they may be doing that.
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Related: My comment here is about “Climate Change” but its all the same, either the Left wants to censor speech that it disagrees with or it wants to push its agenda that it insists upon:
“Climate Change” (human caused) apparently is the main threat to Mexico City says this New York Times article.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/17/world/americas/mexico-city-sinking.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Mexico City is built in the dried up basin of a constantly sinking ancient lake bed, its essentially a desert due to the climate changing over thousands of years. Let that sink in for a moment.
Mexico City, including its surrounding associated communities population is about 21 MILLION people. Let that sink in for a moment.
Mexico City is “parched” says the article, they do not have enough water. Let that sink in for a moment.
Lets review: A city with 21 Million people inhabiting it, built near the equator on the dried up lake bed of an ancient lake that is sinking and they find that they do not have enough water for their population, and human caused “Climate Change” is apparently to blame for it. Let that sink in for a moment.
Now, lets figure it out: Apparently some of the humans that inhabit the earth now expect the climate to constantly adjust itself and its resources to the ever increasing populations in cities built in the deserts of the world? And if the Climate does not provide the needed added resources then human caused “Climate Change” is responsible for it?
I guess the earth, and the universe for that matter, is required to be static and unchanging? Until of course a city is built somewhere where the water is too high, or too low, or the land is turning to desert, or its turning to a swamp and needs to be adjusted for.
Too much is too much, and the premise of this article is too much! The dishonesty continues: The term “Climate Change” is purely a political term. “Climate Change” the political agenda has little to do with actual science and has a whole lot to do with dishonesty and fear mongering. A political agenda called “Climate Change” is about assigning blame and recovering financial compensation or some other relief IMO.
And I am not here telling anyone that the Climate does not change, it changes all of the time. Or that human activity does not effect Climate to some degree. But as evidenced by the poor choice of sites for Mexico City that was once a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, that now has 21 Million inhabitants living in its dried up and sinking lake bed, I will have to differ here. The honest conversation is about mitigating pollution due to human activity through better practices and better technology.
Adapt and survive, refuse and perish. An absolute statement that we all must adhere to……….or perish. JGL
I have noticed that a lot of these younger people really dislike the Democrat’s current incarnation but are not really up to speed on conservative principles. I hope that over time, they become better educated in this area. It isn’t something they can learn in school but rather a journey of self discovery. Much of it is intuitive but also runs counter to how they are indoctrinated in school.
wodun-
Good stuff.
Tangentially, Steven Crowder is doing an excellent job reaching his age cohort through ‘new-media’ platforms.
He makes the same point you do.
-We have an opportunity to reach these “kids,” if we don’t blow it. Low hanging fruit in my opinion.
(My anecdotal experience, “the younger folks trend ‘center-right,’ -whatever that means anymore– and “are more Traditional than they realize, and entirely open to a compelling argument for Liberty & Freedom. They just know & were taught by design, very little about the real World, our Heritage, Customs, Traditions, and post Enlightenment Thinking.)
This article,(the one about creating conservatives in facist environments) reminds me about religious freedom in the Middle East, if you are Muslim there are no conflicts, but if you are Christian, you must either convert to the Muslim faith or flee.