Belief in Free Speech is Collapsing Among Young Americans

As Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

By Alex Chediak Published on September 26, 2017

Belief in free speech is collapsing at college campuses across America. And a shocking number of students don’t have a working knowledge of the First Amendment. That’s what John Villasenor of the Brookings Institution found when he surveyed some 1,500 undergraduate students at four-year colleges and universities.

Does the First Amendment protect “hate speech?”

Only 39 percent of college students said yes. They’re wrong. The First Amendment does protect “hate speech.” It doesn’t protect genuine threats, intimidation, incitement, or, in some contexts, obscenity. You can’t falsely yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. But there are many offensive things you can say. Peter Singer can talk approvingly of infanticide and euthanasia. Richard Spencer can argue for white supremacy.

“Is it okay for a student group opposed to a speaker to disrupt the speech by loud and repeated shouting?”

For this second question, a slim majority (51 percent) of the students said it was okay to shout down the speaker. There was a right-left split: 62 percent of Democrats compared to “only” 39 percent of Republicans approved this tactic. And a sex split: 57 percent of men were okay with it. Only 47 percent of women agreed.

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“Is it okay to use violence to silence a controversial speaker?

Sad to say, but 20 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Republicans believe that violence is an acceptable way to prevent an offensive speaker from conveying her views. There was a large split by sex: 30 percent of men approved compared to only 10 percent of women.

Let that sink in. There are some 9 million male college students in America. If you’re saying something they find “offensive,” almost one in three of them thinks it’s okay to hurt you.  

How Did We Get Here?

We have become more politically polarized over time. Social media and an endless array of cable and Internet news sources have had an isolating effect. We select the voices we want to hear and tune out others. So we’re less tolerant of other viewpoints, and less resilient when offended.

Colleges and universities should be places where ideas run free — including unpopular or even offensive ideas. But today’s college students expect us to shelter them.  Why wouldn’t they? They grew up on padded playgrounds, forbidden to walk home alone, with zero-tolerance anti-bullying campaigns at school, and lots of “help” with homework and college applications. The one consistent message these 18-22 year old “kids” have received from adults is: “The world is dangerous. We make it our job to protect you.” Naturally, students assume this extends to psychological injury. So they — the students — have ushered in a movement where words like “microaggression” are now commonplace.

We select the voices we want to hear and tune out those we disagree with. So we’re less tolerant of other viewpoints, and less resilient when offended.

This past July a New York Times op-ed argued that speech can be a form of violence, in that words can cause stress, and prolonged stress can cause physical harm. The violence that erupted at U.C. Berkeley and elsewhere depends on this theory as its fig leaf: “Your speech is violence, so my violence against you and your supporters is merely self-defense.”

This is how the First Amendment dies. And how soft forms of despotism become normalized as the “Overton window” of acceptable discourse shrinks. 

What Can We Do?

In 2015 Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explained that attempts to sanction microaggressions on university campuses, or to require faculty to issue “trigger warnings” in advance of a sensitive class discussions, were bound to backfire. Yes, in the short term, some students would be spared discomfort. But in the long-term all kinds of students would become more fragile and therefore more likely to find microaggressions everywhere and less likely to handle them well. They’d become less able to cope with difficult people, more anxious in the face of life’s challenges — at just the time when they need to be forging their own paths.

There are some 9 million male college students in America. Almost one in three of them thinks it’s okay to hurt you if you’re saying something they find offensive.

Lukianoff and Haidt write, “Rather than trying to protect students from words and ideas that they will inevitably encounter, colleges should do all they can to equip students to thrive in a world full of words and ideas they cannot control.” So that’s part of it — helping students realize that limiting free speech to protect them from uncomfortable ideas is not in their interest.

The other part, as John Villasenor observers, is to give more attention to the First Amendment in pre-college education. The First Amendment is central to what makes self-government work. American leaders derive their authority from the consent of the governed. Such consent means nothing unless we give it freely. So others with opposing views deserve it too. Without free speech, without freedom of assembly, we’re left with might-makes-right — with powerful elites telling everyone what they must believe.

As Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” May the light never die.

 

Dr. Alex Chediak (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) is a professor and the author of Thriving at College (Tyndale House, 2011), a roadmap for how students can best navigate the challenges of their college years. His latest book is Beating the College Debt Trap. Learn more about him at alexchediak.com or follow him on Twitter (@chediak).

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