The freedom of speech and expression is one of the most basic and essential of all human rights. It is so essential that it is enumerated in the first of ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights – along with the freedom of religion and the press.
Unfortunately, there has been an ominous trend in the United States, of late, to selectively censor certain voices from being heard. Either by protest, direct censorship, or even the threat of violence.
This is alarming news in and of itself as much of the censorship is taking place on public college campuses. The state-funded variety. What’s even more alarming, though, is that these protests and promises of violence are all directed at one specific group of voices – conservative voices.
Examples of Conservative Censorship
There have been many protests and threats of violence that have causes speakers to back out of engagements across the country – and have hardened the resolve of others. They have led to the cancellation of events, have caused speakers to back out, and have even drowned out the voices of people with opposing views by shouting over speakers. Below are a few examples of censorship in action.
Heather Mac Donald, author of The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe, was effectively shut out or drowned out on the campus of Claremont McKenna College when protestors surrounded the Athenaeum where she was speaking to bar people from entering. In this case, the college decided not to intervene and arrest students out of fears of inciting violence.
It actually proved one of the points Mac Donald made about the Black Lives Matter movement essentially forcing police to step back from proactive policing and disrupting public order. When universities begin cancelling events for fear of violence, chaos and disorder, rather than the rule of law are reigning supreme.
Ann Coulter, another popular target for the left, was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley, the university decided it would not accommodate the event because they could not “adequately secure the venue” where the event was to be held. After offering an alternate event on a different date, at a time when classes weren’t even in session, the event was cancelled giving liberals yet another victory for silencing conservative voices in their midst.
Berkeley has also been ground zero for a number of protests including protests against Milo Yiannopoulos and threats of violence that led to the cancellation of an event where conservative writer, David Horowitz, was scheduled to speak.
A History Of Silencing Conservatives
Censorship of conservative views at college campuses it isn’t isolated to 2017. It seems to have become more prevalent in the past year, but in 2014, student protests against Condoleezza Rice speaking at the Rutgers University commencement address forced her to back out of the engagement.
These new moves, though are raising eyebrows even among some of the elite on the left, garnering criticism from democratic senator, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who claim that the protests and attempts to censor voices like Ann Coulter’s are only serving to give her a larger platform to appeal to.
However, if conservatives do not take action and begin standing up to theses censorship attempts, they run the risk of becoming “old news”. And old news is no news. If this happens, all conservative voices will be effectively silenced in the future.
Why is Free Speech such a Big Deal?
Free speech is the one tool that can be used to bring about real, lasting change in society. Without this fundamental exchange of ideas, change simply cannot exist because no one will encounter an opposing view. No one will have their thoughts and ideals challenged, and no one will have the chance to learn, grow, and evolve.
If no one ever hears a dissenting view, then no one has a reason to think outside the box, seek new answers, and discover new truths. When we, as a society, silence one group of thoughts or group of thinkers, then we’ve lost the ability to think critically for ourselves because everyone fears being silenced.
This kind of censorship of speech and thought is how oppression begins. It begins with small things, like silencing conservative voices on college campuses. Then grows into something bigger, like encouraging violence against all who disagree with the accepted narrative.
Now is the time for conservatives to stand up and support the right of all American voices to be heard. The more voices flood into the marketplace of ideas, the more difficult it becomes to silence them.
~ Conservative Zone
