Dakota Beacon

Contempt for individual liberty, claims to the contrary, has roots in today’s education system. Specifically, our colleges and universities have become breeding grounds of intolerance. Furthermore, the degradation of civility goes hand in hand with the squelching of free speech.

Since the 1960s, and the advent of the hippie free speech movement, individual liberty has gradually become the target of contempt and incivility. The hippie generation has come of age and now holds tenure in colleges and universities. Today, rudeness and vulgarity manifests itself in such inappropriate restrictions as speech codes and the disinviting of guest speakers ostensibly to guard against “hate” speech.

This is in no way accidental. This technique we’ve seen before under other totalitarians such as the Nazis and the Communists. Free speech is used to gain their objectives. Once achieved, free speech is shut down to protect the leftist gains. So it is in our colleges and universities today.

The word “civil” or “civility” has a straightforward etiology. It signifies good citizenship or orderly behavior. The Latin the term “civilis” relates to the body of a nation’s citizens. It was not until the 16^th century that the term “civil” came to denote “courtesy” or “politeness.”

The left justifies mayhem with the excuse that shutting down “offensive speech,” i.e., speech disapproved of by leftist hooligans and campus professors protects free speech. Direct action such as barring campus guest speakers and vandalizing property is warranted.

The incivility is not confined to campuses. Students graduate displaying their lack of knowledge of elementary civics. They go on to populate the American landscape. As such, they behave exactly as they were schooled. For example, within the past year the following notable instances occurred. Senator Mitch McConnell and his wife Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao were accosted by a leftist mob at a restaurant near Georgetown University. Senator Ted Cruz and his wife were harassed at a Washington, DC restaurant. A leftist group called Smash Racism DC exclaimed “Your votes are hate crimes.” Go figure. Other members of Congress harassed by leftist Democrats include Andy Harris, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul. Even Tucker Carlson, Fox News commentator, was attacked at his home for opinions he expresses on air.

One organization seeking to protect individual freedom on campus is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). FIRE has revealed that self-styled bias response teams are in place on hundreds of US campuses. These response teams report to campus officials and occasionally to local law enforcement agencies.

In 2017 FIRE reported that hundreds of colleges and universities now promote a scenario from George Orwell’s “1984.” They ask students to report their friends, neighbors, and instructors who might engage in anything they suspect might be biased speech. (Search Google for Bias Report and Support System for details.)

Many instances of denial of free speech have been documented by FIRE.

--June 3: Rutgers University violated the First Amendment by defunding the student newspaper Daily Targum. The newspaper lost its funding despite winning the overall support of student voters in an April referendum. Defunding followed a campaign by a student group criticized by the paper.

--April 4: Wake Forrest wasted time and money investigating a parody in an Istagram post. The parody cited a fake campaign to “build a wall” between Wake Forrest and nearby Winston-Salem State University. Commentators accused the post as racist. Winston-Salem is traditionally a black institution.

--March 28: FIRE sued UCLA for withholding records about the retraction of an invitation for Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin to speak at UCLA. Demonstrations preceded Mnuchin’s retraction and FIRE sued UCLA for records to understand how the decision was made.

A recent Brookings Institute poll confirms that fifty-one percent of college students believed they have the right to shout down guest speakers. Over fifty percent maintain that colleges must not allow discourse or views that might offend. Nineteen percent of the students concurred that they had the right to use violence to shut down guest speakers.

Any college or university curtailing free speech as a First Amendment right is a product of intolerance and incivility.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).