Which Students Favor Using Violence to Suppress Free Speech

Once, college students were overwhelmingly in favor of free speech. This view was encouraged by their professors. But now that the establishment is comprised of leftists, free speech no longer advances their interests, so it is frowned upon.

Free speech is now better known on college campuses as “hate speech.” According to a large survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Real Clear Education, and College Pulse, many students not only support suppressing it; in keeping with the spirit of the Age of Black Lives Matter, they support using violence to do so.

The Blaze reports:

The poll found that 18% of college students approve using violence in certain situations to stifle campus speech. That number rises to 21% at Ivy League schools, and drops to 15% at colleges in the Southeastern Conference.

A correlation emerged between wokeness and a willingness to use violence to suppress free speech.

“Liberal students expressed a higher acceptance of violence,” FIRE explained. “Students identifying as extremely liberal said violence to stop a speech or event from occurring on campus was ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ acceptable at a rate double than students identifying as extremely conservative: 13% to 6%.”

Demographics that favor Democrats also favor using violence to shut down disfavored opinions.

“One quarter of atheist students and black students expressed some level of acceptance for violence, as did 27% of LGBT students,” the poll revealed.

What kind of speech would violence be used to suppress? Speech liberals don’t like. That’s the sort of speech that is regarded as controversial in the erstwhile free marketplace of ideas.

While 55% of liberal students self-censor, 72% of conservative students feel the need to self-censor.

Regarding who should be allowed to a college to speak, better a socialist than the President of the USA:

The FIRE poll found that an overwhelming 87% of students would welcome former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to speak, but only 69% would allow President Donald Trump to speak on campus.

Liberals denounce the people they want to silence as being “close-minded.” Meanwhile, 71% of strong Republicans supported Biden coming to speak at their school, but only a minority of strong Democrats would permit Trump to speak.

One of the great things about America that conservatives would like to conserve is the open exchange of ideas that used to characterize higher education. As with many other key American values, it may be too late for conservation. What we need is restoration.

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