Crofts: Higher Education Trains Americans To Be Silent And Intolerant
Chronicle archives
November 16, 2019
The higher education system has failed the American people in many ways. University campuses in particular have added to the breakdown of tolerance and conversation in the United States through their lack of political diversity among professors and their failure to properly educate students on the fundamental rights, principles and liberty that makes America the envy of the world.
In a time where more high school graduates are going to college than ever before, you might expect that more education would lead to increased tolerance and less political polarization, but that is not the case. One explanation may be that professors are increasingly becoming more liberal, with Democratic professors outnumbering Republican professors 10:1 on college campuses across the United States. This disproportional ideological skew has a negative impact on campuses — it does not create tolerance when students are exposed to only one perspective. Instead, it puts a handicap on the way students think.
On college campuses, you will often see protests against speakers, marches demanding a ban on guns and social justice warriors who divide students based on their identity. For some reason, these students are not educated on the basic rights of free speech. Some chants and signs argue that “Hate Speech isn’t Free Speech,” but this statement alone shows the lack of First Amendment education these students have had. In reality, hate speech is free speech, and it is protected by the First Amendment. Students have no problem exercising their First Amendment rights by protesting, marching and boycotting, but many still don’t know how to defend it.
Whether at the University of California Berkeley, where over 1,500 students rioted against Milo Yiannopoulos, preventing him from speaking, causing over $100,000 in damage to the campus and injuring six people, or right here at the University of Utah, where a speech by Ben Shapiro was also met with protests, the common theme is that students are incapable of hearing a viewpoint that does not line up with their ideology.
The unfortunate reality is that this lack of education is not limited to free speech but to a whole host of issues. There are articles, tweets and marches demanding that guns be banned and taken off the streets, as if these activists do not know that the right to bear arms exists. Campuses across America have diversity and equity centers that do nothing but divide students based on skin color and identity, things nobody can choose. The truth is, universities have pushed political correctness and preached diversity and tolerance but have done very little to make a positive and meaningful impact on society.
In many ways, I don’t blame the students — I blame the education system and universities who employ educators who consistently fail to teach the basic rights of American citizens. It’s not as if professors are apolitical or don’t talk about local, national or global issues. They do. What many professors don’t do is take the time to explain why attempting to stop a speaker from exercising their First Amendment rights is anti-American and intolerant toward opinions you don’t agree with. The effect of political correctness in education translates directly to other arenas.
How can students be expected to handle the complexities of society when they are not exposed to “offensive” or “different” viewpoints in the classroom based on the fear of hurting someone else’s feelings?
A study by the Cato Institute found that 71% of Americans believe that political correctness has silenced important discussions that our society needs to have. The same study showed that 58% of people feel the political climate prevents them from saying things they believe. Many people I know — including myself — feel that the climate on campus and within society has kept them from expressing the things they feel to be true. People are scared that they will be treated differently or “de-friended” for sharing their opinions.
If you have paid any attention to our current political and social climate, or even browsed Twitter for more than a few minutes, you can see that America is polarized. We are living in a time with no sense of tolerance for the other side — and if you disagree with someone’s point of view, you must be a bad person. If you voted for Trump, the only explanation is that you are a racist, and if you vote for a Democrat, you must be a socialist. The byproduct of this cultural shift is that society is deaf and America that is silenced. If you wonder why we are living in such a crazy time, you don’t have to look further than these failures of higher education.
Eric Reece • Nov 20, 2019 at 5:18 pm
I literally laughed out loud when I read that ” University campuses, in particular, have added to the breakdown of tolerance and conversation in the United States”. If the author is saying that we no longer tolerate racism, homophobia, islamophobia, and xenophobia (aka common rhetoric of the politically right), then they would be 100% accurate that we, as a society, no longer tolerate those things. Tolerance doesn’t mean that your hatred is equally as valid as someone else’s religion/sexuality/lifestyle/etc. It certainly doesn’t mean that we have to listen to you and/or give you any kind of platform to express those hateful opinions.
I also find it hilarious that the author points out the democratic professors outnumber republican professors 10:1. Did you ever wonder why that is? Conservatives and republicans seem to think that there is some conspiracy that University administrations are out to silence conservative opinions by breeding a generation of liberal progressives. I mean, what else could explain the fact that most people in academia and people with college degrees have more socially liberal views on society? Maybe, just maybe, it’s because people that are more educated tend to lean further left.
The author of this article also seems to think that “freedom of speech” equates to “your speech cannot have any consequences” when that’s not true at all. Freedom of speech literally means that you can’t be prosecuted by the government for expressing your opinion. That’s it. If students want to protest a speaker on campus because they disagree with them, completely fine. No rights are being violated. If someone spouting racist, homophobic or otherwise offensive rhetoric gets called a racist, homophobe, or bigot, then that’s completely fine too. Again, no rights are being violated. It always amazes me how the people who tend to rely on the argument that “freedom of speech lets me say whatever I want” usually have the most superficial understanding of what it means, but I digress. I am curious about what exactly the author is referring to when they say that the climate on campus has kept them from expressing what they “feel to be true”. I mean if people really think they would be “de-friended” for believing that the free market should be de-regulated and the government should cut spending and taxes (traditional conservative talking points), then they should either get new friends or reconsider their worldview.
My final point is that it is amusing that the author somehow equates a “racist” with a “socialist” as if the two are equally as bad. That is some real enlightened centrism right there.
Ryan Steensma • Nov 20, 2019 at 4:45 pm
“Hate speech is free speech.” This statement alone shows the lack of First Amendment education this writer has had. In reality, hate speech is NOT free speech, and it is NOT protected by the First Amendment.
I’m disappointed that this piece was published in the Daily Utah Chronicle. The writer should properly educate his or herself before writing an uninformed and condescending opinion piece. Of course, it is the writer’s First Amendment right to publicly expose his or her own ignorance, albeit embarrassing.
valeta rothaus • Nov 16, 2019 at 9:32 am
This is Right On !!! Every thing Porter says in this article is TRUE !!!! It’s too bad that the socialist are are Not allowing Free speech & speakers to voice opposing opinions!!!!!!