The Culture That Hates Speech - Granite Grok

The Culture That Hates Speech

Speech Police

University speech guides, free speech zones, microaggressions, and the entire campus thought-police culture is programming future generations to accept that those in “authority” cannot only define where and when ‘speech’ may occur but who may participate and what words they can use.

The first of two recent examples is an op-ed by a student at Princeton who wrote,

“when conservatives appeal to ‘free speech,'” it is safe to ignore them, since “they are appealing to a right that does not exist.”

This is a college student at Princeton.

“In my belief, when conservative ideas are opposed, there is no right that is being infringed,”

What if they are a black conservative, or gay, Latino, or a woman?

Neither race nor gender is broached in the opinion piece published in the Daily Princetonian, so we are left to speculate, which we can. The qualification for membership in a progressive tribe is measured not by the color of your skin or what gender you assume but by your political ideology. An ideology that teaches its adherents that ideas outside the far-left worldview are not only intolerable but not protected by the Constitution.

Being black, or gay or female does not shield you if you think outside the box in which the progressives have stuffed you.

But we should not be surprised. Refusing rights was never out of the mainstream of liberal thought. Slavery and segregation are old progressive ideas that have taken on a new facade. And opposition to the ideological foundations that hold them in place shall not be tolerated. 

To their credit, the paper’s editor, at least one student, and one professor (to date) found the premise ridiculous or pointed out that the arguments made no sense. But there does not appear to have been much in the way of outrage. We are, after all, talking about the same campus culture that parrots liberal talking points calling President Trump Hitler and comparing Republicans to Nazis.

The proposition that Republicans are all fascists for thinking different thoughts is attractive to the left because it gives them an avenue for their frustration and failure.

It can’t be them or their ideas that were rejected.

It also holds the promise that their intimidation tactics might silence regular folks who disagree but lack the backbone to withstand the withering criticism of PC stormtroopers. Lose the election but win the watercooler, park bench, or queue for coffee at the local bistro. Control the narrative, and maybe it translates to the ballot box.

It might work, but as with much of the progressive program, the idea that Hitler clones run the current administration is a lie.

The current president is rolling back the imperial and often unconstitutional declarations of the previous president. Where appropriate, Mr. Trump is abrogating assumed executive branch power that belongs to Congress so that they may decide if those policies are worth pursuing. 

You don’t have to like or agree with the man, but that is not how fascism works. Fascism is about accumulating and centralizing power. It uses intimidation and fear to manipulate behavior. Fascism even decides what words you can use and where. And it is a world where you can never know who might take offense or choose to turn you in.

Alfred MacDonald, a philosophy graduate student at the University of Texas at San Antonio, was having a conversation with another student. When the other student mentioned how they were a Christian and their Fiancee was a Muslim, MacDonald pointed out that he didn’t have a high opinion of Muslims because, as a homosexual, there are Muslim countries where he could get executed.

Long story short, “MacDonald was then called into the department chair’s office, where she told him that he could be subject to administrative discipline for this speech.”

Nothing Alfred said was untrue, but even in casual conversation, the prevailing campus culture will get you dragged into the office of someone in authority. A someone who will pass judgment, not on the facts, nor the context, nor your intent, but on their interpretation of the words filtered through a decidedly totalitarian worldview. A passing moment that could ruin years of study and get you “blacklisted” by the PC goon squad.

It’s not just conservatives whom the left’s culture warriors could be convinced have no right to free speech. It is anyone who dares to use not just banned words but banned thoughts and ideas.

People who think this way are willing to silence any speech to which they object regardless of who is speaking or what they have to say. What’s worse is that they are prepared to give those in positions of power the tools to silence speech they hate.

A power that once given the people will never get back.

This is not some fad or fashion.

We cannot sit idly by and expect our republic to endure when future generations of leaders are trained to silence ideas they oppose because they disagree.

Any legislators who are not appalled by this must believe it somehow benefits them. Those individuals need to be identified and peacefully removed from power at the earliest electoral convenience.

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