[tomder55]

This is a sobering survey .3700 students were polled at 159 different colleges . The survey found that almost a quarter of them think that violence against unwanted speech is justified . 66% said shoutdowns are justified .

The 2021 College Free Speech Rankings (thefire.org)

Fire maintains an extensive database examining free speech issues The group has found that it’s becoming more common for students to try censoring, canceling or protesting campus speakers.

More than 80% of students report self-censoring their viewpoints at their colleges at least some of the time, with 21% saying they censor themselves often.

The rational course for a speaker would be to disengage and not express themselves in such a hostile environment . Some more courageous speakers have survived such intimidation by the woke mobs. Some have been injured in the process.

Allison Stanger, a professor of politics and economics at Middlebury College was hospitalized in 2017 after such an incident , She was moderating an event at Middlebury College that featured Charles Murray, the author of 'The Bell Curve' and 'Coming Apart.'

She is a Dem who does not agree with Murray . But she agreed to moderate anyway. Murray wrote of the incident .

In the mid-1990s, I could count on students who had wanted to listen to start yelling at the protesters after a certain point, "Sit down and shut up, we want to hear what he has to say." That kind of pushback had an effect. It reminded the protesters that they were a minority. I am assured by people at Middlebury that their protesters are a minority as well. But they are a minority that has intimidated the majority. The people in the audience who wanted to hear me speak were completely cowed. That cannot be allowed to stand. A campus where a majority of students are fearful to speak openly because they know a minority will jump on them is no longer an intellectually free campus in any meaningful sense.

Reflections on the Revolution in Middlebury | American Enterprise Institute - AEI


Now that was 6 years ago. In that time campus' have become more intolerable .

March 14 , Charlie Kirk had an event at U Cal Davis . This was hosted by the student group 'Turning Point USA' that Kirk founded .
Before the event UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May inflamed the mob by condemning Kirk .
UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May Comments on March 14 Student-led Event - YouTube
Not surprising then that event dissolved into mob violence by the fascist Antifa . Protesters smashed windows and used pepper spray in an attempt to prevent the audience from attending . A police officer was injured . Kirk still made his address.

A week before this Judge Kyle Duncan was shouted down during his remarks to Stanford Law’s Federalist Society. When the dean of the school Jenny Martinez apologized to the judge ,she was cornered by Antifa protesters .

The University of Pittsburgh has three events featuring speakers who students claim are transphobic. 11,000 people signed a petition to cancel . So far the school is holding firm .

But the continued intimidation tactics of the left threatens to turn universities ;where the free and open exchange of ideas should be paramount ,into echo chambers .