College used to be grounded in the inviolate principle that each of us should confront new ideas, speak our minds and learn. Has that time passed? This year alone we have seen a riot at U.C. Berkeley and violence at Middlebury College over controversial speakers. Instead of “express yourself,” a new view seems to be taking hold: “Suppress yourself — or I’ll do it for you.” What is happening to free speech on campus?
Last week, ARI hosted a free-speech event at University of Southern California. The panelists Colin Moriarty, Dave Rubin and Steve Simpson discussed the importance of free speech on campus. More than 150 people, many of them students, were in attendance. This short video is a recap of the event.
Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle throughout the Western world, but increasingly it is being challenged — on college campuses, among intellectuals and in politics — in the name of preventing “hate” speech or offensive speech, or protecting allegedly “marginalized” groups. Why is this happening, and what does it mean for the future of free speech?
Today, college students’ attitude toward free speech ranges from ambivalence to outright hostility. They cry “microaggression” at the slightest offense. They demand “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” to protect themselves from controversial ideas. They attempt to ban speakers at public universities and support other bans on speech.
You’ve heard the stories. Charles Murray was attacked by a mob after giving a talk at Middlebury College. Not long after that, a riot broke out at U.C. Berkeley over a scheduled appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos. Berkeley’s student newspaper later published a series of essays justifying the violence as “self-defense.”
College used to be grounded in the inviolate principle that each of us should confront new ideas, speak our minds and learn. Has that time passed? This year alone we have seen a riot at U.C. Berkeley and violence at Middlebury College over controversial speakers. Instead of “express yourself,” a new view seems to be taking hold: “Suppress yourself — or I’ll do it for you.”
Why do so many college students believe that free speech amounts to “sticks and stones”? And that it’s morally justified to use force to silence people?
This talk by Steve Simpson, director of Legal Studies at the Ayn Rand Institute, explores how today's widespread acceptance of determinism has made many people suspicious of free speech. In contrast, the controversial positions that ARI takes on free speech reflect its philosophical understanding of free will.
