For Some on the Left, All’s Fair When Battling the Right
11th May 2016
‘Some’? Try ‘most’.
“Eliminationist” might be a good word for this censorious attitude. Most liberals and progressives aren’t eliminationists, they favor debate and still believe in the competition of ideas. But in all corners of the Modern Left, you can find the imperious types who are simply done arguing, or, as the President says, “We know what works. We know what we have to do. We’ve just got to put aside the stale and outmoded debates.”
Colleges across the country have begun to roll out speech codes, and to disinvite speakers whose views are foreign to the liberal majority of the student body and the faculty. (President Obama, to his credit, warned colleges against this latter pernicious trend.) The colleges’ argument: Unpleasant views are inherently discriminatory or bigoted, and they might trigger sensitive students.