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FROM ENGINES TO OBSTACLES
THE EFFECTS OF REGULATING SPEECH ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
BY JOSH RUDD
In the United States today just about everyone – famous celebrities, politicians, colleges, major companies and corporations, average people, and even radical groups like Antifa and the Altright
–claims to support free speech. But when pressed, many people admit that some viewpoints or ideologies are simply too radical and need to be regulated or even banned. When a person or organization claims they support freedom of speech, they often mean that they support freedom of speech which isn’t offensive. This contradiction of simultaneously supporting and restricting free speech is most blatant on college campuses in the U.S. today, where freedom
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The most obviously consequence is the phenomena of so-called “snowflake” college students. Colleges today isolate students from contradictions to a leftist worldview by smearing and silencing opposing ideas. Therefore, liberal students who have been exposed to nothing but affirmation and agreement throughout most of their education cannot deal with the differing thoughts and opinions present in the real world. These college students, instead of acting rationally and civilly when confronted with contrary views, are prone to melting down like snowflakes, hence the nickname. But the censorship of free speech on college campuses doesn’t just harm students’ abilities to deal with differing opinions; it teaches college students that those differing opinions should be silenced. College students have been indoctrinated into believing that speech which offends them, hurts their feelings, or makes them feel “unsafe” is not protected by the First
Amendment. And these students consider any viewpoint which substantially differs from their own as “unsafe”. When these students enter the real world they find that people