The college campus used to be a place where young minds were exposed to opinions and ideas in an atmosphere where free speech and free thought were encouraged and protected, but a recent incident where radical activists resorted to violence to prevent a speaker from speaking out against transgender propaganda and other lies from the LGBT agenda shows us how this is no longer the case.
Jeffrey Younger, a father and Texas House candidate who recently lost a child-custody battle with his ex-wife after contesting his nine-year-old son’s transgender diagnosis, was invited by the Young Conservatives of Texas UNT chapter to speak at the University of Texas (UNT) to share his story but was violently prevented from doing so (source National Review):
Invited to speak at a campus lecture hall by the Young Conservatives of Texas UNT chapter, Younger was about to share the story of how the Texas judiciary had stripped him of his right to advocate on behalf of his child. Then, far-left activists, some of whom are believed to be affiliated with the North Texas offshoot of Antifa, hijacked the presentation, shouting Younger down and eventually forcing him evacuate before punching him as he left the building.
Filling nearly every seat, the protestors bellowed “F*** these fascists” repeatedly for over half an hour, throwing up middle fingers, slamming the tables, and indiscriminately screaming, creating a cacophony to prevent Younger from speaking. One activist drew a Soviet Union hammer and sickle on the whiteboard.
“The fact that I want to maintain traditional social norms and won’t accept the arbitrary identities that people assign themselves in their mind is fascist,” Younger told National Review.
One female activist spat on Younger, he claims, because he refused to use preferred gender pronouns. (emphasis mine)
At the University of North Texas, a trans-critical event by a conservative student group feat. @JeffYoungerTex was shut down. One person went to the front to scream. Another stood on the table & spit at the speaker after being called "she." More footage:https://t.co/IbwXOEziF9 pic.twitter.com/IemEmT3DPD
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) March 4, 2022
As the situation deteriorated, police evacuated Younger, as well as the student event organizer Kelly Neidert, from the building. Outside, they were confronted by a swarm of about 500 black-clad activists screeching expletives like “F*** you, Kelly!” One individual punched Younger in the gut, he said and Neidert confirmed. When police escorted Younger to a car and drove him away, the activists chased the car down the street, trying to open the door and “pull me out of the car,” he said.
The use of violence on college campuses is becoming more common after years of believing that free speech is secondary to LGBT lies.
Over the past few years, “safe spaces” have been created on college campuses to protect censorious crybabies from hearing things that don’t agree with their politically correct attitudes about culture and so-called values; particularly when it pertains to transgender propaganda and LGBT issues.
According to The Best Schools, college safe spaces originated with “the community now known as LGBTQIA+” but have since been adapted to include “other marginalized communities.” They describe a safe space as follows:
The goal of a safe space is to provide a place where people are not subject to the biases, discrimination, and criticism of the outside world. A safe space may exist in the abstract, such as during a conversation about a sensitive subject, or in physical form, like a private meeting room. On a college campus, a safe space can be any location deemed “safe” by student volunteers or faculty with inclusion/diversity training. (emphasis mine)
In other words, safe spaces are places where you can’t talk about anything that might hurt someone’s feelings.
The use of violence to deny the free speech rights of speakers opposed to the LGBT agenda was essentially prophesied in a 2017 poll conducted by the Brookings Institute showing that 20 percent of college students were willing to use violence to silence anyone saying “offensive and hurtful” things — a number that included 22 percent of those who identified as Republican.
Additionally, nearly 40 percent of students surveyed believed hate speech should NOT be protected by the First Amendment, proving how the absence of teaching the Constitution and American history is quickly evolving into a serious threat to free speech.
Snowflakehood isn’t the exclusive property of progressives, “conservative” Trump snowflakes have sought to silence so-called hate speech whenever it has been directed at their orange messiah.
In May 2017, a private college in Indiana was offering an elective class called “Trumpism & US Democracy” that described Trump as a purveyor of “sexism, white supremacy, xenophobia, nationalism, nativism and imperialism.” Right on cue, so-called conservatives rallied the troops in an attempt to shut it down for its “far-left bias.”
The anti-free speech movement on America’s college campuses prompted RealClearEducation.com to launch the College Free Speech Rankings, with an interactive website where parents and students can see how schools they’re interested in stack up in the free speech department.
Though well-intended, this ranking system actually confirms the growing acceptance of the use of violence against speakers exercising their free-speech rights to speak against transgender propaganda and the LGBT agenda. For example, in an op-ed concerning the 2020 edition of the rankings, we learned the following:
The rankings are based on a survey of nearly 20,000 students at 55 schools across the country. The survey reveals some startling facts. Almost 20% of students say that using violence to stop an unwanted speech or event is in some cases acceptable. Among Ivy League students, 36% said that it was “always” or “sometimes” acceptable to shout down a speaker one doesn’t like.
Besides the chilling effect this threat of violence is having on the free speech rights of college students, the op-ed also mentioned how professors have become so intimidated by the “safe space” movement that they are choosing not to challenge students to think for themselves.
Colleges have become perilous places to express unpopular ideas. Professors and students fear being shouted down, shunned, or, in some cases, fired or expelled. This has a chilling effect on the classroom.
Jonathan Haidt, a professor at New York University, frames the problem this way: “At my university we have a ‘bias response line.’ Students are encouraged to anonymously report anyone who says anything that offends them. So, as a professor, I no longer take risks; I must teach to the most easily offended student in the class. I therefore avoid saying or doing anything provocative. My classes are less fun and engaging.” (emphasis mine)
The free speech rights of Young Conservatives of Texas have been targeted by LGBT radicals for opposing transgender propaganda and other lies in the past.
In the summer of 2020, a petition was co-created by student organizations UNT GLAD, MUEVE and UNT College Democrats to remove the group from the campus. The petition, which fell short of its goal of 2500 signatures, argued that YCT had engaged in multiple statements and actions that directly conflicted with the university’s definition of equity.
“We’re not asking for them to be removed because they’re conservatives,” Brett Davis, vice president of UNT Democrats said. “We’re going after them because they’re racist, homophobic and transphobic.” (emphasis mine)
Instead of free-thinkers, college campuses have become the “safe space” for a generation of hypersensitive “snowflakes” who believe that feelings are more important than freedom.
When you consider how this attitude has systematically dismantled free speech, I’m not all that optimistic we won’t see violence against people exercising their free speech rights to oppose transgender propaganda and other lies of LGBT radicals on college campuses get much worse in the days ahead.
David Leach
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