What is happening in the electorate mirrors what has developed on college and university campuses.
What is happening in the electorate mirrors what has developed on college and university campuses.
Q uestions about open discourse, the silencing of ideas and dissent, and the phenomenon of cancel culture are now part of the political zeitgeist and have become regular electoral talking points as we head into the 2022 elections. While these vile and dangerous tendencies once appeared primarily at our nation’s colleges and universities, they have now infiltrated the nation’s politics and daily practices and affect many industries ranging from the arts and mass media to the banking and medical communities.
What’s critical to recognize now is that most Americans are not practicing these silence-and-shame techniques. They predominate mainly on the extreme left — a fairly small minority of Americans who have had an oversize influence in recent years. New survey data collected in the fall by the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV) of 1,600 likely voters reveal that leftists are far more likely than others to end a relationship and cancel people based on politics. However, Americans on both the left and right self-censor and limit their thoughts and expressions at fairly equal rates.
A considerable majority of Americans surveyed (60 percent), regardless of party, are at least somewhat worried about cancel culture and its impact on society. However, the data show that those who are more conservative are notably more concerned about its impact than liberal Americans are. Three-quarters of very conservative respondents (75 percent) are either somewhat or very worried about cancel culture, while 57 percent of very liberal respondents report being either somewhat or very worried.
There is a general worry about the effects of cancel culture, but people in both major parties are affected by it to some degree. Two-thirds (67 percent) of likely voters who identify as progressive — far more than in any other ideological group — report strained interpersonal relations over political questions. A little over half of very liberal likely voters (54 percent) report a breakdown of an interpersonal relationship over politics, while not even a third (28 percent) of moderate identifiers report the same. Conservatives, in contrast, look very different from liberals here, for just a quarter (26 percent) of those who identify as somewhat conservative and a third (36 percent) of very conservative identifiers state that they have had troubles in their relationships due to political differences.
What is happening in the electorate today is incredibly similar to what has developed on college and university campuses. Progressive administrators have pushed an identity-laden agenda that isolates students and shuts down disagreement, much to the chagrin of many students and faculty. Most faculty and the overwhelming majority students are open-minded and want debate and discourse, but a small, coordinated group of extremists has set the tone and agenda and scared the majority into silence.
Downstream from cancel culture is self-censorship, which pervades campus life as much as it does the general public. When asked if they’ve refrained from sharing opinions on political topics such as abortion, race, gender, or education, because of a fear of being canceled, nearly 4 in 10 (38 percent) of today’s students have limited their speech. Breaking this down further, there is little variance based on ideology; 45 percent of progressive and 42 percent of very conservative likely voters report limiting their speech. Fewer moderates, 35 percent, have done this. But far too many Americans self-censor, regardless of ideology.
The news here is not all dire. The data show that overwhelming majorities of those on the left and right agree that conversations are the first step to solving our nation’s problems. Progressive (88 percent) and very conservative (92 percent) likely voters in the JILV survey agree that rather than shutting down dialogue with name-calling and labeling, Americans should learn from one another. Likely progressive and conservative voters agree that the failure to learn from others is a sign of an ill democracy and culture. The question now is whether those on the left will listen and be open to views they disagree with, rather than shutting down ideas that may make them uncomfortable.