Remember when academic leftists embraced free speech? When they proudly declared that they had the right to speak truth to power? Well, now that they have power, they like using it to silence anyone who challenges their views.
The good news is that there’s a growing backlash against the attack on free speech. At a number of schools, we now find groups dedicated to protecting free speech, including the University of North Carolina. In today’s Martin Center article, Jenna Robinson writes about her recent talk with a founder of the UNC Free Speech Alliance, Frank Hill.
Hill explains that the mission “is trying to get back to the roots of what a university is supposed to be about already. I think the whole idea of a university is to have a free and open exchange of ideas from all sectors and try to use that so that we all learn something, and there’s been a move, we think, in the university system to frustrate some of that free exchange. And we hope that this alliance will help bring to light some of those tensions and also get the alumni involved to help make that happen.”
Hill brings up the infamous UNC speaker ban of the 1960s, when the state government wanted to keep “subversives” off campus. The university defied the law back then but hasn’t been so vigilant in standing up for speech by today’s subversives, which is to say, critics of leftist beliefs.
As for the approach his group will take, Hill says, “We’re not going to be an angry group or a mob. We’re just trying to say, let’s use logic and reason — a little bit of winsomeness, maybe some humor every now and then, and just try to try to see if we can steer this back somewhat toward balance, which is all anybody could ever hope for in a university system.”
This is a good development. Let’s hope that it continues spreading.