In recent days I've been bombarded by the notion that young conservatives are somehow repressed in their freedom of speech.
The hysterical right-wing press is especially obsessed with this idea. I remember one National Review article which declared college campuses 'places of dangerous unreality'. Their prime example? Most of the students they surveyed believed in evolution and global warming, but not that Iraq had WMDs. The horror.
Well, it isn't true. Not only are Republican clubs as well-funded as Democratic ones (the board of 'ultraliberal' Brandeis University just gave it's GOP group $7,000 for a single speaker) but the economics department of every university I've ever seen teaches nothing but pure free-market capitalism. My own econ textbook dismisses Socialism and Social Democracy in a single sentence.
Granted, colleges might be a bit more culturally sensitive than the outer world, but that's what happens when you have thousands of people of all races, classes, rleigions, and sexual orientations gathered in one place. I suppose reactionaries have a right to be close-minded, but that certainly doesn't make me respect them.
3 comments:
Wherever did you receive this bombardment?
Perhaps the problem lies within what is defined as "liberal" and "conservative" on campuses and in the "mainstream" media these days.
The very fact that supporting the proliferation of democracy as a means to combat terrorism and maintaining that an achievement society is preferable to a dependence society are considered "conservative" values (similar to Mussolini's) speaks volumes.
I was bombarded by someone who I am immensely fond of, but with whom I often disagree.
Repression of freedom of speech is always a bad thing. This should not be confused with no one supporting one's view point, however.
Closed-mindedness is a poor quality in an individual. Let all the information be out there, and people can decide for themselves what the "truth" is. This should be something we can all agree on.
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