Thought Vigilantes

There is a lot of coverage of opinions and trends on university campuses. It has struck me as a bit odd why there is so much coverage on such a small sliver of society. I mean really, why should we care what is going on with a bunch of kids running around pretending to be adults?

Well, we should care, and here is why. College campuses, and those pre-adults are in a very few short years going to be bringing their opinions and world views into the work place, government, and culture at large. We will all begin to experience those perspectives and see the world begin to change because of today's college student's involvement.

That being said we have a problem. The problem is that there is a growing rejection of the value of freedom of speech, and a rejection of freedom of thought. "Safe spaces", pushes for acceptance of non-standard gender pronouns, trigger warnings, dis-invitations to certain speakers, and cries of hate speach, are all targeting our very fundamental right to personal identity.

The first amendment of the United States constitution enshrines our freedom of speech. That means that we have the freedom to speak our minds. To say things that other people disagree with, or find offensive. Even to say things specifically to be offensive.

In the era we live in the government is not the threat to that freedom of speech. The threat is businesses like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as Universities who embrace policies that allow for censorship of whatever speech is deemed sexist, bigoted, racist, or generally offensive and hateful.

The threat is that these college kids will enter the larger world and push for, or at least accept, people and organizations to act as thought vigilantes to punishing anyone who might speak out against their opinions or world view.

We must fight against this trend. Regardless of our political affiliations or philosophical stances. If we want to live in a country where we are free to choose our own futures, to have our own opinions, to be individuals, we must fight to maintain unfettered free speech. Yes, even if people are mean to us. Because if we lose that then we can all sit back and enjoy authoritarianism of whatever flavor decides to come along. And we won't get to choose it.