Do liberals hate free speech?

I’m listening to the NYT Daily Podcast’s story on ‘free speech on college campuses’. First of all, it seemed to lean fairly heavily on the side of ‘free speech’ which in this context requires the silencing of liberal protesters. Okay let me be honest, I’m pretty conflicted on this. For the purposes of argument conservatives inevitably eschew their Ann Coulters, Milo Yanniwhatevers and whatever rabble rousers who are the ‘victims’ and bring up some young fresh-faced conservative with a tie and an eastern accent from wherever the hell these people come from, and he (always he) talks calmly about the death of free speech and open conversation by the actions of self-righteous liberal snowflakes, although inevitably he tries to be as non-threatening and calm as possible for all the folks watching at home. Well I’ve got to say the argument about open conversation is a good one. It’s true that none of us talk enough to people we disagree with, are not open enough to ideas that conflict with our own, and most especially, we liberals are too quick to outrage. Getting angry at racists, shouting them down and publicizing their racism so that everyone else can shout them down is satisfying, and usually shuts them up for a little while. But it doesn’t make them less racist, if anything it makes them more racist because it makes them angry, but they keep their racism quiet, they don’t talk about it, when pollsters show up they claim allegiance to causes and politicians whom they know they are supposed to support, and then they go to the ballot box and vote Trump.

Before I go on with the “But also…” I want to address one branch of these free speech liberal snowflake college campus controversies, which is when the liberal and black populations of schools and whatnot have to go to bat against blackface Halloween costumes or racist jokes in college newspapers or what have you, and white folks come up with “it’s just a joke” or “actually this isn’t racist its…” and whatever. My answer to this is such: You have no right to tell someone else whether or not they should be offended, especially if you have no way to put yourself in their shoes. No white person has the right or ability to tell a black person whether or not they should be offended, no matter how many black friends they have, no matter how many seasons of the Chappelle show they watched, no matter how many weeks they spent in Africa with their church group. Yes, you may not think you were being racist, you think your misunderstood, you think you actually walked the line between provocateur and racist deftly, you think that you are being treated unfairly. Maybe you are! It’s a burden we bear as white people, but it’s a damn small burden compared to the history and legacy of slavery, so just shut the fuck up and redeem yourself later.

Okay, so I was saying that I agreed in some measure with the idea that we need to have more open communication, even with people they disagree with. But also… These are people with book deals, going on tv and talk radio and voicing their opinions. So if their free speech is being violated it’s only in one small way. Furthermore these opinions, which are frequently loaded with thinly veiled racism and such, they get subsumed into the consciousness of the likeminded public, racism with charts and graphs that make it seem objective, these opinions find their way from constituents to policy makers and politicians and are put into the world as laws and executive orders. And liberals and activists can’t do much about that, what they can do is make their voice heard when these people come to their campus, a rare chance to get in front of a news camera and tell the world that we see racism and will not let it stand, will not let it bolster itself with calm words dumb jokes and the apparent support of an audience of silent students. Furthermore these students are exercising their right to have a voice in the image and legacy of their school. Who a school invites to speak, especially if it’s an event such as commencement, reflects on the school, and the school reflects on the student. Poorer, or just normal students don’t have the sway to effect who an administration invites, don’t have donor parents to whisper in the right ears. Black and brown students already deal with their isolation in these mostly white colleges, and their disconnect with the schools past. What they can do is demonstrate, congregate, show that they are the present and the future of their institution, just like the welcome brochure says, and show that their institution does not accept racism and will not be associated with it.

Can one be conflicted and passionate at the same time? Apparently. We need to become better at having conversations, at hearing points of view, but we must never compromise our principles. When in doubt, liberals, stick to your guns, say passionate, stay behind our line in the sand, because the most deadly weapon of conservatives and racists is apathy.