The kids are all right, mostly
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has left the building. The delicate among us can rest easy. Coulter delivered a speech Wednesday night before a packed house at the University of Colorado Boulder. The event, sponsored by Turning Point USA, came and went without any mayhem, although some students managed to disgrace themselves.
About 100 students got up and left at the beginning of the speech in protest, some chanting “F— Ann Coulter” as they exited the building. Perhaps they were headed to another event on campus, BuffsUnited: Interwoven Intersectionalities, where students could engage in “a celebration of positive community!” to quote the invitation. I’m not woke enough to understand what Interwoven Intersectionalities means, but I’m pretty sure it was meant to be a safe space for those traumatized by the presence of Coulter on campus.
In addition to walking out, some student protesters attempted to register for the event under fake email addresses with the intent of not showing up and leaving the seats empty. Both tactics were intended to prevent other students from hearing the speaker. Fake registrants and walkouts left seats that could have gone to other students at the sold-out event. If you can’t shout down the speaker, deprive the listener a seat.
Outside, protesters chanted, “This is what democracy looks like.” Maybe it’s time for a remedial class in political science. Silencing opposing viewpoints is not democratic.
For the record, you’d have to pay me a lot, and maybe drug me, to get me to sit through an Ann Coulter speech. She has nothing to say that interests me. Mean-spirited, unintellectual and pointlessly provocative, Coulter has made a living purveying uncivil discourse. She has great hair, I’ll give her that.
But I don’t blame college kids for wanting to see her on stage. Kids like edgy speakers. When I was their age, a freshman on the CU Boulder campus, I went to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Controversy is fun when you’re young. Funny that I don’t remember any protesters or hecklers attempting to silence those speakers.
Silencing speakers, particularly, or perhaps exclusively conservative speakers, seems to be occurring at greater frequency. Earlier this month student protesters tried to shout down Christina Hoff Sommers at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. Liberal college students shouted down conservative scholar Charles Murray at Middlebury College in Vermont last year. When he adjourned to another room to speak to attendees, protesters pulled fire alarms. Masked individuals then physically attacked Murray and his faculty interviewer, giving her a concussion.
These events and polling data don’t paint a picture of tolerance on campus. A 2017 poll of more than 3,000 college students found that 56 percent of students say protecting free speech rights is extremely important to democracy. A majority believe that the campus climate stops some students from voicing their views and that conservative students are less able to freely express their opinions than liberal students. One particularly scary finding: 10 percent of students surveyed said violence is an acceptable tactic to stop someone from speaking and more than a third think it’s OK to shout down speakers.
Are today’s college students the intolerant snowflakes that incidents like the one Wednesday night in Boulder and recent polling data suggest? Or is a loud, obnoxious minority tarring the image of young people?
As an adjunct professor at several Denver-area universities, I believe it’s the latter. I’ve taught at two left-of-center universities and one right-of-center university and have yet to be accused of a micro-aggression. I find the majority of millennial students respectful and engaged, and the campuses do a good job facilitating a thoughtful exchange of ideas.
While I decry the attempts to silence free speech perpetrated by some students, including those at CU Wednesday night, I hate to see all college students broad-brushed as intolerant Antifa types bent on silencing conservative speakers. My experience belies it. When it comes to the free exchange of ideas, I think most of the kids are all right.