Ruckus over Ben Shapiro symbolic of wider problem
Ohio State University found itself at the center of controversy yet again during a visit on Nov. 13 by conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, who was booed and heckled by some students who were upset at his appearance.
Part of a niche of young, media savvy conservatives, Shapiro was confronted with tasteless and indefensible chants of “John McCain is dead! Reagan is dead!”
The glaring hypocrisy of that chant is such that it blinds protestors to the irony that when they respond in such a manner, any claims of tolerance are null and void.
Students have every right to protest, but some measure of reason must be applied. There’s a universe of difference between conservatism and someone like white supremacist Richard Spencer, who has nothing of value to offer anyone, or the theater-goer who decided last week to praise Adolf Hitler loudly during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof,” in Baltimore.
Some audience members out ran in a panic, thinking it was the start of a mass shooting.
The nutshell
That isn’t free speech or protest, that’s an act of domestic terror, a dangerous stunt that in no way ever should be tolerated.
But that isn’t what we’re talking about here. Whether it’s the “Sermon on the Mount,” The Federalist Papers, or Plato’s “Republic,” beliefs and ideas that might be antithetical to your own are supposed to make you feel uncomfortable.
That’s the entire purpose of college in a nutshell. It is supposed to stretch you, push you and demand that you defend your beliefs through critical thought, all to ensure you are a different person leaving the campus than when you walked onto it.
The college campus is the one place where you are sure to encounter people who propose ideas, beliefs and ways of living you never thought were possible.
No joke
Philosophically speaking, it isn’t supposed to be a “safe place.”
Young pundits, conservative and liberal, who make their living on the campus-speaking circuit, won’t always hold the same views they espouse now. Time has a way of tempering certainty, and real life often makes quick work of self-righteousness.
That said, students have every right to take issue with certain speakers, but they cannot be allowed to be the unilateral arbiters of deciding which views are acceptable to hear.
Every person in public life has said something that has angered and/or offended others, particularly comedians, some of whom have stopped performing at colleges out of frustration or from fear of sparking controversy. And that’s a shame. Though students tend to acquire a sense of ownership about their campuses that lasts all their lives, they can’t be permitted to dictate who can speak and who cannot.