OPINION:
The Brookings Institute conducted a survey of 1,500 college students around the nation, and found fully 44 percent think hate speech — whatever that is — isn’t a First Amendment right. About half that think violence is an OK form of protest.
The indoctrination of the next generation is nearly complete.
The left’s years and years of hard work at shutting down dissenting political views is paying off big time.
What is hate speech, anyway?
That’s not an American notion. Founding Fathers, after all, incorporated the First Amendment for the very reason of protecting political speech, words that irked, rhetoric that seemed more rabble-rousing than diplomatic and nice.
But a slow creep from the left to label talk from the right — talk from the right that was specifically bold and blunt in its counter to progressive-slash-socialist viewpoints — has resulted in a widespread acceptance of the phrase “hate speech.” As if it means something in America.
As if Americans are supposed to pay attention to its inherent warnings.
Well, today’s college kids apparently are.
Women surveyed by Brookings were more likely than men to buy into the whole “hate speech is not protected” argument, with 49 percent saying such is not a First Amendment right. By contrast, 38 percent of men said similarly.
And then there was this: 62 percent of self-identified left-leaning respondents believe it’s OK for students to shout down campus speakers deemed too controversial. That’s compared to 39 percent of right-leaning survey participants.
One more finding of especial note — a finding that goes far in explaining the window-smashings, fires and fights that have been seen at campuses around the country of late: 20 percent said violence is an acceptable form of protest to shut down unwanted speakers.
This was the exact question, as noted by Breitbart: “A student group opposed to the speaker uses violence to prevent the speaker from speaking. Do you agree or disagree that the student group’s actions are acceptable?”
It’s been said that this nation, if it falls, will fall from within, not because of an outside military takeover or conflict. With numbers like this — with college students with growing frequency failing to understand and then uphold America’s most basic of God-given rights — it’s easy to see that a national crumbling from within is a near-certain fate.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.