Imagine, if you will, a group of college students protesting the right to free speech while interrupting a pro-free speech lecture, using their own right to free speech. This isn’t the Twilight Zone, folks. This is real life, and it happened at the University of Washington State.
Professor Jonathan Zimmerman’s lecture titled, “Censorship and Free Speech in the Age of Trump,” was considered “hate” speech by at least seven students who strode into the lecture hall, interrupting the proceedings by speaking over Professor Johann N. Neem, who was introducing the topic.
The students held signs that read: “Advocating for the right to racist, sexist and transphobic speech is violent” and “Your safe space is violent.”
The Right To Speak
One of the protestors, Emmaline Bigongiari, was not happy when Neem said she was rude by interrupting, and that now wasn’t the appropriate time to speak. Bigongiari said: “We are students here, and we have the right to speak,” then said that “allowing Zimmerman to speak was allowing a violent space on Western’s campus.” The contradiction is amazing. Apparently, Bigongiari thinks it is her right to speak, but the professor, and those with differing opinions, should not have that same right. This is exactly what is wrong with the left, and the millennials lost in politically correct statements and entitlement, as Liberty Nation’s James Fite explained.
The protestors claimed Zimmerman defended the rights of racist, sexist and transphobic people. According to these oh-so-informed students, the professor promotes hate speech.
Ironically, at least to those of us “in the know,” these sanctimonious college intellectuals don’t seem to realize that they are encouraging censorship on speech and that this could backfire on them as well. When we start trying to censor speech and define what will be considered hate speech, we run into a plethora of problems. To some, Bigongiari and the students accusing Zimmerman of defending specific groups of people would be regarded as hate speech and, therefore, should not be allowed.
Who Decides?
The idea behind the First Amendment is to protect all forms of speech. We, as Americans, have the right to our opinions – at least for the time being. Who wants the government deciding what we can talk about? The left claims they want equality for all, but that only applies to those who share the same beliefs and politics. They don’t see the whole picture. They don’t understand that our forefathers knew what they were doing when they built the First Amendment into the Constitution for us.
Free speech is a necessity in our country – free speech for all, not just the chosen few. To start limiting and censoring our speech would be a step backward into the dark ages. The people will be divided, segregated, and oppressed. It will no longer be the majority who rules, but those with the loudest barks and the most political and financial pull. Free speech will be able to be bought and sold. The voice of so many individuals and groups will be silenced and never heard except in dim-lit back-alley rooms where people go to avoid persecution. Does any of this sound familiar? Does this remind anyone of events in history we’d all rather not repeat?
Reclaim the First Amendment
It’s time to buckle up and stop the left from taking away our inalienable rights. We need to protect the millennials from their own disastrous path of destruction; not only of themselves but of our nation as well. When the left shouts, we need to shout louder, with more conviction and truth. This is not a time where common sense and facts prevail. Instead, it is about who cries and complains the loudest.
Let’s just make sure our cries are backed with integrity; something the left seems to have lost. The Western Washington State students, and thousands of other misinformed individuals like them, don’t understand the hornet’s nest they are smacking with their self-righteous baseball bats. The right to free speech protects them, too. Just because we don’t agree with what they have to say doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to say it. And that’s the point we need to get out to one and all. While we still can.
