{"id":1450781,"date":"2022-04-22T16:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1450781"},"modified":"2022-04-22T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T20:00:47","slug":"light-a-candle-how-some-universities-are-striking-back-against-cancel-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/light-a-candle-how-some-universities-are-striking-back-against-cancel-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Light A Candle: How Some Universities Are Striking Back Against Cancel Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flight-a-candle-how-some-universities-are-striking-back-against-cancel-culture%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1450781&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/Free-speech-scaled.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Conservative exclusion on campus is virtually as old as conservatism itself. More than <a href=\"https:\/\/isi.org\/modern-age\/god-and-man-at-yale-at-70-a-new-introduction\/\">70 years ago<\/a>, a 25-year-old William F. Buckley Jr. launched his career as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/this-1972-video-explains-how-the-left-won-the-culture\">prescient public scholar<\/a> by exposing the vice-like grip liberalism exerted over academia in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1684512360\/?tag=regnerywebsite-20\">God and Man at Yale<\/a>.\u201d Since that time, leftist orthodoxy has moved infinitely further Left and become the default ideology of even the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/a-professor-was-punished-for-refusing-to-use-preferred-pronouns-he-sued-and-just-settled-for-400k\">most remote regional campuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Campus activists have routinely shouted down \u2014 even physically assaulted \u2014 conservatives with few meaningful repercussions. Now, a small but growing number of universities have recommitted themselves to the principles of free speech and tolerance for conservative views \u2014 and are telling incoming freshmen they will find no \u201csafe space\u201d on campus.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conservatives hunted in liberal \u201csafe spaces\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Much of academic cancel culture claims that certain forms of speech merit suppression, because they constitute \u201cviolence\u201d and put students in \u201cdanger.\u201d Yet at the same time, many conservative students say their physical safety has been threatened by an unbridled, censorious Left. Take Therese Purcell, the young woman behind former <a href=\"https:\/\/history.house.gov\/People\/Detail\/24194\">Republican congressman and L<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2004\/01\/frontpage-magazines-2003-man-of-the-year-col-allen-b-west\/\">t. Col. Allen West<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DEuGr8_yAUI\">\u2019s visit<\/a> to the University of Buffalo last month. Tired of being inundated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/what-is-critical-race-theory-breaking-down-the-ideology-thats-hitting-schools-across-the-country\">Critical Race Theory<\/a>, she invited the black conservative to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/04\/15\/another-sign-us-campuses-are-teaching-all-the-racist-lessons\/\">discuss<\/a> why \u201cAmerica Is Not Racist \u2014 Why American Values Are Exceptional\u201d on April 7.<\/p>\n<p>Campus leftists tried to disrupt the event \u2014 although they failed to intimidate West, a combat veteran whom they refused to engage. \u201cWe had an open Q&#038;A during the event, but instead of asking peaceful questions, they decided to resort to violence,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WnwYsLeVeV8\">said<\/a> Purcell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt got crazy as we went to leave,\u201d said Purcell. \u201cI was quickly separated from the police, as they were protecting Colonel West \u2026 and about 200 of my fellow students started hunting me down on campus.\u201d Purcell said activists punched and kicked a fellow member of her organization, Young Americans for Freedom, while she called 911 while hiding in a bathroom stall.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cI was really afraid for my life, since they physically assaulted my friend,\u201d she told Fox News. \u201cThey were screaming, \u2018No peace.\u2019 I don\u2019t think they were going to do anything remotely peaceful.\u201d As of this writing, the University of Buffalo Police Department is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/news\/local-news\/ub-police-investigating-reports-of-harassment-following-politicians-visit\">investigating<\/a> the event \u2026 although it sounds as though it\u2019s investigating campus conservatives, as well.<\/p>\n<p>About a month earlier, more than 100 students at Yale Law School disrupted a panel hosted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/fedsoc.org\/\">Federalist Society<\/a> \u2014 again, ironically, on free speech. The March 10 event would have featured two speakers \u2014 conservative <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/biography\/kristen-k-waggoner\">Kristen Waggoner<\/a>, general counsel with the <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/\">Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a>, and liberal Monica Miller of the American Humanist Association \u2014 whose two groups had <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/hundreds-of-yale-law-students-disrupt-bipartisan-free-speech-event\/\">collaborated<\/a> on a free speech lawsuit. They hoped to teach students that people of diametrically opposing viewpoints could work together to secure fundamental liberties. Instead, campus leftists disrupted even faculty moderators; one protester <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/I1vx8q0w2-c?t=3\">told<\/a> a student member of the Federalist Society, \u201cI will literally fight you, b***h.\u201d After the event, campus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/news\/yale-law-students-ambush-free-speech-panel\">police escorted<\/a> the speakers away for their own safety. After public exposure, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken <a href=\"https:\/\/law.yale.edu\/yls-today\/news\/message-dean-gerken-march-10-protest\">wrote<\/a> to all law school students and faculty that \u201cthis is not how lawyers interact.\u201d<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>These recent stories are far from new or unique. Ben Shapiro, the founder of The Daily Wire, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/news\/ben-shapiro-campus-event-goes-on-despite-threats\/\">threatened<\/a> numerous times. In 2019, campus leftists protested a Shapiro speech at George Washington University with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GWYAF\/status\/1085904281075621889\">fliers<\/a> telling his sponsors to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/news\/ben-shapiro-campus-event-goes-on-despite-threats\/\">get security<\/a>.\u201d He also had campus speeches canceled, purportedly on the grounds that they threaten public \u201csafety\u201d \u2014 although it was Shapiro who needed a <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/ben-shapiro-csula-escorted-protest\/1219358\/\">police escort<\/a> to get safely off the campus of California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Others were not as fortunate. A mob at Vermont\u2019s Middlebury College chased American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray off campus in 2017. While he escaped without injury, students grabbed the professor who interviewed Murray and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/professor-sustains-neck-injury-during-violent-frank-camp\">twisted her neck<\/a>, causing her to need a neck brace. None of the students received a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/05\/24\/us\/middlebury-college-charles-murray-bell-curve.html\">suspension<\/a>, although the university expressed disapproval toward some of the perpetrators.<\/p>\n<p>The events go back decades:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Two protesters tried (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fv9xa-VxchM\">unsuccessfully<\/a>) to <a href=\"https:\/\/wc.arizona.edu\/papers\/98\/44\/01_1.html\">throw a pie<\/a> in the face of Ann Coulter during a speech at the University of Arizona in October 2004;<\/li>\n<li>In March 2005, a protester <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/a-dressing-down-for-pat-buchanan\/\">threw salad dressing<\/a> on three-time presidential candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/buchanan.org\/\">Pat Buchanan<\/a> during a speech at Western Michigan University; and<\/li>\n<li>Just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/buchanan-gets-face-full-of-salad-dressing\">two days<\/a> earlier, a protester <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/5599ca568f84dbf3e303a3363b248d91\">threw a pie<\/a> in the face of William Kristol, who then identified as a neoconservative, during Kristol\u2019s speech at Earlham College in Indiana.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When you\u2019re so scared of a Conservative speaker that you threaten a student organization? What is wrong with people? Maybe <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@benshapiro<\/a> will tell us tonight! We are not intimidated by leftist bullies. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yaf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@yaf<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dbxISLSLhR\">pic.twitter.com\/dbxISLSLhR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 GW YAF (@GWYAF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GWYAF\/status\/1085904281075621889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 17, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Harvard founded so students can \u2018know God and Jesus Christ\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a far cry from the ideology espoused by many elite universities\u2019 founders. \u201cEveryone shall consider as the main End of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is Eternal life.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/John%2017.3\" data-reference=\"John 17.3\" data-version=\"esv\" data-purpose=\"bible-reference\">John 17:3<\/a>,\u201d read Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afa.net\/the-stand\/culture\/2021\/06\/who-is-crying-in-the-wilderness\/\">original mission statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost all Ivy League institutions had similar beginnings,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liberty.edu\/journal\/article\/christianity-and-the-american-university\/\">wrote<\/a> Roger Schultz of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liberty.edu\/arts-sciences\/history\/faculty\/roger-schultz\/\">Liberty University<\/a>. \u201cThey were established by conservative Connecticut Congregationalists (Yale), pro-Awakening New Jersey Presbyterians (Princeton), devout Rhode Island Baptists (Brown), and mission-minded New Hampshire evangelicals (Dartmouth). These schools shared common commitments to the authority of the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the need for a Christian influence in society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet as part of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acton.org\/religion-liberty\/volume-29-number-3\/antonio-gramscis-long-march-through-history\">long march through the institutions<\/a>, the Left gradually changed these institutions\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2008\/05\/kennedys-illness-and-the-lefts\/\">unofficial religion<\/a> from Christianity to liberalism. Some universities have begun pushing back against the intimidation of conservatives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Light a candle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The University of Chicago <a href=\"https:\/\/news.uchicago.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/attachments\/Dear_Class_of_2020_Students.pdf\">sent a letter<\/a> to students at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year forthrightly defending the vigorous exchange of ideas \u2014 and insisting students should expect nothing less from a university environment:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn, without fear of censorship. Civility and mutual respect are vital to all of us, and freedom of expression does not mean the freedom to harass or threaten others. You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called \u201ctrigger warnings,\u201d we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual \u201csafe spaces\u201d where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The letter added that true diversity \u2014 \u201c[d]iversity of opinion and background\u201d \u2014 is \u201ca fundamental strength of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other universities have put those commitments to the test. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/\">Foundation for Individual Rights in Education<\/a> (FIRE) ranks Claremont McKenna College first in the nation for protecting conservative and liberal speakers. When a group of Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a speech by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/expert\/heather-mac-donald\">Manhattan Institute<\/a> scholar Heather MacDonald, the university livestreamed her speech, posted the video on the school\u2019s website, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2017\/jul\/18\/claremont-mckenna-college-suspends-students-involv\/\">suspended<\/a> five students responsible for the disruption \u2014 two of them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2017\/07\/18\/claremont-mckenna-suspends-5-students-blocking-speech\">for a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Still others try to assure students are exposed to the ideas that helped form America\u2019s great academic tradition in the first place. The University of Colorado\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/center\/benson\/\">Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization<\/a> encourages students to investigate \u201cthe intellectual, artistic and political traditions that characterize Western civilization\u201d by \u201cfostering dialogue about fundamental values and controversial questions.\u201d It hosts a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/center\/benson\/CTPsearch\">Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/center\/benson\/visiting-scholars\/conservative-thought-and-policy\">past<\/a> scholars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coloradopolitics.com\/news\/cu-announces-conservative-scholars-for-2020-21-school-year\/article_715d2f70-6243-11ea-ba13-9bdfbc4e7c10.html\">include<\/a> such intellectual heavyweights as John C. Eastman, Bradley Birzer, Robert W. Merry, Francis Beckwith and Steven Hayward.<\/p>\n<p>Critical engagement with a wide variety of philosophies is the cornerstone of any university-level education. As John Stuart Mill <a href=\"https:\/\/oll.libertyfund.org\/title\/mill-on-liberty-and-the-subjection-of-women-1879-ed\">wrote<\/a> in \u201cOn Liberty\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>The greatest orator, save one, of antiquity, has left it on record that he always studied his adversary\u2019s case with as great, if not with still greater, intensity than even his own. What Cicero practised as the means of forensic success, requires to be imitated by all who study any subject in order to arrive at the truth. He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Perhaps the academic Left, by depriving America\u2019s young people of exposure to conservative and traditional religious viewpoints, has something other than education in mind.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservative exclusion on campus is virtually as old as conservatism itself. More than 70 years ago, a 25-year-old William F. Buckley Jr. launched his career as a prescient public scholar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1450858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}