On April 26, New York University Professor Jonathan Haidt wrote an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education talking about the latest leftist craze of silencing voices of dissent on college campuses. Unlike his colleague Ulrich Baer who argued that the fascist students are the true advocates of free speech, Haidt slammed campus progressives by asking what people should think about students who shut down individuals like Heather Mac Donald, Charles Murray, and others.
What are we to make of this? There were no reports of violence or property damage. Yet this event is potentially more ominous than the Berkeley and Middlebury violence, for we are witnessing the emergence of a dangerous new norm for responding to speakers who challenge campus orthodoxy. Anyone offended by the speaker can put out a call on Facebook to bring together students and locals, including “antifa” (antifascist) and black-bloc activists who explicitly endorse the use of violence against racists and fascists. Because of flagrant “concept creep,” however, almost anyone who is politically right of center can be labeled a racist or a fascist, and the promiscuous use of such labels is now part of the standard operating procedure. The call to shut down Mac Donald’s talk asserted, without evidence, that her agenda is “racist, anti-Black, capitalist, imperialist, [and] fascist.” As with accusations of witchcraft in earlier centuries, once such labels are attached to someone, few will dare to challenge their accuracy, lest they be accused of the same crimes.
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