2020 has been nothing short of ruinous for free speech. The list of “cancelled” celebrities, academics and private citizens continues to grow in response to infractions of politically correct convention. Such responses have even turned deadly, shown by the brutal murder of French teacher Samuel Paty at the hands of radical Islamists after he showed “cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students.”
Against this grim backdrop, however, is a glimmer of hope. From the U.S. Department of Education to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, this past week has seen two major victories for free speech in the Western world.
Cambridge University defends free speech
This past Wednesday, the University of Cambridge shot down a proposal that would require students, staff and visitors to be “respectful” of all views. In a landslide 86.9% victory, the university’s Regent House voted against the proposal, instead agreeing to protect the right to express “controversial or unpopular opinions within the law, without fear of intolerance or discrimination” on campus.
Opponents of the policy argued that requiring respect regardless of merit would quash debate and stifle controversial ideas for fear of offense. Dr. Arif Ahmed, a philosophy professor at the university, was a vocal adversary of the proposal. In an interview with The Times, Ahmed spoke to the inhospitable climate on campus: “A lot of people feel as if they’re living in an atmosphere where there are witch-hunts going on, a sort of academic version of Salem in the 17th century or the McCarthyite era.”
The vote was also a triumph against “no platforming” — the act of preventing “problematic” speakers from contributing to public debate. In 2019, Cambridge drew criticism from advocates of free discourse when they rescinded Dr. Jordan Peterson’s invitation to speak on campus. In recent days, there have been widespread calls to re-invite him.
Department of Education establishes free speech hotline
This past week also marked a parallel triumph for open discourse on American campuses. On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced the establishment of a free speech hotline. Students and staff will be able to submit complaints about free speech violations on campus via email, and the Department pledges to investigate when appropriate.
During Tuesday’s announcement, Robert King, Assistant Secretary of Education, criticized a “culture of censorship” on college campuses, adding “anything that offends progressive orthodoxy is branded as racist, sexist, misogynist.”
The hotline is just one of a series of policies established by the current administration to safeguard free speech on campus. Last year, President Trump signed legislation requiring that public universities honor free speech in order to receive federal grants. In 2018, he also backed a lawsuit filed by students against the University of California Berkley for “no platforming” Anne Coulter.
Such progress does not come without pushback. Terry Hartle, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the American Council on Education, criticized the hotline, claiming it perpetuates a “misleading narrative” that colleges are suppressing speech. Left-wing media concurs. From The Atlantic to Vox to The Washington Post, mainstream outlets insist that the campus free speech crisis is a myth. Students, however, say otherwise.
What’s at stake
In 2019, Heterodox Academy, a group of academics pursuing a mission to “improve the quality of research and education in universities by increasing open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement,” conducted a study on the state of campus expression. They surveyed a representative sample of 1,580 American college students, and the results were truly alarming.
A majority — 55% — of students expressed concern that the climate on campus “prevents students from saying things they believe.” Republican students reported greater reluctance than other political groups in expressing their stance, particularly with regard to politics, race, sexuality, and gender.
Many students expressed concerns of retribution from their professors or administration — 47.8% worried professors would criticize their views as offensive, 43.8% feared receiving a lower grade, and 38.8% thought a complaint might be filed to the school. Even more students, however, feared social repercussions, with 61.4% worried that other students would label their views as offensive, and an additional 43% concerned about criticism on social media.
Instances of “no platforming” on campuses gain widespread coverage and prove that there is, indeed, a crisis of free expression. But the crux of the issue is far darker, deeper, and more personal. As our culture increasingly favors cancellation over reconciliation, open discourse has become a thing to dread. This climate of ideological intolerance has embedded into the minds of students, manifesting as an internalized mechanism of self-censorship.
It’s not just right-leaning students who lose out. Cancellation and self-censorship preemptively shut down constructive debate. While conservative students feel forced into silence, their more liberal peers are shielded from intellectual discomfort. This defies the very purpose of the university: to bring together great minds in the pursuit of truth through debate and open inquiry.
This week’s triumphs can provide a glimmer of hope for the continuing defense of freedom of speech, from right and left alike. As Cornel West put it, “We don’t lose ourselves in some homogenous kumbaya union. No. We acknowledge our differences. We acknowledge the ways in which we might look at the world through different lenses. And yet we can still be mutually empowered.”
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.