Our Colleges Must Stop Normalizing Fascism

Now in my fourth year at the University of Minnesota, I have become accustomed to the liberal bias on campus. Whether it be the Gender Unicorn training or the class discussions on how I am oppressed because I am a woman, it never ceases to amaze me how far the social justice left is willing to go to push its agenda. I am embarrassed to say I know my gender pronouns and I know that I am not supposed to call first-year students “freshmen” because it is misogynistic.

The indoctrination is exhausting, but what is far more disturbing to me is the free-roaming fascists on campus. They will take drastic measures to destroy anything or anyone who has a differing opinion; they will stop at nothing until they “seize the means of production,” and obliterate the “white privilege” mindset.

Which brings me to the now infamous “Paint the Bridge” episode. The University of Minnesota has a bridge that stretches across the Mississippi River connecting the two sides of campus, and every year student groups have the opportunity to paint bridge panels to promote their clubs.

Last fall, we (the College Republicans) painted our panels: “College Republicans, The Best Party on Campus,” “Trump Pence 2016,” and “Build the Wall.” The panels were almost immediately vandalized, protests began forming, and the administration began attacking us. The Bias Response Team (where my tuition money goes to die) was contacted by Heather C. Lou, assistant director of the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (also where my tuition money goes to die), and with the help of the campus administration we had a school-sanctioned target on our back.

A “campus conversation” was held by the University for students to air their grievances with regard to the College Republican panels. I decided to go to the event to try and explain to the “victims” that “Build The Wall” in fact is not racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, or any of the other phobics they made up. While at the conversation, which quickly turned into a protest, I was screamed at by Black Lives Matter protesters and angry, violent leftists.

Later in the year, Antifa members began to stalk me. They sent me threatening text messages late at night and claimed they were watching me, even though they were likely sitting behind a computer in their parents’ basement. They put my address, phone number, parents’ phone numbers, and parents’ address on their website calling upon their fellow lowlifes to come after me and my family. (For more details, here’s my account of the episode as covered by The Daily Wire.)

You’d think Antifa would make their statement and move on, but that’s not the case. This fall, Turning Point USA painted three panels: one that said “Turning Point USA, Free Market, Free People, Free Speech”; one that had an American flag and said “We Stand”; and the third said our group’s favorite quote by Ben Shapiro, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” The College Republican’s painted a Trump train with words “Least Popular Minority On Campus” and “Still Not Tired of Winning.” Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow painted a list of all the positives that come from free market environmentalism. The Minnesota Republic (the conservative newspaper on campus) painted their panels in promotion of their paper saying, “We have the best words, no words are better than us.”

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All of these student groups had their panels vandalized within 24 hours of painting them. We repainted them, and they were vandalized again and again. It always amazes me how much free time these basement dwellers have.

Shockingly, our administration, which claims to be dedicated to creating a “strong and diverse community of learners and teachers,” didn’t condemn these repeated acts of censorship.

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The Minnesota Republic, College Republicans, and Turning Point USA decided to band together and repaint their panels as one. We decided to paint “CENSORED” across all of our panels and on the last panel we wrote “Stop Fascism.”

Freedom of speech, thought, and press is at the heart of our country’s founding principles. It is essential for a free society to protect the rights of other citizens to express themselves freely.

What was once called “political correctness” on campus has morphed into full-fledged fascism — ironically under the name of “anti-fascism.” Anything that deviates from the campus approved vernacular is being shut down and labeled racist, misogynistic, and whatever else the full-time salaried thought police can come up with.

Fascism is being normalized and we are paying for it with our tuition money. Don’t normalize fascism.

Madison Faupel is chairman of the Minnesota College Republicans, president and founder of Turning Point USA at the University of Minnesota, and an executive board member of Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow.