With political division at an all-time high, it seems as though people are showing more animosity towards opposing points of view more than ever before. With these clashing points of view, it’s important to remain tolerant of those who may oppose your own. What society needs now more than ever is a dose of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism is defined as being a political ideology that values the rights of the individual. These rights include religion, speech, press, assembly, and markets. However, my personal definition varies in that includes being tolerant of those views that may not align with your own.

Recently around the country, the clashing of extremist views are on the rise. On one side you have those that oppose president Trump; they usually exercise their 1^st Amendment rights by protesting the injustices they see on certain college campuses. These protests usually revolve around their respective colleges hosting speakers in which they do not agree. On the other side, you have those that are supporters of President Trump; they usually exercise their 1^st Amendment rights by counter-protesting those that oppose President Trump.

Although neither point of view is accomplishing much in the way they exercise their rights, at the end of the day, speech that is deemed offensive by one side doesn’t mean it’s not protected by the 1^st Amendment. There are things that we see as Americans on a daily basis that we may deem offensive, however, that doesn’t mean these things should be banned or censored just because we deem them offensive. For example, if I see a group of people attempting to burn an American flag, I wouldn’t like it, but I wouldn’t attempt to stop them either. This is due to the way that their speech, even though it may offend me, is protected by the 1^st Amendment.

When I see colleges such as Berkeley not doing their part in protecting free speech, it really opens my eyes up to how our free speech is in danger and how it seems as though tolerance to other’s views have been completely thrown out the window in favor of violence and censorship. What we need now more than ever is a large does of classical liberalism. We need to look beyond what our own views are and focus on the practice of free speech instead, even if it may offend us. With the political views in this country only becoming more and more extreme, we do ourselves and everyone around us a disservice if we don’t listen to other points of view or attempt to shutdown these points of view.