The 2016-2017 election cycle was wild one, especially on the topic of free speech.

Free speech should not really be that hard of a concept, the First Amendment covers it thoroughly. While there have been no legal attempts to attack the most fundamental law in the United States, plenty of people and groups are going after political ideas they deem intolerable.

College campuses have been a common setting for the war on free speech, specifically the University of California, Berkeley blocking numerous conservative speakers.

College campuses have always been a place for controversy, but recently millennials that are now in college are constantly being offended and riots have broken out because of conservative speakers.

When Milo Yiannopoulos attempted to speak at UC-Berkeley, riots broke out and the campus had to shut the event down because students literally made it unsafe to attend by destroying their own campus like barbarians.

This is not to say that outrage over some of the statements Milo has made is not warranted. However, there is an incredibly short list of situations where violence and molotov cocktails are appropriate.

Berkeley's attack on free speech is not new to this generation of college students. Once the starting ground of the free speech movement, Berkeley is now the home of trigger warnings and censorship.

Disagreeing with someone's political opinions is normal, healthy even. Debate, honesty, and disagreement are all part of a healthy democracy.

However, to have any of these elements, those with any and all opinons must be able to speak.

Other political speakers that college students have tried to bar include Ben Shapiro, Corey Lewandowski, and Ann Coulter. These three people are much less controversial than Milo, they are simply conservative people trying to spread the message they believe.

Nevertheless, Shapiro barely got through to Berkeley, meanwhile Coulter's appearance ended up being cancelled. Lewandowski made it through to the University of Chicago, a school that has publicly denounced the idea of safe spaces, to their entire class of 2020.

Bernie Sanders trounced around during 2016 preaching one of the most dangerous ideologies in world history, and yet, nobody rioted. Instead, conservative speakers chose to take on challenging campuses to spread the ideas they believe, directly challenging people that disagreed with them.

The attack on free speech was also evident during President Donald Trump's campaign, as wearing a Make America Great Again hat somehow became something that could get someone assaulted.

Attacking those with different political opinions is textbook Fascism and is blatantly un-American.

The agenda against free speech has been perpetuated by "safe spaces," as mentioned earlier as the University of Chicago brazenly defied the idea to its new generation of young students.

The only true intellectual safe space is one's own home. Yet, universities have begun to put places for adult students to come color and play with toys.

The inability to deal with conflicting opinions and political outcomes peaked after Trump won the election and professors cancelled classes for students to cope with the election results.

Comedy has also taken a hit due to this new mentality of intellectual safety. On August 3rd, Salon published an article complaining about "transphobic" jokes being made by Dave Chapelle. The first Chapelle stand up in over a decade was outrageously hilarious.

Comedy is not supposed to be some social justice affirmation. Comedy is for one thing and one thing only, laughter. There are very few groups that Chapelle has not targeted during his tenured career. Saying that Dave Chapelle hates LGBT people because of a joke is absurd.

Comedians have even begun speaking out against performing on college campuses. Both Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock are amongst the comedians that have begun to get fed up with the political correctness and the softness of colleges today.

Neither of those two are exactly conservative, and neither are hateful people. But at this day in age, they will probably offend someone.

The generation that is growing into adulthood now is one of the softest and quite frankly, intolerant generations yet. Being offended by those that think differently and not being able to think critically is all too common. Needing a "safe space" because someone that makes fun of everyone for a living is a sign of a weak mind, across an entire generation.

Free speech is under attack, and to truly advance the nation is open and honest discussion, not violence and being offended at comedy.