"Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called 'trigger warnings,' we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own." So read a portion of a welcome letter sent out to freshmen at the University of Chicago. This is such an important thing to happen at a time when free speech is at high risk of being snuffed out on university campuses across the country. I have seen first-hand the stifling of dissenting opinions in classrooms where there is much division. Social justice warriors seek not to create an egalitarian culture, but to police language and raise up an ideology that has little basis in facts, while making sure that anyone who does not support their views is silenced, ridiculed, and made into a social pariah. This is the antithesis of the university as a place of free inquiry and thought, and for that it needs to end.
Democratic knowledge, or a sort of collective “knowledge” where unreliable and reliable information are mixed together to form a popular thought, is the cardinal issue. Women’s studies professors and campus “feminists”—I use the quotes because the people I am talking about are nothing short of misandrous and would be completely unrecognizable to feminists who preceded this so called “third wave”—have spread the idea that everyone who is not a straight, white man has something valid to say and is a victim of something, even if they have never felt like it or known it. They push wildly misinterpreted and dangerously false statistics like 1 in 4 women will be raped on a college campus; this would mean that being on a college campus is just as dangerous for a woman as being in war-torn Congo where rape camps exist. The Department of Justice reports something like 1 in 53 women, which is still appalling, but is not sensationalized to push forth an agenda. “Facts” like these are repeated ad nauseam to pound them into the minds of social justice warriors who will then go on to be professional victims and violently oppose straight, white men.
Christina Hoff Sommers describes it as “a victimology spinning wildly out of control.” Everyone is a victim, and you cannot say anything to a victim that is inconsistent with their beliefs or they may be triggered, which is often considered tantamount to physical violence. You may only speak if you have the same beliefs as social justice warriors, and even then, if you are a straight, white man, your experience does not matter and you should be silent. These people are seeking to stop all dissent and silence groups that they deem “privileged,” since they have “had their turn.” Everything that is inconsistent with their thinking is deemed racist, homophobic, transphobic, or misogynistic—when oftentimes it isn’t—in an attempt to stop debate of decedent ideas. But here’s the thing: that isn’t how life should work and certainly not how universities should operate.
The university is meant to be a place where we can encounter people with different opinions and views about the world and be challenged to learn and grow as a result of wrestling with them. This cannot happen if everyone is forced to toe the line or get out. Safe spaces create less resilient, less competent critical thinkers and defeat the purpose of the university. The university is not meant to be a therapy center or a home away from home. It is meant to be a free marketplace of ideas. If you need a safe space, you should go home.
