The promise of free speech in America is the nation's most valued right. We put it first on the list of them for a reason, and it's the cornerstone from which a free society blossoms.
Yet for some reason, the left seems often confused about what constitutes free speech, that is, when they care to defend it.
According to the left, free speech is anything that benefits them, and that can even include what they refer to as "protest" and "expression." For instance, the "pro-Palestine" students at Columbia liked to "protest" Israel's actions against Hamas after the October 7 attack. They would "express" themselves by seeing to it that Jewish students were harassed, blocked from accessing parts of campus, and sometimes even assaulting others.
Trump revoked a $400 million grant to Columbia University as a result, which sparked calls that Trump is attacking free speech, such as this post from Brian Krassenstein:
BREAKING: President Trump has canceled $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University over the protests they allowed. As a Jewish person who supports Israel, I still see this as a dangerous precedent—penalizing free speech simply because the government disagrees with it. Wasn’t this administration supposed to be “pro-free speech”?
BREAKING: President Trump has canceled $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University over the protests they allowed.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 7, 2025
As a Jewish person who supports Israel, I still see this as a dangerous precedent—penalizing free speech simply because the government disagrees with it.… pic.twitter.com/WhK5OAZdEX
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is using AI-based programs to catch foreign students here on visas, who have been cheering on Hamas in order to arrest and/or deport them. According to Axios, those who participated in these demonstrations will be sent back to their countries:
To launch "Catch and Revoke," federal officials examined 100,000 people in the Student Exchange Visitor System since October 2023 to see if any visas had been revoked because the student been arrested or suspended from school.
- Usually, a consular official whose office issues the visa for a foreigner makes the revocation decision once they've been alerted about an arrest or a suspension.
- "We found literally zero visa revocations during the Biden administration," the official said, "... which suggests a blind eye attitude toward law enforcement."
Afuera! First Hamas-Supporting Foreign Student Visa Revoked, Repatriation Underway!
Free speech is an absolute must, but what the left is calling free speech is clearly different from what everyone else is.
The left seems to believe that speech and activism are the same, no matter what that activism entails. If a student says awful things about Jewish people, proclaiming that Israelis should be driven from their country "from the river to the sea," and then literally takes over parts of campus and forbids Jewish students from entering various parts of campus, then they're no longer just speaking an opinion or giving voice to an idea, they're actively practicing a low-form of terrorism.
Moreover, if they're actively supporting terrorists whose agenda items include genocide against a certain people, many of whom live here in the United States, then they have sided with a group that is actively antithetical to the United States' values.
If they like them, they clearly don't like us, and if they don't like us that much, then they don't need to be here.
Funny enough, the left loves to refer to the literal expression of ideas that don't align with their beliefs as "hate speech" or even "violence."
If I were to speak my thoughts about transgenderism aloud around leftists like these, they would consider that license to enact violence against me, as they would claim I assaulted them with mere words. If I were to do as they did, and begin blocking LGBT students from accessing various parts of campus, they would consider it a hate crime, not "expression."
They would waste no time in attempting to get me expelled from campus.
The hypocrisy is apparent, and it has been for some time. Thanks to the previous administration, they grew accustomed to believing that what they were doing was actually okay. It's not. This is not "free speech"; this is terrorism, and terrorism is a crime.
And if you participate in that, then you deserve to be deported and your opportunities taken away.
