Something is seriously amiss with a large number of American youths; particularly, the ones currently in our institutions of higher education indoctrination. We've all seen the signs; "Palestine" signs waved by keffiyeh-wearing American youths, the most mind-numbingly dumb ones being the "Queers for Palestine" clique. We've seen speakers shouted down and even attacked; we've seen protests advocating for socialism, one of the most destructive systems of governance ever devised. These young skulls full of mush have been well and truly suckered in, and now we see a new survey from the Buckley Institute that indicates things may be worse than we had thought.
The free speech issue may be one of the most startling.
The free-speech picture this year, as in many past years, indicates that many college students support free speech in theory but endorse censorship in practice. Belief in the continued importance of the Constitution (73%) and First Amendment (87%) remained at or near all-time highs, with little deviation among specific subgroups. Additionally, 66%, the highest on record, agreed that hate speech is technically protected by the First Amendment.
At the same time, support for censorship increased or remained high. 46% of America’s college students believe it is sometimes appropriate to shout down speakers (59% of liberals, 33% of moderates, 30% of conservatives), a slight decrease from last year but still tying the second highest level on record.
If they support free speech in theory but endorse censorship in practice, then they don't support free speech. End of story. Done. The numbers of these young skulls full of mush who assert continued importance of the Constitution and the First Amendment is an encouraging note, but their support of censorship means that they may support free speech, but they don't seem to understand it.
And a plurality are supportive of using violence to carry out the censorship they support.
Also matching a record high, 45% of American college students agree that physical violence can be justified to stop what they see as hate speech, with liberal students (54% agree) leading moderates (36%) and conservatives (30%). Interestingly, 72% of those who agree that physical violence can be justified to stop hate speech also agree that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.
That last part is rather baffling: "72% of those who agree that physical violence can be justified to stop hate speech also agree that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment." So, they support the First Amendment, unless the "hate speech" is something they disagree with. That's pretty much the definition of "hate speech" to the left; any speech they disagree with. And if anyone utters said "hate speech," then apparently it's OK to punch them? Or, as in the case of Charlie Kirk, to shoot them?
Here's the worst part:
New to this year’s survey, more than one in five (22%) believe America deserved September 11. This included 41% of those who believe physical violence is justified to stop hate speech and 28% of liberal students.
So, 3,000 people deserved to die, horribly, because of something that, presumably, the American government did, at some point. This is fuzzy thinking at its worst; it would seem the next obvious question to ask these young halfwits would be "OK, you think American deserved 9/11 - why?" We can safely anticipate a blank-out followed by sputtering. 3,000 people, who had nothing to do with any imaginary act or policy of the United States, deserved to die by fire, by falling, by being crushed in a collapsing building, because... reasons.
If we needed yet another reason to conduct a major overhaul of our systems of higher education, this Buckley Institute survey gives us a bunch of them.
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