Cancel culture on today’s college and university campuses is rampant. It has been well documented that the impulses to shout down speakers, block students from hearing ideas, and even resort to violence tend to be notably stronger among students on the left than the right. Some on the left paradoxically preach the ideas of inclusivity, love, and tolerance yet try to intimidate others for having divergent points of view and silent dissent.
Critics of this characterization of progressive students tell me that shout-downs are not particularly common and are fairly unrepresentative snapshots of campus life. While I disagree, new data support the earlier findings and paint a very potent picture of just how those on the left are actually far more intolerant of views that they simply do not like. And it should be mentioned that by trying to silence dissent or unpopular ideas, those on the left are minimizing viewpoint diversity and space for disagreement which are foundational components of true liberal and genuine education.
Data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)’s new study of almost 45,000 currently enrolled students at over 200 colleges and universities around the nation helps flesh out how the left tends to be more close-minded on campus. The survey notes that student groups often invite speakers to campus to express their views on a range of topics. It also asks students—regardless of their own views on the topic—whether or not their respective schools should allow a speaker who promotes a particular idea.
When asked about whether a speaker who claims that “Black Lives Matter is a hate group,” should speak on campus—a topic that many on the left find deeply problematic but resonates more with those on the right—only 14 percent of liberal students agreed. In contrast, 30 percent of moderate and 57 percent of conservative students would allow a guest to make a presentation with such an idea. Similarly, when asked about a speaker who claims that “abortion should be completely illegal,” just 29 percent of liberal students would grant a platform for such an idea compared to 67 percent of conservative students.
The fact that liberal students would like to limit ideas that run against their own and that conservative students are more open to hearing friendly views is hardly surprising. What is striking, however, is how students look when the prompts support liberal outlooks. Consider the Second Amendment and limiting access to guns—a liberal talking point. When asked about the merits of a speaker who claims that “the Second Amendment should be repealed so that guns can be confiscated,” liberal students are far more open to allowing a speaker on campus with two-thirds (66 percent) of liberal students believing that their school should allow this speaker. Almost half (47 percent) of conservative students support giving a platform to such a guest—a figure considerably higher than their liberal peers had for views that they did not support.
The FIRE survey asked a handful of related items and in each case, conservative students were generally far more open to speakers compared to their liberal counterparts even when topics were not in line with their political views. On the prompt “Undocumented immigrants should be given the right to vote”—a big liberal talking point and an idea that created an uproar when approved by New York City’s progressive city council which was then struck down for being unconstitutional in the state—nearly nine in 10 liberal students (87 percent) stated that this speaker should be allowed to speak on their campus. While conservative students may find this position absurd, a majority of conservative students (55 percent) nonetheless also agreed that this position should be given a public hearing on their campuses. Almost identical breakdowns of reactions among liberal and conservative students emerged to other liberal prompts such as “White people are collectively responsible for structural racism and use it to protect their privilege” as well, such that conservative students are willing to have disagreement on their campuses while liberals are not.
It is not the case that conservative students are the model of viewpoint diversity or that all liberal students want to shut down views with which they disagree. Yet the evidence in this article shows that students on the left are more open to trying to limit speech and ideas with which they disagree than those students on the right. While we can accept that many students are intellectually immature and are often passionately swept up in causes, higher education exists to help students grow and mature. The institutions of higher education cannot allow students to dictate which ideas and views are aired and which are silenced. Colleges and universities must expose their students to a myriad of perspectives and teach them how to think; cancel culture can be no part of that enterprise.
Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Abrams is currently on the Board of Directors of FIRE.
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