1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:07,100 Freedom of speech. The ability to express yourself. It's a cherished idea -- as well it should be. 2 00:00:07,100 --> 00:00:13,040 Most of us who live in liberal Western democracies think of it as a basic human right. 3 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:18,980 People have fought and died for it. But now we may be in danger of losing it. 4 00:00:18,980 --> 00:00:25,740 The threat is not coming from without -- from external enemies -- but from within. A generation 5 00:00:25,750 --> 00:00:34,180 is being raised not to believe in freedom OF speech, but rather that they should have freedom FROM speech 6 00:00:34,180 --> 00:00:40,100 -- from speech they dislike. This is a threat to both pluralism and democracy itself. 7 00:00:40,100 --> 00:00:45,700 We see this in Europe where "sensitivity-based" censorship attempts to ban anything deemed 8 00:00:45,710 --> 00:00:52,090 hateful or even just hurtful, and to ban criticism of religion, especially Islam. 9 00:00:52,090 --> 00:00:56,880 But the United States, despite its strong Constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights 10 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:01,520 is far from immune from the rising trend of suppression of speech, or what is 11 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:07,080 sometimes called political correctness. This is especially true at America's colleges and 12 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:12,500 universities, the place where our future leaders are educated and where you'd expect speech 13 00:01:12,500 --> 00:01:14,390 to be the most free. 14 00:01:14,390 --> 00:01:20,260 Highly restrictive speech codes are now the norm on campuses, not the exception. 15 00:01:20,260 --> 00:01:27,340 According to a study by my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education -- FIRE -- 16 00:01:27,340 --> 00:01:34,260 54% of public universities and 59% of private universities impose politically correct speech 17 00:01:34,270 --> 00:01:39,190 codes on their students. And thanks to recent Department of Education guidelines 18 00:01:39,190 --> 00:01:45,300 100% of colleges may adopt speech codes in the coming years. How bad is it? 19 00:01:45,300 --> 00:01:52,479 At a public campus in California on Constitution Day in 2013, a student who also happens to 20 00:01:52,479 --> 00:01:59,390 be a decorated military veteran was told he could not hand out copies of the Constitution 21 00:01:59,390 --> 00:02:05,210 to his fellow students. The objection from the university was not ideological; 22 00:02:05,210 --> 00:02:10,230 it was out of control bureaucracy imposing limits on speech. 23 00:02:10,230 --> 00:02:16,599 That same day another college student in that same state was told he could not protest NSA 24 00:02:16,599 --> 00:02:25,399 surveillance outside of a tiny "free speech zone," an area that comprised only 1.37% of the campus. 25 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:30,459 Months later, college students in Hawaii were told both they could not hand out the constitution 26 00:02:30,459 --> 00:02:35,439 to their fellow students and that they could not protest NSA policies outside the school's 27 00:02:35,439 --> 00:02:40,999 free speech zone! FIRE took these colleges to court, but the that fact we had to shows 28 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,340 you how bad it has become. 29 00:02:43,349 --> 00:02:48,859 Recently, students and sympathetic faculty have joined forces to exclude campus speakers 30 00:02:48,859 --> 00:02:53,679 whose opinions they dislike. At FIRE we call this "disinvitation season" 31 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:56,520 although the season lasts all year round. 32 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:02,400 Since 2009 there has been a major uptick in the push by students and faculty to get speakers 33 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:08,980 they dislike disinvited. These speakers have included former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; 34 00:03:08,980 --> 00:03:14,420 the Somali-born feminist and critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali; and the director 35 00:03:14,420 --> 00:03:20,080 of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde. And that's only the obvious part 36 00:03:20,089 --> 00:03:24,879 of the disinvitation problem. Few conservative speakers are invited to speak at colleges 37 00:03:24,879 --> 00:03:28,059 lest they have to be "disinivited" later. 38 00:03:28,060 --> 00:03:33,319 The newest threat to speech comes from so-called "trigger warnings" -- alerts that warn students 39 00:03:33,319 --> 00:03:39,199 that they are about to read or hear something that "triggers" a negative emotional response. 40 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:45,419 A 2014 NY Times article cited the example of a Rutgers student requesting "trigger warnings" 41 00:03:45,419 --> 00:03:52,229 for the classic American novel The Great Gatsby because it "possesses a variety of scenes 42 00:03:52,229 --> 00:03:56,600 that reference... abusive, misogynistic violence." 43 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:02,499 Recently, Oberlin College attempted to institute a policy that heavily encouraged the faculty 44 00:04:02,499 --> 00:04:10,619 to avoid difficult topics and to employ trigger warnings as a means of "making classrooms safer." 45 00:04:10,620 --> 00:04:16,780 "Safety" has been watered down to essentially mean the "right to always feel comfortable." 46 00:04:16,789 --> 00:04:22,460 New demands for trigger warnings are popping up on campuses across the country. 47 00:04:22,460 --> 00:04:28,760 Add in popular academic theories that encourage students to scrutinize speech for "micro aggressions 48 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:34,780 -- any statement that might be construed as racially insensitive, classist, sexist, 49 00:04:34,780 --> 00:04:42,600 or otherwise un-PC -- and it's clear that campuses are teaching students to police what they say. 50 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:48,900 This is precisely the opposite of what is needed. Our society needs candor and it needs 51 00:04:48,909 --> 00:04:52,889 freedom of speech, not freedom from speech. 52 00:04:52,889 --> 00:04:59,860 Intellectual comfort is not a right. Nor should it ever be. Not if we want freedom of speech 53 00:04:59,860 --> 00:05:03,600 -- let's just call it freedom -- to survive. 54 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:10,380 I'm Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education for Prager University.