Huh? These are American college students? I'm not only shocked but disgusted.
The "no problem" argument is based mainly on a poll, the General Social Survey, which shows steadily rising support for allowing "offensive" speakers a platform, especially in the under-35 age group. But it's not clear how relevant that survey is to present-day campus speech battles. Its examples of controversial speakers include a homosexual (absurdly dated) and an atheist (ditto). On the one item that is relevant to current controversies — allowing a speech by a racist — support has dropped, notably among young adults.
Another supposedly reassuring poll, the Gallup-Knight Foundation survey, found that 70% of students felt it was more important for colleges to have "an open learning environment" with diverse viewpoints, even at the cost of allowing offensive speech, than to create a "positive" environment by censoring such expression.
More of this @ Half of college students aren't sure protecting free speech is important. That's bad news
The "no problem" argument is based mainly on a poll, the General Social Survey, which shows steadily rising support for allowing "offensive" speakers a platform, especially in the under-35 age group. But it's not clear how relevant that survey is to present-day campus speech battles. Its examples of controversial speakers include a homosexual (absurdly dated) and an atheist (ditto). On the one item that is relevant to current controversies — allowing a speech by a racist — support has dropped, notably among young adults.
Another supposedly reassuring poll, the Gallup-Knight Foundation survey, found that 70% of students felt it was more important for colleges to have "an open learning environment" with diverse viewpoints, even at the cost of allowing offensive speech, than to create a "positive" environment by censoring such expression.
More of this @ Half of college students aren't sure protecting free speech is important. That's bad news
