Free speech — Blog

Camping club

San Francisco State University is not immune to the pro-Palestine protests that’s been going around American college campuses. You expect nothing less in a bastion city of liberalism. (Except when it comes to building housing. On that we are conservative as heck!) Protesters have been camping on the SFSU campus lawns since last Wednesday. One question I do have: how do we know some of them aren’t actual homeless people looking to shack up for a time, undisturbed?

Whatever the endgame is, I hope it doesn’t turn violent like it has in Columbia University and UCLA. Protest in CSU Humboldt caused the remainder of the Spring semester to go virtual. What a freaking waste! Imagine surviving through the worst pandemic of ours lives (god willing), enduring years of online classes, only to have to do it all again. I’d be pissed if I paid full price tuition. All because some people thought camping on university grounds is an effective way to make a difference for two countries situated on the other side of the globe.

But more power to them - so long as things stay chill and peaceful. SFSU is a public university, so First Amendment rights are paramount. I am sure the same grace will be allotted to groups whose messages are not so majorly supported by the campus community. (Shoutout to the Bible-thumper guy who comes to SFSU from time to time, calling every passerby sinners and adulterers.) It was only a year ago when Riley Gaines was nearly chased away from making a speech.

Because universities should be a place for exchange of ideas. A coliseum for verbal jousting between those ideas. It’s a tremendous disservice if during a student’s four years of college that they never once hear something they strongly disagree with. That’s how you get people who got mental breakdowns when Trump was elected in 2016. The 2024 presidential election is rubbing its hands in anticipation.

Varying viewpoints

On campus recently I passed by a flier for an event advocating for protecting women sports. I guess the subject matter pertains to a discussion of whether or not trans women (biologically born men who now identify as women) belong in women athletics. This particularly group seems to be advocating for exclusion.

It’s good to see this type of discussion being allowed on campus. Let’s face it, college campuses skew heavily to the left, and this one is in San Francisco of all places. It’s rare to see other viewpoints out in the open. Straying from dogmatic left positions leaves one open to ridicule at best, cancellation at worst. No conservative-leaning student would risk showing up to campus with a MAGA hat. The “speech is violence” crowd would pounce immediately.

Yesterday, the campus community received at email from the VP of students to the affect the university has a duty to protect the first amendment. To allow free and open discussion on varying topics, from varying sides. You have a right to protest speech you don’t like, but you do not have the right to shut it down. I have to think this is in response to the protecting women sports event. I sure hope that event happened without fuss.

Because I think it’s very important to have open discussion on a college campus. A marketplace for ideas to duke it out. A gathering of information from all sides so students can critically think for themselves. What I don’t want is for campuses to become an echo-chamber of far-left ideology. These kids are then taught what to think instead of how to think. Those who oppose are effectively silenced due to the crippling social costs of speaking out.

I’m glad my campus is a place where an event on the other side of the trans right discussion can happen.