The very convincing US satirist Ami Horowitz has gotten dozens of Yale University students to support his petition to stop free speech by repealing the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Horowitz has a history of outing some very sad college hypocrisies, such as when students at UC Berkeley, obsessed with rooting out the real evils of mansplaining and manspreading, reacted indifferently to him waving an ISIS flag on campus. They resorted to attacking him for waving an Israeli flag that same day.
His latest experiment portends very badly for college environments already clamping down on free speech, even with the current constitutional protections of the First Amendment. Focused on their pet projects of avoiding microaggressions and erecting an ideological missile defense shield of trigger warnings, the Yale students signing the petition seemed to forget that the First Amendment also protects both freedom of religion and the press.
For political rookies, this includes the ability of Jezebel and Feministing to publish articles, however retrograde, and the safety of Muslims in practicing their religion. No matter. I’m sure the Yale crowd had the best of intentions.
