Record Number Of College Freshmen Expect To Protest This Year And It’s A Terrible Thing

Not So Sweetheart10 years ago

Let me preface with this fact: I am a huge fan of the First Amendment. It’s a beautiful and American thing, and I am thankful to be accorded such wonderful rights. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to write for you fine people. But when the right to free speech becomes a screaming match of ideas without a whisper of meaningful dialog, everyone suffers.

UCLA has published their annual college freshman survey and there are several notable trends in the numbers. As a whole, college students are much more civically and politically active than in recent years. Looking at the survey results and considering recent events, it seems like we’re doomed to continue down the path of pussification.

From the Washington Post:

…college freshmen have been trending leftward, politically: The last time students identifying as far right or conservative outnumbered the percentage calling themselves far left or liberal was back in 1981. In the decades since then that conservative group has held in the low-twenties range, and the group describing themselves as “middle of the road” has eroded. Over the last 35 years, that middle ground has shifted further left.

The increase in young liberals is nothing shocking since it’s been trending that way for years. However, the loss of middle ground is the catalyst that really spirals things out of control. When nobody stands in the middle ground, there is no one to be a voice of reason and compromise. When nobody is open to compromise, debates are no longer discussions and opposing ideas are simply rejected and villainized. It’s no wonder that people get so excited about presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump; they’re extreme. When the rest of Washington is planted firmly in their partisan ways, the only hope for compromise or progress of any kind is to put someone extreme in the mix and just hope that when they ask for a mile, they’ll come out with an inch.

A record number of one in ten of students reported they expected to protest during their college career.

“It’s incumbent on administrators to have some dialogue with students — to make sure they’re squarely considering students’ issues,” he said, “and have strategies to improve the overall campus climate.”

In other words, it’s on administrators to make students feel “safe” and “at home” at schools that are meant to challenge young minds. The same old bullshit that’s been spewed all over the media in the last year. If you want to feel safe and at home, then please stay the hell at home. When you’re ready to accept that you won’t always get your way and the world is a mean place, you’re welcome to join us at these institutions of higher learning.

Although topics of protest included things like tuition and sexual assault, 41 percent of all students said promoting racial understanding was essential or very important to them. It’s interesting that this is such an important issue, while at the same time cultural appropriation is becoming a dirtier word than hazing in the collegiate world. Cultural appropriation, by itself, is not discrimination. It’s merely adopting from a culture you don’t inherently belong to. How are we as young people meant to understand and accept other cultures if we aren’t welcome to explore them through appropriation?

It’s been painful to see the dismal trend of events that landed us here, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to end anytime soon. The First Amendment is what makes America great, but thanks to everyone turning into delicate flowers who can’t stand to have their feelings hurt, it’s starting to bite us in the ass..

[via Washington Post]

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