The Fear to Talk/Think at the Universities By James Reed
While this discussion relates to the US university, I am sure that the situation is the same for Australia, since right across the West the Left absolutely dominate the university sectors. Students are afraid of expressing their opinions on social and political issues because of the woke environment that has been created. Any student who is offended can immediately lodge a discipline complaint. So, people are silent. I heard of one case of an older Right-wing guy at a particular Australian university, who was doing law, with a typical feminist lecturer. He expressed a traditionalist view of women. This infuriated the lecturer so much that she asked for an apology. When he did not give it, saying it was what he believed, she called security to have him removed. There were some other incidents that led to him being suspended, all for holding to conservative views, such as on the influx of foreign students, the university’s breads and butter, which were not tolerated. I say he was wasting his time at university. He had small computer repair business, and should have stuck to that; let the universities crumble under the weight of their own rottenness.
‘Students simply have no idea how to disagree constructively, or even if constructive disagreement is possible’
A little more than half of college students fear giving their opinion on social and political issues in the classroom, according to a new survey by Intelligent.com.
The survey found that the self-censorship sentiment was not only expressed by students on the right, but also on the left.
The online poll, conducted in August and recently released, surveyed 500 conservative students, 500 liberal students and 500 moderate students.
Overall, 52 percent of all college students responded that they “always” or “often” refrain from expressing views on political and social issues in classrooms out of concern for potential consequences, Intelligent.com reports.
The results found that conservative students (55 percent) are only slightly more likely than moderate (52 percent) or liberal students (49 percent) to say they refrain from giving their opinions out of fear of consequences.
“Losing the respect of their classmates and professors, being ridiculed or confronted, and jeopardizing their grades are the consequences students fear most,” Intelligent.com reports.
However, conservative students are slightly more likely than moderate or liberal students “to be willing to hear a lecture from a guest speaker, or take a class with a professor who has differing viewpoints.”
James Patterson, associate professor of politics at Ava Maria University, told Intelligent.com that the results are not surprising.
Patterson, who has taught at both center-right and center-left institutions, said “I find that many students simply have no idea how to disagree constructively, or even if constructive disagreement is possible.”
“Students seem to believe that disagreement is taking sides. Hence, they can only imagine that the potential consequences will be, at minimum, to alienate some of their fellow students,” he said. “At worst, they might end up fodder for some kind of social media-driven ostracization.”
Intelligent.com’s survey results underscore polls commissioned by The College Fix in recent years. In 2020, a majority of Republican students reported that they expected to self-censor in class to avoid upsetting others.
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