Deeply illiberal mobs of so-called “progressive, anti-racists” have escaped our nation’s college and university campuses and threaten many other institutions, including museums, sports and entertainment, corporations like Coca-Cola, and even our elementary, middle, and high schools. The various dictates of critical race theory — which promotes a logic of harm and victimization based on race and identity to the point that individuality is erased — have pervaded general discourse as well. This worldview is so disorganized that even extremely liberal outlets like The New Yorker note that, “Liberals increasingly embrace the progressive critique of structural racism, but they are far less certain of what to do about it.” More specifically, woke mobs have been at the center of the center of speech suppression in the education universe, and self-censorship has moved from school buildings into the mainstream today.
While there is confusion about what these mobs hope to do beyond “cancelling” others, new data make it clear that these mobs have already deeply damage democratic discourse as many Americans have been scared into silence for fear of saying the wrong thing and being cancelled.
For instance, it is well known that college students regularly self-censor; the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education found in its 2020 survey that students — notably those in the political minority — are limited in what they say and are uncomfortable and reluctant to challenge peers and professors on controversial topics. Sixty percent of students report that they have at one point felt they could not express an opinion on campus because they feared how other students, professors, or college administrators would respond.
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