Psychological well-being requires recognizing the difference between discomfort and harm. To thrive in a pluralist, liberal democracy, we must be capable of engaging with people who hold opinions we oppose and withstanding the discomfort of their insensitively phrased statements (and even comments we find offensive) without feeling harmed by them. The less willing we are to withstand discomfort, the more we will feel harmed. The more we focus on how harmed we feel rather than the content of arguments, the less persuasive we will be.
Georgetown University's recent treatment of conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro (which earned it a spot on FIRE’s 2022 Worst Colleges for Free Speech list) is case in point. Not only are Georgetown’s actions troubling indicators of the state of campus free speech and the future of higher education more broadly, they entrench its campus ideological monoculture, increase interpersonal distrust, and reduce the already limited ability of those on campus to differentiate between unpopular opinions and actual harm. None of this bodes well for developing persuasive counterarguments or for mental health on campus.
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