Your
rights are in danger, but not from Trump. Our president (for now) has his
conspicuous faults, but he really does not care at all what you say or think.
That is not the case on college campuses and in major cultural institutions.
The right to express dissenting views is under attack with an intensity not
seen in this country since the days of John Peter Zenger. Iconoclast
comedian-podcaster Adam Carolla and conservative talk show host and part-time
symphony conductor Dennis Prager sound the alarm in No Safe Spaces,
directed by Justin Folk, which opens tomorrow in Arizona, with a planned
national expansion scheduled for subsequent weeks.
Prager
and Carolla have an act they like to take on the road to college campuses. If
you disagree with them, you are welcome to debate them, as long as you keep
cool and civil. Instead, the professional activists at many universities have
increasingly sought to have them disinvited and banned from campuses. It is not
just Prager and Carolla who get this treatment and not just high-profile center-right
speakers who face the wrath of an unhinged leftwing mob. Anyone holding
dissenting views can find themselves facing strategically weaponized shame and
intimidation.
No
Safe Spaces chronicles
several orchestrated attempts to silence mainstream dissenting viewpoints. They
are all alarming to anyone who values the right to free speech. However, the
threats of violence directed against Prof. Bret Weinstein, a self-described “liberal”
biology professor (with tenure) at Evergreen State College was the sort of
madness you would have expected from Mao’s Cultural Revolution rather than
Washington State in the year 2017.
Yet,
the most chilling fact reported in No Safe Spaces is the shockingly low
level of support for the 1st Amendment among currently enrolled college
students. More and more frequently, the desire to prohibit anything that might cause
offense trumps our long-held rights of free speech and expression. Of course, a
loop-hole that size is just an invitation to censor. Indeed, Prager and Carolla
rightly argue on a number of occasions only so-called “offensive” speech warrants
protection, because it is the only kind that will ever face censorship.
Admittedly,
Prager and Carolla have their shtick worked out, but it would be a mistake to
use that as an excuse to dismiss their arguments. It just means they are
entertainers as well as commentators. Frankly, Prager gives the other side more
opportunities to make their case than any of the usual stilted advocacy
documentaries that get endless festival play. He actually engages in dialogue, where
he and his discussion partners listen to each other and respond without
kneejerk rancor.
If
you support the 1st Amendment, you should be terrified by the
climate of intellectual intolerance currently permeating college campuses.
Despite some costly victories, free speech is nearly non-existent at most
universities, which are supplying future generations of journalists, teachers, and
government bureaucrats. The long-term abandonment of 1st Amendment
principles is far more dangerous for our democracy than any of Trump’s
excesses.
Don’t say you weren’t warned. Prager and Carolla do so clearly and
persuasively—and they even use a few animated interludes that are on par with
some of Robert Smigel’s vintage SNL cartoons. Highly and urgently
recommended for all Americans who value free speech and academic freedom of
inquiry, No Safe Spaces opens tomorrow (10/25) at the Harkins Scottsdale
and expands throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, and Florida over the next
two weeks.
