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The radical left and free speech

September 1, 2017   ·   0 Comments

Why is the radical left so afraid of free speech?  By “left” I don’t mean traditional liberal.  The liberal parties, of North America at least, have been taken over by the radical, extremist, leftists.  Their goal: to shut down any and all forms of speech that does not fall in line with leftist group think.

Example given:  The recent Ryerson panel discussion “The Stifling of Free Speech on University Campuses,” scheduled for August 22, had to be shut down.  Why? According to Ryerson Communications Director Michael Forbes “safety concerns were the reason the event was shut down” (National Post, August 16).  Safety concerns?  You mean two of the scheduled speakers, Gad Saad and Jordan Perterson, both distinguished university professors in their fields, loved, respected, and admired by their students, were threatening the safety of panel attendees and Ryerson faculty and students.  Of course not; the threat of violence, hence safety concerns, was coming from the radical, extremist, leftist student body.  This student body’s sole goal was to eliminate points of view that didn’t fall in line with party thought, a.k.a. group think.  The irony should jump out at all thinking readers: a panel on stifling free speech on university campus was stifled on a university campus.  The radical student body underscored the panels topic of discussion.  More irony; Gad Saad, a Lebanese Jew, was labeled a Nazi.  In addition, Mr. Peterson’s enormously popular YouTube page was shut down by Google.  Only after Mr. Peterson sent out tweets notifying his followers of the Google thought police’s decision to shut him down was his page reinstated.    

The strategy of the radical extremist left is to intimidate, threaten, and use violence to stifle any speech they disagree with.  Case in point:  University of Southern California Berkley’s radical student body recently used violence and destruction of property to shut down speeches by conservative commentators Milos Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter.  Neither of whom I follow nor would I likely agree with much of what they had to say.  That’s beside the point; they still have a right to speak.  Just as I don’t’ follow the CBC nor the Toronto Star, or would agree with much of what they had to say, but I am not asking that they be silenced.

The radical left doesn’t stop at attacking only conservative speakers.  No, they now devour their own.  Dave Rubin and Sam Harris, two American liberal commentators and speakers have been viciously attacked by the radical left.  Rubin, a gay liberal, and Harris, an atheist liberal, were both once darlings of the American left.  Not anymore.  They crossed the group think line!  How?  Not by becoming conservative Republicans; as great a sin as that might have been.  No, they committed the unpardonable sin.  They stood up for free speech and dared to interview, on their blogs, other free speech advocates.  They believe in the right to discuss, criticize, and enter into open, rational dialogue.  Ah, but this won’t do, as long as the radical, extremist, violent leftists have anything to say about it – since they are the only ones allowed to have anything to say about anything today.

Why has this attack on only conservative speakers, and free speech liberal advocates, from the radical left student bodies been allowed to take root and grow?  It is my view that spineless university administrators, and some weak-minded politicians, have allowed student actions to get to a point of extremism and intolerance resulting in violence and destruction of property.

Traditional liberals, who may still have respect for the idea of free speech, have become irrelevant.  They are intimidated and bullied by the leftist extremists.  If they cross the group think line, they will be dealt with just as severely as conservatives who cross that line.  The Liberal party is now run by a band of radical, intolerant, extremist, leftist thugs.  Any traditional, moderate liberal or Democrat, who is honest, at least with him or herself, knows this to be true.

I return to my original question:  Why is the radical left so afraid of free speech?

Brian Hayden

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