As much as we rag on today’s coddled college students, clearly some of them understand that trying to make their campus a social-justice utopia is bound to backfire on their post-college careers.
Ohio University freshman Alex Yu, who studies sociology and criminology, wrote an intelligent and succinct letter to The Post on how free speech is being “stifled under the guise of sexism and racism”:
Everyone has different opinions, and suppressing alternative views to prevent hurt feelings is thwarting the conversations that need to take place.
Students on this campus need to realize that the world sucks. I urge people to toughen up, and when they hear things that they don’t like, they should address the issues with intelligence, rather than trying to shut everything down.
Yu gives the example of a fraternity that put up a sign with “graphic sexual language,” which “may be rude or inappropriate” but it’s “not against the law or the reason for [sexual] assaults.”
When Ohio University gives in to student demands to censor views or punish speakers they don’t like, “college will become a sheltered experience” and “graduates will have no understanding of reality,” he says:
No one wants to live in a world filled with crime, yet crime is a part of the real world. College should be a time of learning, and real learning means facing views that are different from our own.
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