Something very scary and very wrong is happening

[hebegebe]

F&M officials also say that what happened at the college challenges a popular narrative about higher education being intolerant of ideas that may offend students. The reality, they say, is that nondisruptive protests of speakers are far more common that what happened at Middlebury, and are in fact part of free expression at colleges all over the country.

While this is certainly true, there are a few problems that I see:

1. An increasing intolerance to ideas and people that are different from the mainstream viewpoint at the college.
2. An apparent willingness to believe the prevalent narrative without actually reading the source material and making an informed decision. I call this "outsourcing your opinion", and this seems to be true of at least some people on this thread as well.
3. Recently, an increasing willingness to threaten violence or actually carry it out to stop these non-conforming ideas from being spread.

Issues #1 and #2 are antithetical to the entire concept of a liberal arts education, and the warning flags on that should be raised. Most worryingly it is happening not just at the student level, but sometimes also at the faculty level.

Issue #3 has an impact that is far greater than the small number of incidents where the threat of violence or actual violence occurs. Its entire point is to provide a chilling effect nationwide upon potential speakers and the colleges that invite them. Many speakers and faculty members would look at the possibility of bodily harm, and decide it is simply no longer worth doing.