“Cancel culture” — the dangerous practice driven by leftists to “cancel” everything and everyone that doesn’t conform to their radical worldview — has taken its toll on college campuses across our nation.
While academia is supposed to support free speech and expression, these days a number of academics have made a U-turn on free speech, in favor of suppressing viewpoints they believe should no longer be “tolerated.”
Many American colleges and universities have helped shut down debate in the classroom.
They have also chilled research and discouraged professors from presenting dissenting ideas to the general public.
A blanket of ideological conformity now covers most college campuses, and its effect on the progress of research, knowledge, and societal advancement is disastrous. We must fight back for the good of our students, for the good of our country, and for the good of our world!
As a conservative academic at Pepperdine School of Public Policy — who works in defense of the basic principles of Western civilization in higher education — I am a signatory to a new declaration of the importance of robust but civilized debate in our society: the “Philadelphia Statement: On Civil Discourse and the Strengthening of Liberal Democracy.”
Cosigned by academics, policy-researchers, and faith leaders, this nonprofit declaration warns, “A society that lacks comity and allows people to be shamed or intimidated into self-censorship of their ideas and considered judgements will not survive for long.”
As you may know, threats to free and civil discourse now mar almost every American academic institution.
Professors with a Christian worldview are ridiculed. Academics with conservative political opinions are shunned. Even researchers who would buck the conventional wisdom in a range of scientific fields are ostracized!
This is no way to move our society forward. All it serves to do is hold our nation -- and all of humanity -- back.
Thankfully, here at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy, our students and professors don’t have to worry about such a climate of fear and intimidation.
We are one of the few graduate schools in the country that prepare young leaders from a decidedly conservative, Christian worldview to enter the sphere of public policy, where they will impact millions of lives for a generation to come.
We believe that ideas should stand on their own merits -- not on whether they conform to the prevailing groupthink -- which is why we train our students to test and evaluate every perspective with which they’re confronted. The result is our 1,000+ graduates are more resilient, more well-rounded, and better prepared for the challenges of the real world.
And, most importantly, as a graduate school, nearly every single one of them will be going into politics or government to defend our freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and the other essential liberties we cherish so dearly. They learn insdie and outside of our classrooms to think critically about politics and policy.
You see, many conservative colleges prepare undergraduates to enter a range of careers. And many graduate schools churn out thousands of liberal minds every year. But the Pepperdine School of Public Policy is one of the very few graduate schools in America that prepares conservative leaders who will defend pro-freedom policy in their communities, our nation, and our world.
But our mission doesn’t end at the edge of our campus. It extends across all of America -- which is where this important petition comes into play.
We must end the leftist “cancel culture” and ensure that students and professors with any and all viewpoints are granted their constitutionally guaranteed free speech. For the good of our colleges, our nation, and our world, we must protect viewpoint diversity.
If you want to fight back against radical, one-world-view speech and stand up for free speech on college campuses — please sign the national petition today.
