‘The Land of the Not So Free’
‘O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave’. That’s how many Americans see their country. When I look at America I see many Americans who are neither free nor brave, instead it is full people who can only be described as ‘pearl clutching’. I see cases of people being put in a room full of puppies to calm them down over a guest speaker being invited to their College. I see violence playing out in the streets of the very places that opinions are meant to be shared and debated. Institutions of learning should be locations where anyone should be able to say anything they want without fear of retaliation or oppression just because you ‘invaded someone’s safe space’. Students should not be suppressed just …show more content…
Students across the US and the UK are being protected, by university managers, from opposing opinions. The bottom line is that there are a large group of people in the US, and some in the UK, who want to shut down any opinion that is not in line with their own. Colleges are putting feelings over fact, repression over freedom of expression. This is a massive issue. Figures suggest that, in the UK, 9 in 10 Universities are affected by censorship, a rise from 80% in the last year, and in the US 8 in every 10 suffer the same problem. It must stop.
Censorship on college campuses has become a global issue. Even the Prime Minister, Theresa May, has addressed the issue: ‘I think everybody is finding this concept of safe spaces quite extraordinary’. Often, I’m opposed to what the Prime Minister says, but this time I agree with her. Just like me agreeing with the Prime Minister, students should at least be able to listen to other opinions even from those we have major ideological and philosophical