Breitbart’s Ciccotta in NYTimes: ‘The Isolation of College Libertarians’

Breitbart News Campus Correspondent Tom Ciccotta wrote an article for The New York Times titled “The Isolation of College Libertarians” explaining how the left attempts to silence differing opinions on college campuses.

“A liberal arts education should push students to take intellectual risks and see the world in new ways,” claimed Ciccotta in his piece. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t always play out that way.”

“Last spring, I invited Milo Yiannopoulos, the right-wing provocateur, to speak at Bucknell. He was controversial at the time for a flamboyant, over-the-top act in which he said whatever he wanted… But there is a reason for his immense popularity as a campus speaker,” he continued. “Still, because I invited Mr. Yiannopoulos, a professor said publicly that other students at Bucknell should ‘impose a steep and lasting price’ on me and my peers. We were singled out as ‘racists and fascists,’ and I returned to my dorm one evening to find ‘Tom is a fascist’ written on the door. The Bucknell administration was silent.”

“I understand the irony here. Conservative students criticize the left for seeking protection from ideas they don’t agree with — for defining themselves as victims — and here I am arguing for protection for conservative and libertarian students,” Ciccotta added. “But when educators react so violently to ideas and controversy, they shrink the intellectual space of the university environment. They foster an academic atmosphere in which students refuse to question progressive orthodoxy. Worse, some students shy away from asking questions, knowing the social price they might pay.”

Ciccotta went on to remind readers that it was “Mario Savio, the socialist leader of Berkeley’s free speech movement in the 1960’s, who argued that the university should be an intellectual realm where the ‘hard light of free inquiry’ can be brought upon any and all ideas — be they liberal or conservative,” concluding that colleges should “push students to learn how to grapple with different views,” and engage in debate instead of intimidation and censorship.

You can read the full piece at The New York Times.