University of Michigan student and Turning Point USA chapter president Austin McIntosh told Breitbart News that students on his campus do not appear to have a general understanding of their most basic rights, such as freedom of speech, adding that socialism and communism are normalized by professors on campus. McIntosh spoke to SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow in a Friday interview for the show’s weekly TPUSA campus report.
“You’d be surprised how many people come up to me and say they don’t believe in the First Amendment or the Constitution, and so for them, this is totally acceptable,” said McIntosh of the leftist student who targeted his TPUSA group last month by destroying their recruiting table and stealing their supplies.
McIntosh also noted that leftist students seem to know very little about their own basic, unalienable rights.
“There’s a lot of argument on campus,” said McIntosh, “[such as] what constitutes freedom of speech, what is ‘hate speech’, is ‘hate speech’ free speech — me saying that I believe in a free market, that’s [considered] ‘hate speech’ sometimes. So I think college campus liberals are a little bit more out there.”
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“We didn’t know who he was at first,” said McIntosh of the student vandal, “until in a lecture, I walked in and I sat down, and then he walked in right after me, he’s in my class. So I actually figured out who he was through our student list, and he has since withdrawn from the class — since he saw me.”
The student added that when he met with the university regarding the incident, school administrators suggesting simply having the student say “he’s sorry.”
“I don’t think the university protects students — especially conservative students — when things like this happen,” said McIntosh.
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McIntosh also mentioned that socialism and communism are normalized in classes while capitalism is demonized.
“You’d be surprised how many people come up to me and say ‘I’m a communist’ or ‘I’m a socialist,'” he said. “I have classes where professors say capitalism is evil — you bring up Venezuela, and they’re like, ‘Oh, no, that wasn’t correct socialism or communism.'”
“It’s a liberal bubble,” continued McIntosh, “and when you bring in your conservative values — you pop that bubble, and they just can’t handle it. They don’t understand what’s going on. They can’t control their emotions, and they can’t have an intellectual dialogue.”
“It’s just sad to see on a college campus where we’re supposed to be able to exchange ideas, values, and beliefs, and we just can’t do it anymore,” he added.
Nonetheless, McIntosh said that he believes intimidation tactics — such as the ones that his TPUSA members were subjected to last month — are not working for the left.
I think that more people who are moderates are seeing what’s happening, and then they’re joining our side. My [TPUSA] members, after this happened, they’re like, “How can I get more involved? Let’s get more people at the table — let’s get our name out there.” I’ve seen on our social media platforms, the engagement is skyrocketing because of stuff like this. They’re like, “How can we support you? Can we run security at your table? Can we help out at your event?” So I think, if anything, this violence, and the attacks — all it does is ramp up the base.
“That liberal bubble needs to be popped,” affirmed McIntosh. “They need to experience other points of views and understand conservatism and hear about the free market, hear about First Amendment rights and Second Amendment rights, and I don’t think in classes it’s taught enough, they don’t teach the other side.”
“Thankfully, with all the conservative [organizations] on campus — especially Turning Point USA — we’re able to get out that there, and spread a very important message,” he said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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