Freedom of speech is the most essential liberal value. A free society cannot exist without it, and yet it’s been under attack in the places it’s needed most: colleges.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a non-profit free speech organization which does First Amendment advocacy and litigation, recently released their 2023 college free speech rankings. FIRE reviews college speech codes and polls students, then gives them a score for how permissive or censorious the institution is. 

This year, the University of Chicago tops the list with a “good” speech climate, as it has for many years. UChicago is the first out of the 203 ranked in tolerance for speakers, first in administration support for student speech, and 91st in intolerance of disruptive behavior. At the very end is Columbia University, with an “abysmal” speech climate. 

It’s 177th in intolerance of disruptive behavior and 168th for comfort in expressing ideas. Georgetown University got a special mention in the form of a “Lifetime Censorship Award” for its mistreatment of law professor Ilya Shapiro in response to his criticism of Biden’s nomination of Kentanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court Justice.

The FIRE rankings highlight a terrifying trend in higher education, illiberalism. Not too long ago, in an era of civil politics, the law of the land was, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Still, today, in the era of politicization, radicalism, and intersectional theory, it seems to have taken a complete turn for the worst. 

Instead of promoting the marketplace of ideas and simply moderating debate, higher education institutions have taken on the role of heavy-handed and extremely partisan censors. For anybody but the most ideologically committed progressives, a precarious line for when to speak your mind or stay silent must be navigated. Make a legitimate criticism of any member of a group deemed “protected” by the institution, and you might find yourself kicked out without any future prospects. Express an opinion contrary to the groupthink of the mob-like majority, and a hate campaign will rise up and destroy your social life.

More concerning yet is the overt double standard surrounding speech. Often when a progressive agitator makes legitimately offensive, racist, anti-semetic, or anti-LGBT remarks on campus, they are given a slap on the wrist or simply unpunished. Students protesting in the name of the liberation of Palestine are given a free pass to make anti-Semitic remarks and death threats. 

Students protesting racial injustice are given a free pass to make racist anti-white remarks. Students advocating for subversive ideologies, like socialism, are given a free pass to deny horrific genocides like the Holodomor. 

I’m not suggesting that we should espouse the exact opposite values and be radical Zionists, racists, or Holocaust deniers, as some progressives will no doubt try to claim. School speech policies should focus on moderating threats of violence and ad hominem attacks on other students based on impartially immutable characteristics. 

Students and professors should be able to express their opinions without the threat of repercussions because the tyrannical majority took them in an unfavorable manner. After all, freedom of speech wasn’t intended to protect the rights of the majority, as they were never in danger; It was made to protect that of the minority. 

If we don’t stand up to the totalitarian, illiberal plague pushed by progressive radicals, we can say goodbye to free speech and the marketplace of ideas. So I offer this advice to my peers who believe in classical liberal values: You will be gaslit, harassed, shouted down, slandered, and even assaulted. You will be outnumbered, but never, never allow yourself to be silent. If you are outnumbered three to one, speak three times louder.

 If you are outnumbered six to one, speak six times louder. Let every insult and attack steel your resolve to speak your mind. Totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and progressivism thrive off of the minorities’ fear of oppression. So be the Andrei Sakharov, Sophie Scholl, Liu Xiaobo, and Elizardo Sanchez of your own story.