More on Leftist intolerance at CU-Boulder

A letter to the editor from a student

The recent controversy surrounding the University of Colorado's Visiting Scholar of Conservative Thought Steven Hayward should give us all some pause.

As background, Mr. Hayward recently wrote a blog post on the website PowerLine titled "Off on a gender-bender" in which he expressed confusion about the convoluted gender sensitivity training at CU-Boulder, including a joke about the ever-expanding LGBT acronym. This provoked a response from the CU Student Government President of Student Affairs and the Student Government Director of Safety and Inclusion, calling the post "oppressive and discriminatory." Not to be outdone, the chairman of the Boulder Faculty Assembly at CU responded by describing the post as "bordering on hate speech" and going on to say that he doesn't think the assembly "should allow that behavior."

Am I the only one who is appalled with these banal statements that constantly trickle down from our faculty and student government? True tolerance starts with the ability to tolerate the opinions of those who disagree with you. But the self-righteousness and self-assured moral superiority of the left at this school seems to know no bounds. I do not question their motivations and unreservedly support their right to their opinion. All I ask is that they return the favor.

As a conservative student at this school (yes, we exist), I can attest to the fact that any dissension from the leftist doctrine in the classroom is most often met with derision, accusations of bigotry, and a general underlying antipathy. I feel no shame in admitting that I have held my tongue in class many times out of reluctance to be pilloried as an amoral person for the next half hour. Higher learning is supposed to be about free expression and discussion of ideas. But my experience has seen many students and teachers more interested in suppression than any sort of honest discourse. Any disagreement is intolerant. If not sexist, then racist. If not racist, then homophobic. Is this what the progressive movement at CU has become?

Mr. Hayward is experiencing what many of us have known for years: CU does not tolerate deviations from accepted ideology. Question their beliefs and you are paraded down Pearl street in stocks as a heretic. I believe the Faculty Assembly is voting on that resolution next week.

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