‘Campaign of intimidation’ on university campuses accounts for higher ‘protester’ turnouts

(Freedom.news) As it turns out, there aren’t as many enthusiastic student activists on some rowdy U.S. college and university campuses after all. At least, not voluntarily enthusiastic.

As reported by the New York Post, student activists at Columbia University in New York City are pressuring their peers to walk out of classes and attend on-campus protests as a way of showing solidarity with protesters at the University of Missouri and Yale – or else suffer the consequences of being shamed and humiliated publicly, according to some students who are feeling the heat.

Columbia organizers put up flyers and sent out messages on social media “inviting” undergrads to dress in black clothing and participate in a pair of demonstrations last week, to show solidarity with students of color who are supposedly being “marginalized and threatened.”

Many students apparently felt that they would be “ostracized” if they did not participate, however, according to the parent of one college student.

“There’s been a campaign of intimidation, where students are going dorm to dorm, floor to floor and asking students to go back to their dorms and put on black if they’re not wearing black,” the parent told the Post.

“My daughter told me people are uneasy and fearful,” she added. “Her personal politics are left-wing and she shares their sympathies, but she doesn’t like to feel that she can’t wear blue if she wants to wear blue.”

Other students have said they are caught between expressing support and empathy toward the cause and trying to get in all of their studies.

“We support them, but we’re here to learn,” one senior who did not want her name published told the Post. “There’s a divide among students. People who are not willing to walk out are seen as not supporting the movement.”

Added another freshman: “Some students were asking if I knew about the protest and why I wasn’t there. It was just my choice. I’m not the protest type.”

The grievance industry, it would seem, demands uniformity and conformity, at least on campus. And if its leaders don’t get it they are prepared to be as punishing to and intolerant of all non-supporters as they claim they are being treated. Ironic. And hypocritical.

What’s truly amazing about these protests is that the leaders seem suddenly upset with the same Left-wing academics they claim to support ideologically; not a one of these institutions is run by a conservative. So if conditions really are so poor as they claim, there are only liberals to blame.

But really, the issue isn’t one of politics; these kids are free to believe whatever they want, no matter how irrational it is or detached from reality. The issue is one of freedom – that is, the freedom to believe in and speak about and associate with people and causes that you want to support. No one should be forced to behave in a manner that runs counter to how they feel or the viewpoints they hold, and yet that is exactly what the purveyors of campus radicalism (and racialism, really) demand.

They have no right to demand conformity – they can only ask for it, and even then only with the expectation that it won’t be universal.

Otherwise, they will have become the same stifling, uncompromising, unflinching force they claim to be opposing.