Cornell’s student body, as do most other student bodies on university campuses across the country, skews liberal. The clearly left-wing inclinations of President Martha Pollack, evident through her promotion of critical race theory on campus, seem to match this lean amongst the students. Given this deep entrenchment of liberal and left-wing philosophy on campus, one would expect that Cornell’s student body reflects and espouses the foundational values of liberalism: tolerance, open-mindedness, and a respect for intellectual diversity. But, unfortunately, for a large proportion of liberals on campus, these values apparently only apply to those they agree with, those who toe the line they have arbitrarily drawn as to what discourse is appropriate in campus political life.
As a freshman on campus, I’ve only been a Cornellian for a few short months. But within that period of time, I have realized how difficult it is to be a conservative on this campus, quite simply because those on the left don’t care whether you can defend your ideas. They don’t care about intellectual discourse. They don’t care about whether you have facts, studies, and research to back up your arguments. All they care about is whether you agree with them or not. And if you don’t, woe be unto you. Many of those on the left on Cornell’s campus are unable, from my experience, to separate the person from the ideas. If you disagree with their views, it is not merely your ideas that are wrong; it is you. Your ideas aren’t the only thing that’s bad, you are bad as well. Disagree with the notion of white privilege, or the idea that systemic racism permeates American society? Well, then you’re a racist, even if you’re a brown, minority American who was born to two Indian immigrants. Believe that Amy Coney Barrett should be appointed to the Supreme Court? Well, then you’re a sexist misogynist, nevermind the fact that Barrett, herself, is a woman. And God help you if you dare to express support for President Trump on this campus.
This is the daily experience for conservatives at Cornell, all due to a left that is unwilling to respect the most basic purpose of an institution of learning: to facilitate the free exchange of ideas, to consider viewpoints on their merits as opposed to attacking the people espousing them, and to enable the freedom of thought that is so vital to our society and to our democracy. Campus leftists, as opposed to bridging divides between the two sides and engaging in meaningful conversations, are instead preoccupied with shifting the Overton Window so far to the left that everyone to the right of Barack Obama is suddenly an extremist who must be shamed.
But this culture of leftist supremacy on campus is but a microcosm of what is happening throughout the country. We wonder why polarization is such a big issue in the United States today. Well, what do you expect when one half of the country believes that the other half is racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, and whatever new epithet the left has decided to concoct today? We need to be able to hear out each other’s ideas without maligning the character of those with whom we differ. And if we are unable to do that, our nation will only fracture further.
At this point, some of you may ask, “why aren’t you calling out conservatives for closed-mindedness as well?” From my experience, the vast majority of conservatives I’ve met in my life, both on and off Cornell’s campus, are more than willing to engage in civil discussions with those with whom we disagree. We may think leftists are misinformed and perhaps even naive, but we don’t think they’re terrible people. By and large, however, the left has made the judgement that conservatives are evil, terrible, bigoted people who shouldn’t be listened to, but rather shut down and silenced. And unfortunately, this conclusion is far from an exaggeration.
Exhibit A: When the Cornell Republicans endorsed President Donald Trump for reelection, the Daily Sun published an article on the endorsement. The endorsement decision was then quickly mocked on the University’s unofficial Facebook meme page, “Cornell: Any Person, Any Meme,” which quite frankly wasn’t even the issue. Rather, it was the comments on the meme that showcased the Cornell students’ intolerance towards right-wing beliefs. “The quality of both political discourse and outcomes would improve with the removal of specifically conservative or right-wing views and perspectives and that’s something I’m very comfortable endorsing. Nothing of value at all is gained from hearing out right-wingers,” wrote one user, also adding that we should “Deplatform conservatives whenever possible.” Another user went even further, commenting that “[conservatives] don’t deserve civility.”
When you have a sizable segment of the student body that truly thinks like this, that believes that it is acceptable or appropriate in a free society to silence those who don’t agree with them, or even with the majority opinion, how can we sustain said free society? Does freedom only apply to those who are deemed worthy by the left of being free to speak, free to think, free to express opinions? Left-wing students on Cornell’s campus have adopted this authoritarian mindset that simply because they are in the majority, they can silence the minority. How ironic, then, that this is the same group that supposedly champions “minority rights.”
