Princetonian Prints Op-Ed: Conservatives Have No Right to Free Speech

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Campus Reform, the college and university watchdog, reports that one Princeton philosophy student writing for the school’s paper proposes the concept that conservatives have no right to free speech.

In an op-ed by Ryan Born in The Daily Princetonian, he makes the argument that conservatives do not have the “right to speech” because “if their arguments were strong…they would not meet political opposition.”

“When conservatives appeal to ‘free speech,'” it is safe to ignore them,” he asserts, since “they are appealing to a right that does not exist.”

“In my belief, when conservative ideas are opposed, there is no right that is being infringed.”

Mr. Born seems to think conservatives don’t believe in free speech. here’s an excerpt:

As seen with many conservative groups, such as the Princeton Open Campus Coalition, conservatives are interested in being able to propose their ideas without any political opposition to their right to speech. I am not arguing that conservatives do not expect intellectual opposition to their content; instead, I am arguing against their right to be heard and accepted. I should clarify that I use “conservative” broadly to mean both those politically opposed to progressive aims, but also in particular to refer to those who invoke “free speech” to defend their access to political debate and to forestall political opposition to their viewpoints.  Finally, I want to make clear that “opposition” in this case refers to political opposition, which includes disinvitations, protests, and boycotts.

It is not a right in private or in university he states, therefore, they have no right to it. He makes clear that he believes conservatives think they are the only ones with the answers and therefore should be the only ones heard, when in fact this is what this arrogant man is doing and saying.

An editor’s comment was accidentally left on the printed copy which said,“I don’t think this makes sense,” the editor wrote next to Born’s comments, asking that he add “in my belief” to the sentence.

We don’t believe the majority of people in Princeton believe this but the fact that this man made it to his junior year is alarming.


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