Yet again, I'm treated to another day where "soft-centrists" on the internet sagely nod at the implementation of "Free Speech" policy by a far-right government - in this case, Doug Ford's PCs - encouraged that "leftists shouting down ideas" will FINALLY be stood up to.
Let's take a long hard look at this mentality, shall we?
First off, as with so many right-wing policies, we have to ask: is this actually a problem that merits government intervention?
As with the Conservative Party convention adopting "birther" policy to combat a problem that affects all of 0.08% of babies born in Canada, the numbers tell a different story.
To begin with, the General Social Survey by NORC at the University of Chicago has steadily tracked "Free Speech" opinions since 1970. Their data has shown that in fact Free Speech tolerance has steadily increased in those years, HOWEVER - and this, I feel, is the sticky wicket for right-wingers - that tolerance is largely towards Homosexuals and Antitheists. The tolerance towards Racists has largely remained unchanged.
Even more telling is the GSS' demographics on which groups are consistently more tolerant of hypothetical speakers across the board: far-left University graduates.
But hey, these are opinion polls, right? That's not HARD data!
OK, then how about the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)'s hard data on attempts at disinvitation of controversial speakers in the US? Their numbers show 35 attempts to disinvite speakers in 2017, down from 43 in 2016. AN EPIDEMIC, you protest. Unless you consider that there are approximately 4,700 colleges, universities, and other institutes of higher learning all over America, each scheduling dozens of speakers every year.
And this is to say nothing of the ideologies behind these attempts at disinvitation, nor of their success rate. Heterodox Academy's analysis of FIRE's data shows that for all attempts from 2000-2016, 200 came from the Left, and 102 came from the Right. AHA!
Except...of those attempts, the higher success rate of disinvitation was for the right-wing, with 55% success compared to 33% for the left-wing. In hard numbers, that means in six years of 4,700 campuses participating in what I like to call "Campus Panic," all of 120 speakers were disinvited following protests.
So what's this really about?
Well, I have one theory. Heterodox Academy's analysis showed that the primary motivation of Left-wing disinvitation attempts centered on racial issues, sexual orientation, or views on Islam. Right-wing disinvitation attempts were down to views on Israel-Palestine, criminal misconduct, and for a VAST majority, abortion/contraception.
It's worth noting at this point that when Doug Ford announced this "policy" (with heavy air quotes to emphasize the likelihood of this standing up to court scrutiny) his team included a link to an anti-abortion student group's denial of official "club" status. HMMM.
It doesn't take a long memory, just a cohesive one, to remember that Doug Ford's leadership victory came entirely because of the swing-vote of far-right candidate Tanya Granic Allen's supporters, who put their trust in Dougie to bring them sex ed. destruction, de-funding of leftie social programs, and best of all a new front on the abortion debate.
And you can bet your ass that these people are thrilled that their case for "free speech" is now being enforced by the government.
BUT HEY. I'm sure that the Sage Centrists on my feed will rest easy knowing that those darn Libs who DARE to call you "racists" will finally be So. Owned. Truly, the marketplace of ideas has been preserved this day.