Universities are supposed to encourage debate, not strangle it

Liberal values are under attack on two flanks. Those of us who think extensive freedom of expression, universal human rights and respect for science and evidence-based policies are vital for a healthy society are getting worried. We foresaw the rise of a dogmatic right-wing populism that is as sceptical about truth as Pontius Pilate, but were caught napping by a new illiberalism that emerged from the left, one that has found fertile ground in universities and beyond.

The new illiberals are eager to police others’ language and thought. They attack Terfs, and tell us which words we can and can’t use. If you enter a debate about any of a range of sacred concepts, this is likely to be labelled an act of violence. Not metaphorical violence, but actual violence. To point out a difference between a baton to the head and the sincere questioning of a contested belief in the pursuit of a better understanding of the point at issue, is deemed to be further violence. Gender, race, sexual orientation and even obesity are, in some quarters, declared beyond discussion. If you do not subscribe to approved views, and fail to adopt question-begging terminology, you will simply get shut down, no platformed, cancelled. This approach has dubbed itself ‘activism’ or sometimes ‘social justice’ and its adherents are described as ‘woke’.

That this tendency should have emerged from universities is odd. Universities have traditionally provided arenas for the collision of truth with error, places where ideas and claims are tested to destruction and judged by whether they can withstand criticism, argument and counterevidence. They are where debates take place, not where viewpoints get shut down. Oxford University, for example, in its policies describes free speech as ‘the lifeblood of the university’.