Free The Silencing by Kirsten Powers Page B

more I got to know actual conservative and religious people, the harder it was to justify the stereotypes I had so carelessly embraced. In my early days at Fox, I can remember trying to convince a conservative there that George Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court didn’t really count as a female appointment because she was conservative and an evangelical Christian. He was horrified. I was confused as to why he would be horrified.
    I’m now embarrassed that I ever thought such a thing, let alone said it aloud. Such a prejudiced view was only able to take root because of the lack of ideological, political, and religious diversity in my world.
    But I wasn’t alone in my prejudice.
    A 2007 study of faculty on college campuses found that 53 percent of university professors had “cool” or negative feelings toward evangelicals. 1 This raises serious questions about how Christian students can expect to be treated on secular campuses. Sadly, at the time this study was performed, I would have likely been among that 53 percent—even though I didn’t know a single evangelical.
    Another study, released in 2012, found that 82 percent of liberal social psychologists surveyed said they would be at least a little prejudiced against a conservative applicant for a job in their department. 2
    Here’s the problem: disagreement is fine; discrimination is not. Liberals are supposed to believe in diversity, which should include diversity of thought and belief. Instead, an alarming level of intolerance emanates from the left side of the political spectrum toward people who express views that don’t hew to the “settled” liberal worldview. The passion for silencing isn’t reserved for conservatives or orthodox Christians. Moderate Democrats,independent minded liberals, and the ideologically agnostic become targets if they deviate on liberal sacred cow issues.
    This intolerance is not a passive matter of opinion. It’s an aggressive, illiberal impulse to silence people. This conduct has become an existential threat to those who hold orthodox religious beliefs. But increasingly I hear from people across the political spectrum who are fearful not only of expressing their views, but also as to where all of this is heading. I’ve followed this trend closely as a columnist with growing concern. It’s become clear that the attempts—too often successful—to silence dissent from the liberal worldview aren’t isolated outbursts. They are part of a bigger story. This book is that story.

EPILOGUE
    A s I was finishing this book, I attended a dinner party where three of the guests had firsthand experience with the illiberal left’s silencing campaign. A retired Stanford professor and a current Harvard Law School student, both evangelical Christians and conservatives, described being intimidated into silence on their respective campuses. Like the “closeted conservatives” New York University Professor Jonathan Haidt discovered in his research, they felt forced to hide their religious and political beliefs lest they be discriminated against or ostracized. A third dinner guest—a former professor at a Washington, D.C., area university—was passed over for a position because she was suspected (correctly) of being conservative. This is in writing.
    A few days later, I participated in an Oxford-style debate 1 hosted by Intelligence Squared in Washington, D.C. FIRE’s president Greg Lukianoff and I argued in favor of the motion, “Liberals are stifling intellectual diversity on campuses.” Arguing against was George Mason Universityprofessor Jeremy Meyer and Angus Johnston, an historian of student activism.
    Greg and I won the debate. But such victories are bittersweet. There is little pleasure in making a persuasive case that people on the left side of the political spectrum are intimidating and demonizing others into silence.
    Just as disheartening was realizing how great a chasm of disagreement exists on this topic.