You are censoring yourself

There is a narrative in colleges all across America that conservative students are being attacked and censored for expressing their ideology. They honestly believe that if they say what is on their mind, that they may be discriminated against, or even hurt. What is really happening is that conservative students at most college campuses simply have no balls, no conviction, and no worthwhile opinions to bring to the table.

This victim complex needs to be addressed and dismissed. There have been no substantial movements against conservative thought in America’s history with the exception of the Civil War. Ideological censorship with real consequences has only ever taken place against leftists, from rounding them up on the suspicion that they were a communist, to lynching people for marching with Dr. King. 

Elmhurst College conservatives are no exceptions. Despite representing a large part of our campus, and despite the campuses’ insistence that we defend their discriminatory ideology, all political discourse at EC is dominated by left-leaning voices. This is not because they are pushing right wing voices out, but because the conservative campus body is too lazy to show up. 

This is most evident on both The Leaders Facebook page, as well as the unofficial student Facebook group. Anytime a conservative figure or group is criticized, the immediate response seems to be accusations of excluding conservatives or being intolerant. 

Instead of taking action, they often just accuse left spaces of censorship. How can they censor you if you are not even in the room? 

Nobody is going to defend a perspective they do not agree with. Why should they? If even those who do believe in something are unwilling to defend their opinion, then it is apparent that it is not worth defending. 

What makes matters worse is that there is a secondary narrative that “liberals” are the ones who are afraid, that we are “snowflakes”. How is it that the group of people hiding behind walls and claiming to be victims are accusing anyone of cowardly behavior?

If political discourse is going to happen across the aisle, it will happen because people stand up for themselves and place themselves in the conversation, not because people will silence themselves so that scared conservatives can feel validated in their victim complex. 

Even the derogatory language of this column will be met with nothing more than Facebook comments accusing “The Leader” of being biased (which is not what is happening, but that is another issue). Every active leftist on campus, including myself,  can take great comfort in the fact that no matter what I say or do, there will be no conservative response because they simply are not bold enough to act and have nothing worthwhile to say. 

So many people on this campus would love to see these conversations happening. We as a campus have so many avenues for political expression; the only way these conversations will happen is everyone taking advantage of the resources for them. 

Until that happens, no one is to blame for your lack of representation but you.