A Brooking Institution survey revealed that one in five undergraduate college students approved of using violence to stop controversial speakers while a majority approved of disrupting speakers by shouting them down. Brookings also found that 44 percent of students said the First Amendment does not protect hate speech. (PJ Media, September 109, 2017, by Tom Knighton)
Gary E. Nelson, Medford Mail Tribune, September 20, 2017, argues against shutting down speakers to maintain order and thus preventing students from having their ideas challenged. “Certainly, violent protest of speech, no matter how incendiary that speech might be, is inappropriate, especially on college campuses, which are supposed to be places where ideas of all persuasions are freely exchanged and debated. If left-wing students are allowed to squelch right-wing speakers, or vice-versa, that exchange is impossible,” writes Nelson.
Almost half of the young people (ages 18 and 34) in another recent survey this one by the University of Chicago backed colleges in restricting speech in extreme cases, racial and ethnic slurs and words and costumes that stereotype racial and ethnic groups. (Fortune, September 12, 2017, by Grace Donnelly)