The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a non-partisan organization dedicated to advancing free speech rights, annually surveys the state of free speech on the nation's campuses.
Their report, published on Tuesday, gives a grim picture of free speech on campus. Of the 257 schools surveyed, 165 received an "F" for speech climate.
Enthusiasm for the "heckler's veto" is growing, especially on the right.
"Until recently, these vices primarily belonged to Democratic students, with a staggering 79% of students who identify as strong Democrats agreeing that shouting down a speaker is at least rarely acceptable," Chapin Lenthall-Cleary wrote last week for the organization. "Republicans have finally, perhaps belatedly, arrived at the party, with over half of strong Republicans now saying it's acceptable to shout down a speaker."
"The survey asked respondents how acceptable they think it is for students to shout down a speaker, block other students from attending a speech, or use violence to prevent a campus speech," reports Reason.com's J.D. Tuccille. This is a huge shift from 2020, when 80% of strong Democrats said it was sometimes acceptable to shout down or interfere with the speech of someone they disagreed with. Fewer than 40% of strong Republicans agreed.
The current tally shows that a little less than 80% of strong Democrats support shouting down speech they disagree with, while Republican support for the tactic has climbed to 60%.
More worrying is that support for the use of violence among Republicans to prevent disagreeable speech has surpassed that of strong Democrats.
"In 2025, strong Republicans passed strong Democrats in support for using violence to shout down a speaker," according to Lenthall-Cleary. In neither case does a majority embrace violence, but somewhere around 30 percent of strong Democrat students are willing to consider it, compared to perhaps 35 percent of strong Republicans.
As Lenthall-Cleary puts it, "Republican students are still overall less interested in disruption, but when they are interested, they're really interested."
It's not hard to guess why opinions have shifted on this issue. If you've seen your events disrupted and your speakers drowned out and roughed up for years by people who insist that such tactics are perfectly acceptable, it's inevitable that you'll finally take them at their word. If shouting down anybody who disagrees with one side is fine and dandy, then it must be equally acceptable if other groups return the favor. And so, taking on an engagement at a college campus threatens to become an exercise in frustration if not a contact sport, no matter whose views are represented.
That sets the stage for an interesting dynamic as we enter a new academic year with campus protests over Gaza, immigration, and national politics guaranteed. Students, faculty, administrators, and the federal government are all navigating what rules apply now that the old norms have broken down and nobody seems to know where the boundaries are in terms of expressing yourself—or allowing opponents to speak.
The hyper-partisan presidency of Joe Biden, the COVID pandemic, where opposing viewpoints were silenced, and the aggressive attacks by the left on those who wish to offer different viewpoints have all enflamed the right and led to the current attitude toward violence.
For many conservatives on campus, it's seen as a matter of survival. They are constantly threatened with cancellation or worse due to their political beliefs. "If we can't speak, neither will you" is one argument used by the right.
“This year, students largely opposed allowing any controversial campus speaker, no matter that speaker's politics,” said FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff. “Rather than hearing out and then responding to an ideological opponent, both liberal and conservative college students are retreating from the encounter entirely. This will only harm students' ability to think critically and create rifts between them. We must champion free speech on campus as a remedy to our culture's deep polarization.”
To the left, I would say, "You first." You've been shouting down conservatives since the 1960s. With the help of administrators and a faculty that's 85% leftist, it's amazing that there are any conservatives at all on campus, considering the fascist crackdowns on speech and speakers you disagree with.
There is never an excuse for violence by the right or left. If you're too stupid to understand where the other side is coming from or hysterically exaggerate what the speaker is trying to say so that it conforms to some wildly off-base interpretation of the ideas being presented, sit down, shut up, and learn something.
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