1AF in The American Spectator

Matt Patterson, President of 1st Amendment First, was published in The American Spectator on December 29, 2016, about the lack of free speech on college campuses:

The great dictators of the world have long understood the essential link between thought and language.

From Augustus to Stalin, those who would wield total political power have first sought to exercise control over speech, and thus indirectly the thoughts of the people.

To that end, would-be totalitarians have always defined speech which they found politically unacceptable as morally unacceptable. If you can paint your political adversaries as morally repugnant and therefore beyond the pale of civility, you can dehumanize them and delegitimize their views.

Leftists see the value of such an approach tactically, but it also perfectly aligns with their Marxist-tainted worldview wherein there are no reasonable differences among well-meaning people, only allies or enemies of the cause.

Lest you think me engaging in some hyperventilating hyperbole, consider two cases currently before the American people, one of national import and scope, the other localized, but both instructive and dangerous.

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