Academia's role in political violence

 Daily Signal:

When Charlie Kirk was assassinated this month, it marked not the beginning of political violence in America, but the culmination of a movement that started decades ago. The roots of this crisis trace back to the classrooms of our universities, where speech was redefined, dissent demonized, and violence reframed as justice.

In the early 2000s, professors began teaching that “microaggressions” were not just rude or offensive, they were violence. This was much more than semantics; it reshaped how a generation of students understood speech. If words were violence, then violent responses to speech could be rationalized as self-defense.

By the mid-2010s, this ideology left the lecture halls and spread across campuses. Guest speakers were mobbed, shouted down, and physically attacked. Students labeled opposing ideas as “harmful.” The implication was clear: Disagreement with left-wing ideas constitutes oppression and oppression justifies retaliation.

Donald Trump’s election in 2016 was an accelerant, causing these ideas to bleed into national politics. Trump wasn’t seen simply as president to oppose; they argued that he was an illegitimate fascist to be resisted. His voters weren’t fellow citizens; they were deplorable racists. When your political opponent is fascist or racist, attacking them isn’t just permissible, it’s a moral crusade.

By the early 2020s, the definition of the word “threat” had expanded, ridiculously. Anyone challenging progressive cultural dogma, especially on gender, became fair game. Misgendering was called violence. Questioning medical procedures for minors was violence. Barring biological males from women’s sports was violence. By this warped logic, physical aggression became “self-defense.” That’s why college athletes like Riley Gaines were mobbed and parents at school board meetings were labeled “domestic terrorists.”
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Some on the left act like they are on a mission from God to destroy all who disagree with them. The term "misgendering" should be ridiculous on its face since those who are allegedly "misgendered" are pretending to be another gender than they were born with.