Left Speech Suppression Invites No Backlash
False Assumption: Progressive cancellations of faculty speech from 2015-2023 would erode norms without provoking retaliatory government punishments from the right.
Written by FARAgent on February 09, 2026
In the 2010s, a surge of cancellation attempts against academics for controversial speech, disproportionately driven by the progressive left, peaked around 2021; elites in academia normalized punishing even protected expression under the guise of combating hate, convinced their dominance ensured no blowback. Civil libertarians like Ira Glasser had long cautioned that such erosion of free speech norms functioned like handing opponents a loaded gun, but the hubris prevailed amid self-congratulatory campus purges.
Someday arrived in 2025, with FIRE data revealing more attempts by Republican government officials to sanction scholars than in the prior 25 years combined, including overreaches like book removals and threats over social media. Even discounting bureaucratic overcompliance in 164 Naval Academy cases, the tally outstripped past left-wing excesses, fulfilling warnings that informal repression begets formal retaliation when power flips.
Critics now highlight the irony of academics, once enforcers via peer pressure, facing state coercion; growing evidence from FIRE's tracking and self-censorship studies underscores how left-led norm decay invited this symmetry, though some still contend the right's interventions target uniquely dangerous speech, leaving the debate contested amid mounting questions about whose chilling effects truly threaten inquiry.
People Involved
- In the mid-2010s, as progressive cancellations gained steam, Ira Glasser, the former head of the ACLU, warned that defending even despised speakers like George Wallace offered protection against future suppression by opponents in power. He played the role of a lone voice, highlighting risks that others ignored. [1]
- By contrast, figures like Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the University of Florida system, later enforced punishments for faculty who celebrated or excused the assassination of Charlie Kirk, showing how government retaliation emerged in response. [1]
- Todd Rokita, Indiana's attorney general, pushed this further by launching Eyes on Education to monitor educators' social media for what he deemed thoughtcrimes, benefiting from and amplifying the crackdowns that followed the erosion of norms. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (3)
“Ira Glasser, former head of the ACLU back when it was doing its job well, put it this way: In 1968, when the racist George Wallace, a Democratic governor of Alabama, was running as a third-party candidate for president of the United States, I defended his right to speak at a stadium owned by New York City, after the then mayor had banned him from using that platform.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
“University of Florida system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues ordered punishments for faculty and students who celebrate or excuse Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
“And in Indiana, Attorney General Todd Rokita launched the Eyes on Education platform, framed as guidance for parents to challenge curricula, pronoun rules, and library content — but it functions more as a system that encourages citizens to monitor educators’ social media posts for thoughtcrimes.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
Organizations Involved
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE, tracked a peak in progressive left cancellations of faculty in 2021, before a decline, revealing how academic institutions had tolerated the erosion of speech norms under pressure from the left. [1] Across U.S. academia, the assumption spread through systems of peer review, hiring, and promotion that depended on colleague approval, making informal repression from the left more effective than overt government threats. [1] These institutions sustained the idea by prioritizing internal consensus, even as external backlash loomed.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“the recent history, of say, the last 20 years, saw a dramatic spike in cancellation attacks on faculty from the progressive left (for data go here, for blogs go here or here, for scholarly articles go here or here).”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
“academics care about the views of their peers a lot. Most try to exemplify the characteristics associated with the “in” group while strenuously avoiding anything”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
The Foundation
From 2015 to 2023, the notion that faculty speech could be punished for being hateful or offensive gained traction amid a wave of left-led cancellations, leading many to believe peer-driven self-censorship would suffice without inviting government intervention. [1] This assumption rested on the apparent harmlessness of a decade of internal cancellations, which overlooked earlier warnings and fostered patterns of self-censorship visible even among students. [1] Growing evidence now suggests this view was flawed, as it failed to account for how such erosions could provoke broader retaliatory forces, though the debate remains open.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“This can include stuff that is hateful, demonizes people or groups, and even calls for murder and genocide. I am not arguing that those are good uses of faculty speech, but my opinions about the speech are not relevant to whether faculty should be punished for it.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
“Studies consistently find college students regularly self-censor in on-campus settings and beyond. When asked why they self-censor, students overwhelmingly report fear of being judged or ostracized by peers.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
How It Spread
The erosion of speech norms accelerated through progressive-led cancellation campaigns from 2015 to 2023, creating an atmosphere of academic self-censorship driven more by fear of peer ostracism than by formal penalties. [1] This spread quietly at first, in faculty lounges and conference halls across American campuses, where dissenters learned to hold their tongues. By the early 2020s, the pattern had taken root, setting the stage for counter-responses that experts had not foreseen.
▶ Supporting Quotes (1)
“Civil libertarians have long warned that such attacks, by leading to an erosion of social and cultural norms around free speech, would someday come back to bite the very progressives who were disproportionately pushing them 2015-2023.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
Resulting Policies
In Texas, State Senate Bill 37 led the University of Houston and University of Texas systems to disband their faculty senates, handing control to boards and presidents in a direct fallout from the eroded norms. [1] This move, enacted amid growing right-wing pushback, exemplified how government policies began to mirror and exceed the informal suppressions of the prior decade. Observers increasingly recognize these as retaliatory measures, though not all agree on the full extent of the connection.
▶ Supporting Quotes (1)
“The University of Houston and University of Texas systems voted to disband all faculty senates to comply with state Senate Bill 37, which gives university boards and presidents control over faculty governance.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
Harm Caused
By 2025, FIRE documented 273 attempts by government officials to sanction scholars, a number that surpassed the total from the previous 25 years and threatened the foundations of free inquiry and democracy through widespread chilling effects. [1] Academics now confront severe disruptions from government power, which have outnumbered and outmatched the earlier grassroots attacks from the left in both scale and institutional impact. [1] Growing evidence points to these as profound harms stemming from the initial assumption's flaws, even as some debate lingers over the precise causal links.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“There have more attempts this year by govt officials to sanction scholars than in the prior 25. ... This wave of government sanctions is more than chilling. It’s meant to silence scholars and teach universities that compliance is safer than resistance. But history shows where this path leads. Once politicians gain the power to decide which ideas are acceptable, they rarely stop at the campus gates, and when free inquiry collapses, democracy is not far behind.”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
“This dramatic rise in attacks from the right and govt in 2025 is, according to FIRE’s data (and I think they have the best data out there, however imperfect), much worse than any single year of attacks from the left (see Figure 2).”— The Threat to Free Speech and Academic Freedom from the Govt Right
Sources
- [1]