Part 6/14:
The turning point came circa 2013–2014 when students started demanding the deplatforming of speakers they disliked, advocating microaggression policies, and insisting on trigger warnings. This shift was shocking to those who remembered a campus culture that valued open debate, even of uncomfortable ideas.
Lukianoff notes that initially, campuses historically had norms supporting controversial discussion. But over time, policies and attitudes shifted toward censorship, with students and administrators working together to silence dissent—an alarming trend reflected in thousands of attempts to punish professors and students for their speech, concentrated mainly at elite universities.