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‘An Un-American Thought’: Scarborough Rips Lack Of Free Speech In College Classrooms

[Screenshot/Rumble/MSNBC]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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MSNBC host Joe Scarborough expressed concern Monday over college students’ inability to speak freely in class on a Monday episode of “Morning Joe.”

“It’s such a concern that children I see going off to college, young adults that I see in college, they can’t say what they want to say in college, and there are other young students in college who see … free speech as an affront to their right to live in this safe-zone,” he said. “It’s an un-American thought.”

“In our generation, we were allowed to say really stupid things in classrooms. Everybody was, not just white guys, everybody sitting around were allowed to say stupid things in class, be corrected, learn from the mistakes that we made, see our blind spots and hopefully become better people and more critical thinkers. I’m so fearful that we’re going to raise a generation of students that can’t be critical thinkers because their worldview is never challenged because it might offend their sensibilities,” Scarborough added.

Free speech has become a growing concern among U.S. college campuses in recent years. University of Virginia senior Emma Camps sparked backlash among liberal pundits and media outlets over her March 7 op-ed in The New York Times voicing her concerns about the free exchange of ideas. (RELATED: Free Speech Group Launches ‘Emerson Kinda Sus’ Ad Campaign After College Called Student Group Racist For Criticizing China)

“Students of all political persuasions hold back—in class discussions, in friendly conversations, on social media—from saying what we really think,” Camps wrote. “We cannot experience the full benefits of a university education without having our ideas challenged, yet challenged in ways that allow us to grow.”

Tensions rose at Yale Law School after students interrupted a panel held by the university’s Federalist Society in an attempt to shut down the speakers, Fox News reported. A federal judge said Thursday that the protesters should be “noted” and consider having their clerkships removed due to their behavior.