The latest flashpoint for this kind of protest was e.g. Milo Yiannopolous coming to universities to give a "talk" that was little more than a hit-list of trans

The latest flashpoint for this kind of protest was e.g. Milo Yiannopolous coming to universities to give a "talk" that was little more than a hit-list of trans students on campus. Even when they're not so viscerally violent, they resemble political rallies far more than academic discussion. In reality universities have never been the kind of place conservatives are now claiming they used to be. At most the shift is that speaker choices are now becoming more student-driven rather than admin-driven (but there was also a not-too-distant point where they became more admin-driven than lecturer-driven). That might be worth criticizing, but that's not the criticism being leveled. And isn't it weird how "Speech First, Inc" has a lot to say about DEI programs or whatever "CRT" refers to this week but nothing to say about anti-BDS policies or Don't Say Gay bills? "Free speech", or specifically its current cultural manifestation in the US, is also the kind of foundational issue universities should re-examine, isn't it? America has some of the broadest free speech laws in the world, but it's not clear they're materially more informed, receptive, or accurate than e.g. Germany or France.