No Guts, No Glory

Don't cede anything to illiberal mob rule.

There is an abundance of evidence that suggests that many people today self-censor, particularly conservatives in government and academia. I understand why this happens; indeed, I’ve admitted to doing so myself. One must learn to choose one’s battles. I won’t go as far as to say that I have always made the best decisions in this regard, but I will go so far as to say that I rarely held back when I thought that it was important

It disturbs me a lot more than just a little bit when today’s young people, typically conservative university students, feel uncomfortable expressing themselves freely. That won’t do. Colleges and universities are supposed to be places where ideas are exchanged and held up for examination. Instead, academia has become a one-way street where progressives are free to express any ideas and expect them to be held as statements of fact above challenge or examination, while conservatives are expected to listen, obey, and keep their mouths shut.

To enforce this paradigm, the illiberal left frequently uses mob rule. Toe the line or get swarmed on social media, or perhaps get locked in a room for three hours while the police figure out a way to get you off campus safely.

The reason why this strategy has proven so successful for the far left is because there are few negative consequences for these obviously illiberal tactics. If the rest of us want all of this to stop, there needs to be some downside to this behavior. That’s up to you, me, and anyone else who values freedom of speech.

If you are going to take a public stand on most anything and stick to your guns about it, there comes a point when you have to not care too much what anyone else thinks. When I speak with young writers, whether on the left, center, or right, I’m invariably amazed at how often they are in a funk because of the criticism they receive. My advice to them is always simple: ignore it. You won't accomplish anything in your writing career if you spend all of your time worrying about what other people think of your ideas, and you won't enjoy the process of not accomplishing anything.

Look, hecklers are everywhere. Forget about them. Most everyone in the world knows two things: their own name, and more about it than you do. You just have to learn to filter out what amounts to background noise. Some criticism is valid and worth listening to, but not most of it. You’ll be better off ignoring most of your critics.

I played in popular cover bands for years. The cover-band club scene is an interesting microcosm of society as a whole. Most of the people in any club on a given night are just there to dance and have a good time. But there are a few unhappy people on the fringes, typically frustrated (and unemployed) musicians. You can spot them from the stage, all the way in the back of the club, through the glare of 50,000 watts worth of PAR-64 cans. They are unsmiling and have been nursing the same can of Bud Lite for hours.

Liquor is lubricant for all kinds of social interactions (most of them regrettable). So at some point the basement guitarist makes their way to the stage and begins to offer unsolicited advice for how to play the solo to Kid Charlemagne properly. My bandmate, Rocking Robbio, had the best comeback to this ever: “Oh yeah, how does your band do it?”

That’s what you have to learn to do. When the facts are on your side, take the battle right to your critics and don’t cede an inch to them. When people press you for the sin of expressing an idea that runs counter to whatever the liberal paradigm is, take the fight to them. You must not bow to intimidation if you expect your ideas to get their due. The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be. No guts, no glory.

The reason that mob rule is the lay of the land for the illiberal left these days is that a lot of their ideas are wanting. The far left would rather shout you down or mug you on social media because they’d generally get clobbered in an actual debate, one-on-one. They just don’t have the goods. When there’s not a lot of data that supports your point of view, you have two options: change your mind or express the same opinion in a louder tone of voice. Because a lot of people are incapable of the former, they employ the latter.

When your intellectual opponents seek to deny you the opportunity to speak, they are doing so because they are bereft of facts in support of their ideas. You’ve already won, so shouting you down is their only option. Don’t let them succeed. Stand up for yourself. They want to shout at you; shout right back. Call them out.

Another very common tactic of the illiberal left is shaming. If you object to our ideas, there must be something either morally, intellectually, or both wrong with you. If you object to DEI, you must be racist. If you have reservations about biological males participating in women’s sports, you must be transphobic. If you think that a fit and healthy lifestyle is a worthy goal, you must be ableist.

Even worse than that, the illiberal left likes to equate speech they don’t like with violence. If you have reservations about irreversible “gender-affirming” treatments for very young people, you are literally killing trans kids. Well, no, you are not. There are no statistics that support this notion. And if there were, it would still not be the fault of anyone who merely insists that we should take a closer look at the whole issue.

Words are not violence. Violence is violence. Don’t let anyone tag you with the responsibility for anyone else’s feelings, mental health, or general wellbeing. That’s not your problem. As long as you are not unkind or coercive, you have nothing to be ashamed of when presenting your point of view.

And don’t take any gruff from people like Tirien Steinbach, Stanford's associate dean for DEI, who recently upheld a “heckler’s veto” against an invited speech by Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit because, in her opinion, Judge Duncan's work had caused hurt feelings, famously asking the judge, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”

Yeah, in fact, it is. And you need to let that be known.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on Twitter @MartinHackworth