this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
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That's what Kirk did. Went to a school and challenged people's ideas instead of validating their pre-existing beliefs.
And somebody killed him for it.
Kirk's ideas were wrong. Bad for the people who believe them and bad for America.
Colleges should be places where you learn to confront and argue against bad ideas - places where you learn the critical thinking skills people need in a world full of lies, misinformation, and political propaganda like Charlie Kirk's.
But you can't learn critical thinking skills if you don't have bad ideas to think critically about.
And you can't question your own beliefs if you're afraid to talk openly about what you believe.
You say "Ignorance should not have a safe space there" - but that's exactly wrong. In a school, it should be safe to admit your ignorance. Students need the right to be wrong. Because it's only by admitting to, and arguing for, their wrong beliefs, that they can learn why their beliefs are wrong.
If I feel safe to admit my (shitty, wrong) beliefs and argue for them, then other people feel safe to argue with me, and then, hopefully, I can learn why my beliefs are shitty and wrong and change them.
If I'm afraid to talk about my beliefs because I'll be ostracized or punished or expelled, then I'm much less likely to learn my beliefs are wrong. Instead, like so many of the young conservatives that Kirk appealed to, I'm going to believe I'm right and that liberals are using their power and authority to silence me.
This is why colleges are historically free speech zones. It's why we have the goddamn First Amendment in the first place.
Censoring ideas just makes them stronger.
And somebody just applied the ultimate form of censorship to one of the most popular conservatives in America.
I didn't write very much, and I clearly didn't write that you shouldn't be able to admit ignorance at school. If you actually care about reading and understanding what I'm saying, then this is your opportunity to demonstrate you can roll it back, tone it down, and read what I wrote again. If some of it is ambiguous to you, you can ask me questions.
It seems like you're looking for a leftist punching bag, and that will just make you look like another hateful violent right-wing brute. Are you afraid to talk about your beliefs? Are you afraid to talk about them anonymously and online?
Alright. What did you mean by "ignorance should not have a safe space there"?
Last week, a student at Texas A&M objected to the professor teaching about "transgenderism" in the classroom. The teacher was doing their job, teaching the scientific consensus. Instead of challenging the teacher's ideas, the student challenged the legality of teaching science. The student was ignorant. Instead of admitting ignorance, or even assuming their own competence and trying to argue their ideas, the student took the third route: threats of political violence. The student warned the teacher that police could come and force the teacher from teaching the truth.
Campuses should be very intolerant to ignorance like this student displayed. But instead the teacher, department head, and dean were all penalized for standing up against an enemy of free thought. That is the goal of this administration - to force indoctrination on American children, and shut down all the spaces where having discussions like this one we're having right now might open their eyes up to the lies they've been taught.
I had to hold off until actually watching the video, which, ugh. I'm confident that was a setup by the student and their handlers (for example, whoever was filming) to get that teacher fired and make the school look bad. There was no "ignorance" involved there, one way or another. The student was not ignorant. The student was carrying out a very deliberate step in the Trump administration's campaign of political repression against universities.
And if the student had been asking an ignorant question in good faith, the teacher handled it more or less correctly. It would have been nice to have a learning opportunity there, for example, the difference between executive orders and laws, or the difference between laws and science. But that would require a student who is willing to learn, and that wasn't in the cards.
As for the rest, I am a deep believer in free speech on campuses, which has to include the right to ask ignorant questions, and express ignorant beliefs, including offensive and hateful beliefs, and have those beliefs debated and corrected, without being judged or punished for your ignorance.
I think a safe space for ignorance is a place where you can ask questions and express beliefs without being afraid people will judge or punish you if what you say is ignorant or offensive due to your ignorance. And I think those are these sorts of spaces you need to have in schools and on campuses if you want space for ignorant people to learn. If that's not what you meant by the term, I apologize for misunderstanding you.