Author Archive: Greg Lukianoff

STUDENTS LOOK TO REPORT PROFESSORS FOR WRONGTHINKThe results of a recent survey conducted by NDSU’s Challey Institute reinforce the “conformity gauntlet” (layer upon layer of conformity-inducing pressures that make matriculating through — or, god forbid, attempting to find employment in — higher ed a living nightmare for ideological dissenters) from The Canceling of the American Mind.

VIOLENCE IS NEVER AN ACCEPTABLE RESPONSE TO SPEECH. Angel Eduardo cites data from FIRE’s 2025 College Free Speech Rankings to raise the alarm about the concerning level of support for violence in response to disfavored speech among undergrads.

TODAY’S MY 50TH BIRTHDAY: I’ve been at FIRE for almost half my life, and it’s been so incredible to see our little team grow to become the nation’s premier free speech defender! We’re fighting for free speech in the courtroom, the classroom, and in the culture.

  • Our team has grown to 115 *incredible* free speech defenders.
  • We are nearing ONE MILLION followers on social media and email.
  • We have 30 active litigation cases.
  • We have secured eight grassroots victories in communities across the country.
  • We have helped build 35 alumni organizations to defend free speech on campuses.
  • We have had 4 model bills passed in states across the country this year alone.
  • We have released the largest report on college free speech EVER!
  • We have successfully reformed 31 anti-free speech college policies this year alone.

FIRE has come a long way, but there is still more work to do.

That’s where you come in. Please consider donating to FIRE and join the Free Speech Movement.

Consider it a birthday present to me ;)

 

STUDENTS ARE CONFUSED ABOUT SPEECH. After decades of administrators censoring opinions they don’t like and supporting the most expansive idea of free speech for those they do, students are unsurprisingly confused. They rightfully made their feelings known in response to FIRE’s survey for our 2025 College Free Speech Rankings.

Top 5 schools:

Bottom 5:

And here are five more takeaways from this year’s rankings.

FIRE’S 2025 COLLEGE FREE SPEECH RANKINGS SURVEYED 58,000 STUDENTS ACROSS 257 COLLEGES. One takeaway: A record 55% of students said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is difficult to discuss openly on campus (Yes, I’m sure you’re shocked!). Dig into the data!

FIRE’S 2025 COLLEGE FREE SPEECH RANKINGS ARE OUT! The University of Virginia takes the top spot for the best free speech climate while Harvard remains dead last for the second year in a row. Check out the full rankings.

AMERICAN EX-PAT CHARGED IN GERMAN COURT FOR CRITICIZING MASK MANDATE: Playwright & novelist C. J. Hopkins was charged with “promoting the tenets of National Socialism” simply for referencing the cover of his book (which depicts a swastika-branded medical mask) in a tweet calling masks “ideological conformity symbols.”

CA COURT UPHOLDS STUDENTS’ RIGHTS TO CONDEMN MURDEROUS COMMUNIST REGIMES: FIRE secures yet another First Amendment legal victory, this time for the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Clovis Community College when the school’s administration removed their anti-communist flyers and rejected their request to post pro-life flyers, claiming both were “inappropriate or offensive.”

3/3 AIN’T TOO SHABBY: With FIRE’s help, Jeff Gray has now won all three lawsuits against the Georgia cities that violated his First Amendment rights for displaying a “God bless the homeless vets” sign outside their city halls.

“YOU CAN’T SHOUT ‘FIRE!’ IN A CROWDED THEATER” is such a tedious cliché that First Amendment defenders can’t help but roll our eyes when we hear it. This sketch from FIRE’s legal director, Will Creeley, should clear up some of the most common misconceptions:

PERFECTING THE ‘PERFECT RHETORICAL FORTRESS’: In advance of the paperback release of ‘The Canceling of the American Mind’, Rikki & I are seeking reader feedback on the PRF. Did we miss anything major or get anything wrong? Let us know!

NEVER FORGET JUNE 4, 1989: Zhou Fengsuo, a Tiananmen student leader, reflects on the day that shook the conscience of the free world.

FRUSTRATED WITH THE CHEAP RHETORICAL DODGES THAT PARTISANS USE TO SHORT CIRCUIT DEBATE? Rikki Schlott & I tried to create a comprehensive list of these dirty tricks in “The Canceling of the American Mind.” Before the paperback comes out, we’re looking for your feedback. Let us know what we missed!

ANYONE WHO’S READ OR SEEN ‘DUNE’ KNOWS THE LITANY AGAINST FEAR, BUT HAVE YOU HEARD THE LITANY AGAINST CERTAINTY?Take a look at the Eternally Radical Idea Weekend Update for a behind-the-scenes look at my experience delivering USF Health’s commencement address and Angel Eduardo’s original Litany Against Certainty.

CERTAINTY IS THE MIND-KILLER.Check out my speech from USF Health’s commencement last Thursday, a new episode of So to Speak, and a whole lot more in the Eternally Radical Idea Weekend Update.

HIGHER EDUCATION NEEDS REFORM, AND NOW IS THE TIME. On my Substack, the Eternally Radical Idea, today I survey the chaos that has embroiled college campuses across the US and beyond, doing my best to call balls and strikes between protected and unprotected political expression in the midst of an absolute hailstorm of protests and demonstrations.

“Not coincidentally, trust in higher education and respect for it have plummeted in recent years, while the cost has absolutely exploded. Someone attending Columbia today might expect to pay as much as $95,000 a year when including room and board. And where has this gargantuan increase in cost per student gone? It has overwhelmingly gone to the ranks of administrators and bureaucrats that have created the orthodoxy, the free speech problems, and the gross double standards in the first place.”

ONCE THE STRONGEST CONSTITUENCY ON CAMPUS, COLLEGE STUDENTS HAVE BY AND LARGE TURNED THEIR BACK ON FREE SPEECH. Take a step back from the recent campus turmoil and dig into the data with Sean Stevens and me in the latest chapter in our ongoing series, ‘The skeptics were wrong, Part 3.”

“PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPTED AND SUCCESSFUL DISRUPTION WE HAVE SEEN RELATED TO THE ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT IN 2024.” In my latest for the Eternally Radical Idea I remind readers that this is the context in which the chaos currently unfolding on college campuses takes place & that colleges have failed in upholding the free speech rights or promises of their students and faculty for decades.

AMERICAN HIGHER ED’S FREE SPEECH PROBLEMS DIDN’T START ON OCT 7, 2023. My newest Substack piece looks at the absolute bedlam rocking college campuses across the country (Columbia chief among them), the ‘hypocrisy projection’ of people who didn’t care about free speech until it was their ideological comrades being censored, and more.