An upcoming speech by former vice president Mike Pence at the University of Virginia has reignited a debate over free speech on the Charlottesville campus.
The response to the event has been intense: Tickets were quickly snapped up, with nearly 500 people on a standby list to get one. Some posters for the event were defaced, and others mocking it were taped up. An editorial in a campus newspaper said the university should not give a platform to Pence, equating “hateful rhetoric” to violence. That sparked outrage over “cancel culture,” limits on free speech and concerns about self-censorship.
