Compared with 3% of above 35 years old faculty members.
This is from an interesting report from the foundation for individual rights and expression.
https://www.thefire.org/news/report-faculty-members-more-likely-self-censor-today-during-mccarthy-era
It's a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the mission of protecting free speech rights on college campuses in the United States.
The organization is famous for, among other things successful suing to prevent the enforcement of the stop woke act from Ron desantis.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/17/florida-anti-woke-law-block-colleges-education-00069252
I mentioned this specifically, because here they are dealing with college level academic censorship that happens both from right and left wing actors, but generally is more common from the left at elite level academia as those universities tend to be very left wing leaning (specially at social sciences)
The report includes interesting and worrisome points:
-40% of liberal faculty are afraid of losing their jobs or reputations due to their speech
-Two in five faculty self-censor more now than in 2020
-Female faculty are more likely to support speech restrictions, campus investigations, deplatforming
-72% of conservative faculty, 56% of moderate faculty, and even 40% of liberal faculty afraid of losing their jobs or reputations due to their speech
Here is also a long form interview of the founder by lex Friedman for those that are interesting in following up on the topic:
https://youtu.be/buarAx_u2qg?si=x-tfUY5e09HjolEJ
I think this is an interesting topic regardless of the legality of this type of censorship.
liberal thinking, as described by enlightenment era philosophers, is a crucial aspect of the development of modern societies, and in my opinion responsible for the current material wellbeing of the world.
Ps:
Interestingly enough, this organization also ranks college based on their predisposition to defend free speech.
https://www.thefire.org/college-free-speech-rankings
it names Harvard as the worst university in the USA for free speech.
Here is a response from Harvard newspaper, the Crimson:
https://www.thecrimson.com/column/voices-unbound/article/2023/10/3/clark-young-free-speech-rankings/
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