Conservative students should never sacrifice their political views to gain better grades from leftist professors or more acceptance among leftist students, said internet commentator Will Witt, who has millions of social media followers and is noted for his person-on-the-street interviews on YouTube.
“Never sacrifice your values for anything or anyone,” he told about 30 students gathered in Noble Hall Room 130 for a speech sponsored by The Fort Libertarians. “This is pretty tough especially for young people on a college campus where you know that if you speak up for your values you are going to be silenced for your values, but you have to be that person.”
Witt, who grew up in Aurora and attended the University of Colorado Boulder for two years, said, “When I was in college, in my political science class, my teacher and my fellow students hated me. They hated me, and I loved it, that they hated me.”
Witt dropped out of college after two years when he was offered a job by PragerU after providing the conservative internet site with a video he produced. “I would always stand up for what I believed in,” he said. “If you’re not that person, no one is going to be that person. I would have kids come up to me afterwards and say, ‘I’m too scared to say what you say, but I completely agree with you. Do you want to get pizza sometime.’”
Jackson Berridge, a 22-year-old sophomore, said, to the credit of FLC’s faculty, he didn’t believe his conservative views affected any grade he had received.
“The Fort is good at acknowledging different points of view and listening to each other,” he said.
Zane Goodell, 21, a senior and member of The Fort Libertarians, also said he doesn’t believe his grades have been lowered by any professor because of his political views.
“I do try and incorporate the language used by the left in my papers to try and make them accessible to the left,” he said.
Witt distinguished between liberals, with whom conservatives, he said, can have rational political discussions and leftists who “are not likely to be your friends.”
The topic of free speech is what Witt said he uses to distinguish between liberals and leftists. Liberals, he said, will defend free speech, while leftists will accept silencing people for their political views.
“Can you tell me the last time a left-wing event was silenced by conservatives?” he asked. “Any examples? None. I can think of dozens of examples of leftists silencing conservative events, which were mine, and that’s not even talking about other conservative speakers.”
parmijo@durangoherald.com
