“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm, his iconic 1945 novella that used a barnyard of talking animals to indict totalitarianism.
So seems to be the twisted ethics some left-wing advocates of “free speech” as a conservative group at Gettysburg College released a video over the weekend of a student tearing down its promotional flyers.
The speech-quelling practice is not unique. Social media is chock-full of videos of left-wing campus agitators caught in the act of denying the speech rights of their political opponents by destroying flyers or trying to block speakers at official university appearances.
In the latest example, the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) chapter at the Pennsylvania school hosted conservative author and speaker Vince Ellison in late November.
However, organizers say days before the event opponents tore down advertisements posted throughout the campus.
It happens routinely with their events, YAF Chairman Tyler Seeman told Fox News Digital.
“Every semester, students on campus tear our flyers down because we’re the only conservative 501(c)(3) on campus that actually hosts campus lectures,” Seeman told the outlet. “So, some students feel, I would presume, that our views and our speakers’ statements are contrary or dangerous to their own perspective.”
But this time the group said it caught one of the alleged perpetrators on camera and shared the video with Fox Digital, which aired it Sunday.
In the video, a YAF member climbs a flight of stairs and races to confront the alleged perpetrator.
“You having fun?” the YAF member asks.
“Yeah,” the student quickly replies.
“You know that’s against college policy, right?” the YAF member asks.
“OK,” the student says, before falling silent.
The YAF member then chastises the student for not making it out of the building before being caught red-handed.
“We’ve got more of those [flyers] in the stairwell, you wanna go get those too?” the YAF member asks.
“I don’t know,” the student replies.
The unidentified individual then falls silent and eventually exits the building.
Seeman said the college has been “apathetic” about enforcing rules preventing destruction of advertisements, a charge disputed by a school spokesperson.
Seeman offered a more constructive behavior for those that oppose YAF’s politics than practicing the double standard of free speech for some but not so much for others.
“Instead of tearing down flyers, show up to our events and ask questions, because we want to have that dialogue,” he said.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
