the thing is that like, when i hear self-described conservatives complaining about how hard it it to be conservative on a strongly left-of-center college campus in the united states, they overwhelmingly boil down to basically “i insulted and hurt a bunch of people and now they’re super upset at me”. and like, yes, i get it, it sucks to have a bunch of people upset at you, especially if you don’t understand why what you said was hurtful and the hurt people aren’t expressing their hurt in a way that is kind, nice, ~productive~, ~calmly and rationally intellectual~ or w/e — that is, indeed, a lot to go thru! but at the same time, you insulted and hurt a bunch of people and they kind of have a right to be upset at you, esp since this complaint is almost never “a bunch of people are upset about my views and i don’t understand why, but i really want to, can someone help me see their perspective so i can better understand what i’m rejecting?”, but instead almost always comes out “gosh these people are so close-minded and just group-thinking their way along with the Liberal Orthodoxy, totes shutting down legitimate criticism. conservatives are the real oppressed group here!”
and like no, just no. like yes, sure, if you express the view that racism is no longer an issue in the united states or that the state should only offer marital benefits to heterosexual couples (with the concomitant view that gender (coercively) assigned at birth is Real and Determinate and Inviolable) on many college campuses in this country, you’re going to get a lot of pushback, much of it probably kinda strident and even *gasp!* vitriolic. but like where, in the contemporary united states, are you going to worry that you might not be hired if you let slip in a job interview that you think taxes are too high, that you go to church regularly? where are you going to fear that if you make your views on funding social security known or go to a party wearing the clothes that make you feel the most comfortable you might be assaulted and possibly killed? the idea that a persistent, stonewalling, even knee-jerk ad-hominem reaction to the airing of us-conservative views is somehow equivalent in severity of the backlash against marginalized groups is farcical in the extreme
like, people actually spray paint swastikas on us college campuses not infrequently, black students are regularly singled out for extra scrutiny by campus police, students and alumni go into hysterics when islamic students want to use campus facilities for prayer, trans students are regularly forced into housing that does not match their gender and denied medical care that they need. while i was at yale (a place that many conservatives have railed at for being a liberal bastion that was super ~isolating~ and ~alienating~ for them to go to!), the word “fag” showed up scrawled on a wall outside one of my classrooms, and i had to walk past it for over a week. that’s the kind of thing that casts a pall, that sends the subtle but unmistakable message that “you might feel safe here, but that feeling is an illusion. there are people out there — anonymous people, people you might pass on the sidewalk every day — who hate you and wish you unspecified but potentially grievous harm. they can get into your classrooms, the places you live and learn, and they can mark them, invisibly and with impunity.” and like yes, sure, in those circumstances it was a small and subtle fear, but it is real and it is awful
and there’s no equivalent for conservatives as an identity group. (i know that identity politics is often gross and messy and i’m not necessarily 100% down with it, but w/e.) there has never been a time when conservatives, as a group, have been demonized and dehumanized by the united states government and public. there has never been a time when conservatives were considered by many in the country to be subhuman, to be property. the us government has never rounded up conservatives and put them in concentration camps just because we were at war with a conservative country; they do not have a long history of being treated as Suspicious Foreign Agents in their own country, facing constant and perpetual exile after exile. no jury has ever found it reasonable to say “ah yes, it TOTALLY makes sense that you were so shocked to find out that you were talking to a conservative in that bar that you attacked and killed them — not guilty of murder!” none of these things are how the world works
when i hear people on the left complain about feelings of isolation and marginalization, it is almost never “i’m in the intellectual minority here and the people around me are just group-thinkily not open to calmly and rationally engaging with my ideas.”. instead, it’s overwhelmingly “i don’t feel safe here because of X aspect of my identity.”. those are very different claims
and so like yes, part of me does feel cold and heartless saying that i fundamentally do not care about conservatives feeling isolated on college campuses in the us. i believe that the feelings they are feeling are genuine, and that they represent genuine human suffering. it is unarguable that there is at least a spark of callousness in looking on that and saying “i honestly don’t give a shit.”. but contemporary united states conservatism — whether social or financial — is inextricably tied to ideas that have done tremendous amounts of harm to marginalized groups thruout history — and are still wreaking such harm today, right here and now — and i want it to be as uncomfortable to hold and advance those views as possible. if you are going to advance views that result in human suffering, you do not get to be shielded from confronting that suffering. if someone comes to my dinner party and reduces the other guests to tears with biting insults, i’m not going to comfort them thru the stinging social ostracism they subsequently face — i’m gonna comfort the people they just pointlessly tore to shreds. and like maybe that’s heartless, but i don’t see how i can support my trans comrades while also patting someone on the back and telling them that they shouldn’t feel bad for advocating for social policies that will exacerbate trans youth homelessness, and i don’t think it’s hard to see which side of that fork i’m always gonna take
conservative students probably do feel real isolation on many college campuses in the united states, but unless and until “making conservatives feel more welcome” stops meaning “making campus cultures more accepting of conservatism and shoving its gristly consequences further out of sight”, it’s just not a problem i feel is even remotely in need of addressing