Free Speech at Universities

"Hip-Hip Hooray" is an article about freedom of speech in universities and its effects on our society and students as well. The article starts out by celebrating the triumphant win of the elimination of the "Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative" and explaining what exactly this document was. The initiative banned 161 commonly used words and phrases because of reasons like the phrase's history, or its connotation in sentences. This initiative could cause student's already critical anxiety levels to skyrocket. Since now they'd have to pick and choose words to say and not to say in ordinance to the initiative, and the will of the university overlords. The author pointed out that many words and phrases have long-forgotten and no-longer used meanings. For example, the phrase in the title, "Hip Hip Hooray", originally was a phrase used by Nazis when hunting for jews. However, this is a surprise to almost everyone. Furthermore, this initiative and others like it cause universities to create isolated environments where students don't experience what real life is like. Since they are protected from practically any sort of negative experience that are sometimes needed for people to grow and mature. Finally, the article closes off by reinstating its point, and adding how these restrictions on phrases that we know are restricted, or not, are distracting for students and take away from them learning and expressing themselves. I personally heavily agree with the author. Coming from a third world dictatorship, I've experienced the absence of freedom of speech. The state owned the newspapers, the networks, the press, and used it as a weapon to shut-down any disobediance or badmouthing towards the government. It showed me the importance of self-expression, and also the consequences of initiatives like the "Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative".