Thread by @AndrewCFollett

This is an extremely worthwhile thread.

I "had courage" that @DavidAFrench talked about and fought back against libs in academia legally. And I won.

It still cost me a lot of friendships, job opportunities, stress, and I wouldn't blame somebody who kept their head down instead.

Most kids on campus go there with the goal of getting an education, not being a soldier in the culture wars.

They know (correctly) that woke admins and students have 1 million ways to get back at you...so they just knuckle under.

"Courage" CAN'T be a requirement to be a con.

I've told this story a lot, but the campus mob came for me in 2013...weeks before I graduate... for "climate denial" (aka being pro nuclear) and anti-Soviet Union.

Yes...seriously...

I'd said on my personal FB that USSR killed more people than the Nazis.

That was ALL it took.

My accuser claimed this was equal 2 Holocaust denial.

The chair of disciplinary committee kangaroo court (who happened to be father of accuser, because of course) agreed.

The PUBLIC accusation below was on my personal FB wall while I was under consideration by grad schools.

I only won my "legal" fight because the accuser got stupid and took a swing at me in front of witnesses, then moronically emailed me a threat.

Quite frankly, if they'd been more competent, I'd probably have been disciplined.

And the mere accusation had a major cost for me.

BC, what kind of grad program would accept a person who their classmates are accusing of something like that.

The whole experience made me the conservative I am today. But I wouldn't wish it on anyone...as it was an unbelievably stressful couple of weeks.

The worst thing was that my accuser KNEW the accusation he was making was total BS. He said so to me multiple times.

The facts were 100% on my side and I had them well documented because I was a fervent reader of the @NRO and I knew that's was smart move.

I STILL almost lost.

I've worked for a LOT of great organizations like CFG and The Caller.

The accuser is still out to get me (I wouldn't be shocked if he responds to this) and made accusation to employers before.

Basically, this means I can only safely work for con groups who will hear me out.

Maybe what @politicalmath proposes could work.

What I know is that I was "courageous" 6 years ago when the Libs came for me. It still costs me.

There is not a lack of courage in the conservative world. There is a lack of support for it in both corporate/social America.

As PM says, the people who attack us have no limits. They have no guardrails. They gleefully destroyed @KyleKashuv's academic career, for no reason other than that he was on the wrong side of the political debate.

As PM says, these people are trying to make it so the "smart move" is "don't be a conservative.

If Kashuv had never spoken out, he’d be attending Harvard freshman orientation right now.

If you want to be anything other than politics, the "smart move" is "don't show courage." The risk is too high, the stakes are to big.

It will only cost you.

In the end of my case, I "won" and got the campus equivalent of a restraining order against my accuser.

But it was a Pyrrhic victory at best and I'll likely never know how much I lost.

And the worst part is...my story is FAR from the worst I've heard from talking to young cons

From what I hear, it's gotten much worse.

One of my interns was doxxed just for joining the CRs.

foxnews.com/us/texas-colle…

A former co-worker had it FAR worse than me.

thedailybeast.com/a-campus-conse…

Folks blaming David French for this are wrong, but this is a serious problem.

And saying "conservatives should have more courage" isn't close to cutting it.