Gen Z: how to become a dissenter

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2024 on Saturday 19 October at Church House, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

In times of social, political and cultural malaise, dissenting voices are vital to clarify issues and invigorate public life. Young people, especially, have often been thought of as the source of counter-cultural ideas and been counted upon to express forthright opposition to prevailing opinion.

But has this changed? Some fear that young people are today more likely to follow the zeitgeist and conform to received wisdom. For example, in universities, amidst the rise of campus ‘safe spaces’, oppositional ideas seems less in evidence than intellectual conformity, built around impregnable ‘truths’ of sustainability, critical race theories, wellbeing or gender.

Recent surveys suggest that even dissenting students are often reluctant to speak out, based on a dread of being labelled bigots. It may well be understandable that Jewish students fear speaking out in the face of a real and present danger of anti-Semitic intimidation. But other threats of harm to dissenters seem more nebulous. Never mind Gaza – even when asked in academic seminars to discuss controversial issues such as colonialism, concerned dons bemoan that students either lack confidence to think for themselves or readily self-censor for fear of being ostracised by peers. This hardly inspires confidence they will man the free speech barricades any time soon.

With the government ‘pausing’ implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, citing ‘concerns from vulnerable groups’ and impact on ‘student welfare’, is there a danger that institutions and students are utilising concerns on harm and wellbeing as justification for quelling dissent? Where are the boundaries of free speech in such situations? In times when free speech is often thought as harmful, how can we best make the case for dissenting voices – on all sides?

Or are concerns that young dissenters are not making their voices heard perhaps over-egged? Faced by protesting students at the Oxford Union, gender-critical academic Kathleen Stock noted many in the chamber were quite prepared to push back against the tired and hyperbolic clichés wielded to shut them up. Others note an anti-conformist spirit is still alive and kicking, from ‘transgressive’ new subcultures to alternative ways of living. What is the new militant activist group Youth Demand, and the followers of youth champion Greta Thunberg, if not dissenters?

Then there is the claim than many Gen Zers are kicking back against their generation’s reputation for being woke ‘snowflakes’. Such followers of the new ‘online right’ often portray themselves as slayers of progressive liberal shibboleths. Are these groups best labelled dissenters, or contrarians?

What is dissent and why is it important? Is there a danger that what is said to be self-censorship is more accurately understood as a self-imposed opting out of debates? How can Gen Z make their dissenting opinions heard without losing friends, degrees and employment? In a world that craves moral certainty – and where dissenting voices are commonly viewed as upsetting or hurtful and a danger to fostering consensus and solidarity – how best can we make the case for speaking our minds?

SPEAKERS
Emma Gilland
politics student, University of Birmingham; co-author, The Corona Generation: coming of age in a crisis; editor, Redbrick

Vinay Kapoor
politics student, University of Warwick; president, Warwick Speak Easy; events and Mactaggart assistant, Free Speech Union

Ralph Leonard
author, Unshackling Intimacy: Letters on Liberty; contributor, UnHerd, Quillette, New Statesman and Sublation Magazine

Tyler Robinson
independent researcher; alumnus, Living Freedom

Samuel Rubinstein
postgraduate historian and writer

CHAIR
Alastair Donald
co-convenor, Battle of Ideas festival; convenor, Living Freedom; author, Letter on Liberty: The Scottish Question