Kerby Anderson

In years past when I would speak on a university campus, I expected to encounter antagonism and a contemptuous attitude. Even though my advanced degrees were often superior to those of the hostile faculty and students, they would often be dismissive of my academic credentials. That is what I came to expect.

But that is not what liberals expected and are now facing on a regular basis. Jon Stewart (former host of the Daily Show) recently reflected on how he was treated by the left. On the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he suggested that the virus came from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. He was shocked at the blowback from that appearance, and said it was the equivalent of putting a “Hillary for Prison” sign on his head. The condemnation was “swift, immediate and quite loud.” Critics said this liberal’s liberal had aligned himself with the alt-right.

Matt Taibbi has been a journalist with Rolling Stone and is the author of ten books, four of which were New York Times bestsellers. But you wouldn’t know that if you watched how Democrats treated him at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on free speech. One congresswoman called him a “so-called journalist” while others pressed him to reveal his source of the Twitter files. Other Democrats accused him and Michael Shellenberger of wearing “tin foil hats,” and suggested they were only in it for the money. Both left-of-center journalists probably didn’t know what hit them.

Add these latest examples to many other stories of liberals being criticized and even vilified by the left. TV host Bill Maher, author J.K. Rowling, comedian Dave Chapelle, and podcaster Joe Rogan are just a few of the liberals surprised by the leftist blowback I used to receive on campus.