Cheers to my supervisor for calling me dogmatic.

Free speech advocates often talk about how the growing ‘safe space attitude’ towards public affairs has a ‘chilling effect’ on debates and…

Free speech advocates often talk about how the growing ‘safe space attitude’ towards public affairs has a ‘chilling effect’ on debates and discussions in universities or in the media more generally. By this description, they try to grasp the informal changes and new (often unspoken) norms that are preventing people from being comfortable in exercising their freedom of speech. This narrative has resonated with me a lot since I arrived at uni, but I also accept that it could seem obscure and unfounded to those who feel like this whole ‘safe space issue’ is blown out of proportion. And this is why I’ll reflect on my first year in Cambridge through a lens that shows how the current ideological consensus within academia also contains in itself a hostile environment for critical thinking. Additionally, it might be interesting to consider these small-scale, personal expressions of the ‘cultural war’ that is unfolding around us.

I wouldn’t say that I had illusions before coming here, I was rea…