“Fascist Bootlicker”: The Assault on Differing Perspectives at UChicago

“Fascist bootlicker.”

That’s what one of the many comments called me on a recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics (IOP) Instagram post about my summer internship.

Hi, I’m Braeden — a staff writer and executive social media team member for the Chicago Thinker. After the Thinker’s breakout American Identity Summit last academic year, I decided to continue my passion for politics with a summer internship in Washington, D.C., working for the office of Congressman Nicholas J. Begich III (AK-AL). I’ve had the incredible privilege of diving into conservative policy work on the Hill, and along the way, I even had the chance to meet Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Because of this experience, the IOP interviewed me about my congressional internship and featured me in an Instagram post. 

The interview was fairly standard, mostly focusing on why I wanted to work in government and what my role entailed. So, where’s the story? It lies in the comments. Within just one day of the post going live, it received 19 comments, most of them negative. That’s especially notable considering most of the IOP’s posts yield zero. I was accused of being a fascist, told that highlighting me was a “bad look” for the IOP, and perhaps worst of all, called a “Lindsey Graham Republican.”

Now you might be wondering: what horrible thing did I say to deserve that kind of response?

The thing is – I honestly don’t know. The post detailed my recollection of riding in a Senate car with Bernie Sanders and how that moment helped me see that, beyond the roles we play, we’re all human beings first. We may disagree on the issues, but we work in the same buildings and strive to find common ground for proper governance. That was my message: hopeful excitement about bipartisanship.

And yet, that message was met with insults, all because of one line of a multi-paragraph interview in which I said that attending TPUSA’s AmericaFest made me want to work on the Hill. That’s it -– the single line that apparently makes me a fascist.

I’m not writing this to complain (in fact, I find some of the comments amusing), nor am I looking for sympathy. I’m writing this because it should worry all of us: all Americans, but especially UChicago students. We pride ourselves on being a place of free inquiry, where ideas are debated and knowledge is gained through the scrutiny of truth. And yet, when the student body is faced with a divergent perspective from someone with whom they disagree, it results in insults. Condemnations of the university for simply acknowledging an alternative viewpoint — even when that viewpoint is expressed with optimism and respect.

The IOP’s student base clearly leans liberal, but such a flagrant display of hegemonic thought was shocking. Students were so offended that a peer held a different belief that they shamed the university for even acknowledging me.

This is exactly why the Chicago Thinker exists. It’s why we work so hard to host events and debates — because UChicago remains one of the last bulwarks among the nation’s elite institutions that still protects free speech for conservatives. But it won’t remain that way if we continue to accept a culture that thrives on hatred, not just of opposing ideas, but of the people who hold them.

I’m disappointed in my peers who made those comments — but I’m not angry. Sometimes our emotions get the better of us. All I can hope is that this moment serves as a warning to the university, its stakeholders, and the student body: if we don’t stop this sinister effort to silence the representation of contesting views, then we’ve lost the true spirit of the University of Chicago.