The Hard Truth About FIRE's Political Mistake

"The president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Greg Lukianoff, recently offered a blunt assessment of last year's attacks on academia: "2025 was the worst year for campus censorship in decades" and "the federal government and state governments, using the levers of state power, are now the leading forces behind attempts to punish campus speech." FIRE counted 114 individual cases in 2025 involving demands by politicians for campus censorship-more than the previous 24 years combined."

"FIRE bears some responsibility for creating and encouraging this monster of political intrusion. For years, FIRE has been denouncing academia as a cesspool of left-wing censorship and demanding that politicians step in to do something about it. And now that politicians have intervened against the left-wing enemy FIRE kept blaming and kept demanding that they do something to destroy, Lukianoff is disclaiming any responsibility for this monster he helped to build."

2025 experienced an unprecedented surge in political pressure on campuses, with 114 recorded cases of politicians demanding censorship—more than the prior 24 years combined. Greg Lukianoff characterized 2025 as the worst year for campus censorship and identified federal and state governments, using state power, as leading forces behind attempts to punish campus speech. Lukianoff argued that higher education needs reform and that reform will necessarily involve federal and state governments because public universities are state actors and government incentives helped create the problem. FIRE long denounced alleged left-wing campus censorship and encouraged political intervention, producing incentives for political intrusion. FIRE’s critiques of campus repression were largely accurate, even as its advocacy contributed to the current backlash.

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