Following the assassination of
conservative influencer Charlie
Kirk, dozens of people across the
country have lost their jobs over
social media comments they made in
reaction.
In Eau Claire, Republican
Congressman Derek Van Orden
threatened to pull federal funding
going to the city over comments
two council members made online,
saying they celebrated Kirk's death.
The council members reject
that accusation.
Political discourse, especially
online and in social media,
even before Kirk's assassination,
has been beyond toxic.
But how to agree to disagree and
talk about it?
Bridge Eau Claire is a chapter of
Bridge USA, which brings college
students of different persuasions
together to discuss polarizing
topics.
UW Eau Clair political science
professor, Adam Kunt, is the
group's faculty advisor.
And professor, thanks a lot for
being here.
Thanks for having me.
So do you suppose that your next
session you will be discussing
Charlie Kirk?
I believe the students actually
already have.
They've had their first session and
they have discussed
openly about what their views are
on the event.
And I believe that students are
gonna have an ongoing conversation
about it probably throughout the
year.
What kinds of other topics
has Bridge Eau Claire engaged
on?
So, Bridge Eau Claire is basically
what I would describe as the
anti-debate club.
The goal of the club is basically to
be a conversation club.
It's less about winning an argument.
It's more about trying to discuss
and understand one another in
terms of our perspectives on
politics.
Culture, religious backgrounds,
etc.
And so the topics can be
far-reaching.
It can be anything from is a hot
dog a sandwich all the way up to
should the United States
disassociate from Israel.
So those those kinds of topics
can rife with lots of
different opinions and the goal
behind any bridge meeting is
basically to bring people from all
different perspectives into a room,
feel empowered to be able to share
your opinions.
And to try to understand one
another.
The goal is not to convince.
The goal's not to win.
The goal to basically try to get
students listening to one
another, understanding
in a very sincere and genuine way,
and then going away and kind of
processing that for your own
beliefs.
So what are the ground rules?
What are the mechanics of
these discussions?
How do you start?
Yeah, so that's been a learning
experience.
This took off a couple years
ago when we decided after
an event that was run by the Menard
Center for Constitutional Studies,
which is what I'm affiliated with on
campus, that we wanted to
found a club like this.
This is less about free speech,
which certainly a right that every
American citizen has.
This is more about how do I exercise
my free speech in responsible ways
and to allow other people to
express those free speech rights.
Um, and so the ground rules are very
much, um, first of all,
guided by the national organization,
um it's there's, there's a
whole handbook that the students go
through to kind of figure out
how they would bring up a topic.
Um, there is moderating time.
There is a club president.
There are people that are in charge
for picking the topics themselves.
But then within the local
organizations, there's a lot of
adaptability.
And Eau Claire students are very
polite students that got, you know,
Wisconsin nice.
And so I think that they
add this extra layer of kind of
wanting to build a community despite
political differences.
And I have to admire the Gen
Z students because I think they are
looking for ways to build that
kind of social connection in a world
that's mostly driven by algorithms.
So how, to that,
how eager have you found students
to engage in actual civil
discussion with this
generation possibly craving
real connections?
Yeah, I think so I've
watched I've been teaching for about
10 years in different capacities and
I've watched as the Gen Z population
has started to mature and
it's interesting we're about three
years away from having our first Gen
Alpha student in a college which
makes me feel so old
but the the Gen z students are
absolutely looking for ways to
connect but there's this feeling
among them that they don't really
know how to connect.
There's this kind of
used to being targeted or
trolled online.
They're scared to be able to express
their opinions.
And so clubs like Bridge are a great
way for them to learn, you know,
those social skills in a real
way and to do so in a closed
environment where they don't feel
like they're going to get piled on
or misunderstood or have something
screenshotted and taken out of
context.
Circling back to Charlie Kirk and
the aftermath of his assassination,
do you sense a chilling effect on
freedom of expression with people
across the country right now?
I think that there is a
huge divide right now
over the terms of free speech.
I think for many Americans,
if you ask them on Pew Research
questions, for instance, it's over
a 90 percent threshold that
Americans cherish the value of
free-speech.
I think the challenge that we always
have, though, is what does that mean
when it's the other person
expressing it? Everybody wants free
speech for themselves.
Query as to whether or not we're
going to allow free speech for
others. There are, of course,
categories of speech that are not
protected. We know what those are,
incitement, obscenity,
et cetera.
But for the most part, our First
Amendment protects us.
It gives us the chance to be able to
express ourselves, and especially on
university campuses.
That means both Republican as well
as Democratic students.
And so, I think that universities
have a real opportunity
right now to show that, you know, in
a pluralist society where people
come with multiple beliefs,
the university can be a place where
people express themselves and do so
in ways that are not going to be
silencing to them.
I wish that we could replicate
that in the rest of the public
sphere. I wish we could help
other Americans after college
or in other areas of life recognize
that that is.
Really the lifeblood of what we're
doing in our American democracy.
Indeed. Professor Adam Kuhns, thanks
very much.
Thank you for having me.
That was great.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
We'd love to reach out to you again.
Yeah, yeah, I'd love to chat again.
Great, thank you.
All right. Well, thank you very
much. I guess I'll drop off.
Okay, thanks, Marissa.