Standing up for the ideas you strongly believe in and challenging the status quo sometimes requires stepping out of your comfort zone and getting exposed to all kinds of ill-intentioned responses, which is why it is especially commendable when one of our students decides to do it so publicly.
Jacob Barron, a Students For Liberty volunteer in Ireland, experienced all of this first hand. Being the founding member of our new Dublin chapter, he started off by organising tablings around campus during which he discussed various topics with those who stopped over, drawing a lot of attention from the students across the political compass.
Building up on the engagement from the tablings, Jacob decided to create more public fora for open conversations about difficult topics, hosting first a “free speech speak easy” event, and later on a free speech forum around the topic of controversial flags in public spaces, inspired by the hammer and sickle symbols seen around campus and on the Fresher’s Fair.
However, when Jacob decided to run for a Student Union president on his college campus, he was met with a targeted smear campaign, calling him an “extremist” for his strong support of free speech.
For three years, Jacob watched from the sidelines as his Student Union drifted away from representing students and toward complete lack of accountability, “padding CVs” and chasing national headlines. And after the Student Union president resigned suddenly, Jacob decided to address all of these issues by running with one week left. In his manifesto, he advocated for increased focus of the Union to seek out opportunities for students, and promoting a “live and let live” approach to life on campus.
As Jacob had previously participated in our campaign against the proposal of the EU’s Chat Control regulation, which seriously threatened Europeans’ privacy on social media and messaging platforms, he received harassment on social media from the opponents of his candidacy, facing the allegations of “supporting child abuse” for simply advocating for a better solution for combating online abuse that would not impose mass surveillance across the EU.
When Jacob was called “an extremist” for his strong support of free speech and defense of privacy, the Student Union didn’t stand up for him. Instead of defending a student that wanted to engage in civil discourse, they remained silent, suggesting that the Union only protects the students that agree with them.
The biggest misconception about classical liberals is that when you are not left-leaning, you are automatically anti-immigration, anti-LGBTQ rights and anti-Palestine. You get associated with the right wing circles whose values are in direct contradiction to everything you stand for. During the interviews he gave during the campaign, Jacob surprised the crowd by criticising the big government, supporting gay and immigrants rights, and being committed to individual liberty.
“[My interviews] seemed to aggravate a lot of people, who didn’t think I was serious, or felt that they should say such awful things about me online that they would never say to my face” – mentioned Jacob.
Jacob didn’t have a massive clique support going into the elections, however, he managed to resonate with the majority of the “dissociated” bystanders like he had been himself a couple months prior. He managed to get ahead of some of the Student Union members in the elections, and, even though he didn’t win, he redefined the conversation about classical liberalism on his campus.
Nowadays, when people hear your opinion on one certain issue, they jump to the conclusions and assume your whole identity without asking further questions. This reflexive labeling is exactly why campus discourse has stalled, and why Jacob’s run was so necessary. By placing third against career insiders in just seven days, he proved that a “silent majority” exists for those willing to stop complaining and start changing the things around them.
“People always tell me that ‘you know, if you don’t like all of this left-wing socialist stuff, do something about it and stop complaining’. So I did …” sums up Jacob.
