Inside Oxbridge's social-shaming system: How elite unis handle different opinions

At a high-profile politics club meeting about 1 year ago‚ Alfie (name changed) learned first-hand how his uni peers viewed different opinions: every right-leaning speaker he suggested got shot down without discussion

The modern-day campus environment shows concerning patterns: Amber Rudd and Tony Blair both got blocked from speaking at Oxford events (back in early 2020s) which highlights a wider issue - students dont want to hear views that differ from their own

A tragic case emerged when Alexander Rogers‚ a 20-year old Oxford student took his life after being cut-off by friends due to an allegation. The schools review found a “concerning culture of social-ostracism“ among students; this shows how quick-judgements can have life-changing impacts

The roots of campus restrictions go way back to 74ʼ when the National Union of Students made its no-platform rules‚ but todays social-media age has created new problems. Prof Jeff McMahan from Oxford points out: “People got used to attacking others online because they felt safe behind screens; this behavior moved into real-life“

One ex-Oxford student describes what she saw as “super-toxic bullying that people could justify.“ Another Cambridge grad talks about a “group-think mentality“ where a few loud voices controlled everything. The college system (where everyone lives close together) makes it hard to avoid judgement

It was that subtler side of cancel culture that I noticed constantly

The Oxbridge setup seems to make things worse - small colleges mean everyone knows each others business‚ and smart students sometimes think they know whats best for everyone. Alexander Kardos-Nyheim‚ who studied at Cambridge thinks these top schools feel extra pressure to “apologize for being successful‚“ which affects how they handle different views