During that sorry campus era, considering conservative ideas — even if you disagreed with them — wasn’t seen as an educational exercise. A progressive orthodoxy argued that platforming conservatives was a tacit endorsement of hate.
But things have changed.
“Political violence is real, it is on the rise, and it is a uniquely left-wing problem,” podcaster Michael Knowles told a crowd of about 200 people on Oct. 2 at Harvard Law School, just weeks after the assassination of his friend Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist. “If mainstream liberals would dance on the grave of the gracious and moderate Charlie Kirk, what might they do to the rest of us?” Knowles asked the audience.
The event, promoted on Knowles’s podcast and social media, was a part of Young America’s Foundation’s decidedly unsecretive speaking tour, this stop hosted by Harvard Law Republicans. Kirk’s recent death at another conservative campus event didn’t deter students, who waited in a line that snaked around Austin Hall.
Young America’s Foundation told me they had to turn away about 100 people. Spencer Brown, the chief communications officer at YAF, said that after Kirk’s death, students have said “they want to do more on their campuses to create a free and open exchange of ideas,” like bringing in speakers like Knowles.
If merely wanting to hear from Conway made you a bigot by 2019 campus standards, then cheering for Knowles would have been an act of nuclear war. A political commentator affiliated with the conservative Daily Wire, Knowles is a controversial voice even outside of Harvard’s progressive bubble. The conservative Catholic wants to “drastically reduce all immigration,” supports traditional marriage, and was criticized for saying that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life.”
Knowles, in other words, isn’t the kind of vanilla conservative that administrators invite to campus to placate the few and frustrated college Republicans.
The podcaster’s presence at Harvard doesn’t just mark a significant shift in the school’s tolerance for platforming right-wing ideas — it’s also a sign that the right is more emboldened than ever to share them. Conway, for example, was invited back to campus in 2024, but was upgraded from a small conference room to a public event in the John F. Kennedy Forum.
Knowles’ well-attended speech also signals a transformation among the student body. Students weren’t just willing to be seen at a Knowles event — they were happy to be there.
In line, Thomas, a 19-year-old visiting student at Harvard who is enrolled at Babson College and declined to give his last name, told me he was “really excited when I heard that [Knowles] was going to be here. … He’ll take a modern issue as a [jumping-off] point to go into more philosophical and historical points. So I’ve learned quite a bit from his show as well.”
Frank Fusco, a member of Harvard Law Republicans, told me that President Trump’s election has ushered in a cultural shift on campus. “Many conservative students are gaining the confidence to speak boldly about their beliefs again,” he said.
When Knowles concluded his remarks, mostly young men flocked to ask him questions during the Q and A portion. Some were curious about political issues, like the fate of higher education or the Israeli-Palestinian debate. But most of them wanted personal advice: How do I deepen my faith in college? How can I represent my conservative values and truly live out my faith on campus? What are your tips on dating?
During the event I kept looking around, waiting for the routine walkout, or at least the ubiquitous cry of “Free Palestine.” But there was nothing — only applause. And some laughter, too. Especially when Knowles read out the titles of a couple of Harvard’s newest classes — “Queer Ethnography” and “RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Power ” — taught by Kareem Khubchandani, a drag queen-turned-professor who goes by the name of LaWhore Vagistan. “A reminder that Harvard College costs $90,000,” Knowles noted.
I sat down with Knowles after his speech, wondering how it felt to be at one of the most progressive campuses in the country in the wake of Kirk’s killing. “It’s quite important that conservatives not back down and not give in to servile fear,” he told me. Knowles said he “made a decision to have a public life,” so he’s more impressed by the students that showed up: “There is an implicit threat to any student who attends these events.”
We disagreed on quite a few matters. I told him, for example, that I was worried that Trump’s overreaches at Harvard would set a precedent for Democrats to use federal funding to pressure universities into adopting progressive policies. The Obama administration already did this, to a lesser extent, with the “Dear Colleague” letter, which supported policies that watered down due process for students accused of sexual assault.
Knowles took a tit-for-tat approach that conveniently ignores the First Amendment implications of the administration’s demands of Harvard. “Are we going to surrender that method of politics exclusively to one side, which does very bad things?” He figured that by wielding this same power, conservatives can “make our opponents, for the first time, think twice about using them the next time they’re in power.”
Count me skeptical. But also relieved: For one of the few times in a Harvard lecture hall, I was disagreeing with someone to my right.
Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].