Imagine if the “left” were treated this way on campus.

This affair has received little media attention. But it is not hard to imagine the circus that would result if the politics were reversed—if conservative students, say, ripped down flyers advertising a Planned Parenthood event, or if someone posted the names of the members of a campus LGBTQ group to social media. In all likelihood, coverage would be wall-to-wall and 24/7; reporters would swarm the campus from all over the country; reams of copy would be published claiming to show how “unsafe” campuses had become for liberals; universities across the country would likely pass ever-more onerous speech code laws in response; college presidents and provosts and chancellors would announce their solidarity with Planned Parenthood; and Republican senators and congressmen would, for whatever reason, be asked to denounce the behavior. It would all play out exactly as you’d expect.

Whether or not such a response would be justified—for either side—is beside the point. The obvious takeaway is this: We have two standards on campus here. Conservative students, who are at many schools deeply and openly reviled, are expected to simply deal with the persecution they regularly face at universities across the country. It’s just become an assumed occurrence, a thing they have to deal with as part of their normal daily life. It barely merits a squib, if that, in most mainstream media outlets. This is a shameful arrangement. Nobody, regardless of his political beliefs, should have to deal with thuggery and violence—not any time, and especially not at an American university in the 21st century. And it is incumbent upon us to treat these things equally, no matter to whom they happen.