"Vicious intolerance" has become "institutionalized" on some campuses around the country, and it's threatening the First Amendment, according to conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza.
In a Monday interview with host Joe Pagliarulo on Newsmax TV's "The Joe Pags Show," D'Souza said the nation is seeing "a kind of breakdown of a sense of gentlemanliness and civility."
See Joe 'Pags' Pagliarulo on Newsmax TV: Tune in beginning at 6 PM EDT to see "The Joe Pags Show" — on FiOS 615, YouTube Livestream, Newsmax TV App from any smartphone, NewsmaxTV.com, Roku, Amazon Fire — More Systems Here
D'Souza noted the defacement of fliers advertising his speaking engagement at Trinity University in San Antonio this Tuesday have not deterred either him or the university from going on with the event.
"Happily Trinity is defending free speech, inviting students to come out and hear me," he said, "But I can see why the left is scared — I give them a kind of unending diet of facts that they don't want to hear, they can't answer it . . . For them it's easier if I don't come at all, but I am coming and I think young people need to hear the message."
He noted the fiery riot that erupted at the University of California at Berkeley that ended in the cancelation of a speech by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was another example of a free speech clash.
"This is the kind of vicious intolerance that is now institutionalized on many of our campuses," he said.
"The First Amendment exists primarily to protect political speech," he added. "In a democratic society, people have to be able to argue about what's the best way to go forward and you want the widest possible parameter to let people do that.
"So, when you censor political speech, it is the kind of speech that the founders were particularly sensitive to trying to restrict. So, I think we need to fight this in a very frontal way and defuse it at the source."
D'Souza said it's "kind of a scary time to live in America."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.