The result of decades of indoctrination by the radical left: a new study of American high schoolers shows a disturbing, if unsurprising, lack of support for the First Amendment.

According to The Blaze, a survey from the Knight Foundation reveals that 91 percent of students believe people should be allowed to “express unpopular opinions.” So far, so good. However, as Knight Foundation Director of Strategy Jonathan Sotsky notes, “While support for the First Amendment as a general concept has never been higher, the devil’s in the details":

The survey found that less than half — 45 percent — of high schoolers are OK with protecting the right to public speech if the content matter could be considered “offensive” to others and only 43 percent support those protections on social media. The numbers fall even further when it comes to bullying: Only 36 percent are OK with “bullying speech” in public and 30 percent on social media.

Bullying is not always protected by the First Amendment, but otherwise the Amendment makes no distinction between offensive and inoffensive speech. Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA who specializes in free speech, makes that clear in a 2015 Washington Post article:

Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) are just as protected under the First Amendment as other ideas. One is as free to condemn Islam — or Muslims, or Jews, or blacks, or whites, or illegal aliens, or native-born citizens — as one is to condemn capitalism or Socialism or Democrats or Republicans.

Disturbingly, though, the notion that free speech does not include "offensive" speech is gaining traction with young Americans. As The Blaze reports,

A 2016 Gallup survey found that 69 percent of college students believe schools should be allowed to ban “using slurs and other language on campus that is intentionally offensive to certain groups,” 63 percent supported banning “wearing costumes that stereotype certain racial or ethnic groups” and 23 percent agreed with blocking the sharing of political perspectives that may be “upsetting or offensive” to certain groups.

Now we can see the aim behind the left's obsession with policing the language: accusations of "hate speech" and the like are necessary to support the left's claim that designated victim groups are oppressed by language and therefore certain language -- like legitimate criticism of Islam -- is unacceptable and should be punishable by law.

Young people have grown up surrounded by this attitude and it has warped their understanding of free speech. Unless we reverse this erosion of support for the First Amendment, this country is headed in a dangerous direction.