Universities in the 20th century were dedicated to the advancement of knowledge. Scholarship and research were pursued, and diverse opinions were exchanged and argued in the “marketplace of ideas.”
This is no longer the case. Particularly in the social sciences, humanities, education, social work, and law, a single political ideology has replaced scholarship and research, because the ideology presents fixed answers to all questions. And, although the most important thing in universities today is the diversity of race, gender, sexual practice, ethnicity, economic class, and physical and mental capability, there is no longer diversity of opinion. Only those committed to the ideology are admitted to academic staff or administration.
Universities have been transformed by the near-universal adoption of three interrelated theories: postmodernism, postcolonialism, and social justice. These theories and their implications will be explored here.
There Is No Truth; Nothing Is Good or Bad
Postmodernism: In the past, academics were trained to seek truth. Today, academics deny that there is such a thing as objective Truth. Instead, they argue that no one can be objective, that everyone is inevitably subjective, and consequently everyone has their own truth. The correct point of view, they urge, is relativism. This means not only that truth is relative to the subjectivity of each individual, but also that ethics and morality are relative to the individual and the culture, so there is no such thing as Good and Evil, or even Right and Wrong. So too with the ways of knowing; your children will learn that there is no objective basis for preferring chemistry over alchemy, astronomy over astrology, or medical doctors over witch doctors. They will learn that facts do not exist; only interpretations do.
All Cultures Are Equally Good; Diversity Is Our Strength
Our social understanding has also been transformed by postmodern relativism. Because moral and ethical principles are deemed to be no more than the collective subjectivity of our culture, it is now regarded as inappropriate to judge the principles and actions of other cultures. This doctrine is called “cultural relativism.” For example, while racism is held to be the highest sin in the West, and slavery the greatest of our historical sins, your children will learn that we are not allowed to criticize contemporary racism and slavery in Africa, the Middle East, and the equivalents in South Asia.
The political manifestation of cultural relativism is multiculturalism, an incoherent concept that projects the integration of multiple incompatible cultures. Diversity is lauded as a virtue in itself. Imagine a country with fifty different languages, each derived from a different culture. That would not be a society, but a tower of babble. How would it work if there were multiple codes of law requiring and forbidding contrary behaviors: driving on the left and driving on the right; monogamy and polygamy; male dominance and gender equality; arranged marriage and individual choice? Your children will learn that our culture is nothing special and that other cultures are awesome.
The West Is Evil; The Rest Are Virtuous
Postcolonialism, the dominant theory in the social sciences today, is inspired by the Marxist-Leninist theory of imperialism, in which the conflict between the capitalist and proletariat classes is allegedly exported to the exploitation of colonized countries. By this means, the theory goes, oppression and poverty take place in colonies instead of in relation to the metropolitan working class. Postcolonialism posits that all of the problems in societies around the world today are the result of the relatively short Western imperial dominance and colonization. For example, British imperialism is blamed for what are in fact indigenous cultures, such as the South Asian caste system and the African tribal system. So too, problems of backwardness and corruption in countries once, decades ago, colonies continue to be blamed on past Western imperialism. The West is thus the continuing focus on anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist sentiment. Your children will learn that our society is evil, and the cause of all the evil in the wider world.
Only the West Was Imperialist and Colonialist
This ahistorical approach of postcolonialism ignores the hundreds of empires and their colonies throughout history, as well as ignoring contemporary empires, such as the Arab Muslim Empire that conquered all of the central Middle East, North Africa, southern Europe, Persia, Central Asia, and northern India, and occupied them minimally for hundreds of years, but 1400 years in the central Middle East and North Africa, and occupy them today. China, once the Communists took power, invaded Inner Mongolia to the north, Chinese Turkestan to the west, and Tibet to the south. Once in control, the government flooded these colonies with Han Chinese, in effect ethnically cleansing them. Postcolonialists have nothing to say about any of this; they wish to condemn exclusively the West. Your children will learn to reject history and comparisons with other societies, lest the claimed unique sins of the West be challenged.
Western Imperialism Was a Racist Project
Postcolonialists like to stress the racial dimension of Western imperialism: as an illustration of racism. But postmodernists are not interested in Arab slave raiding in “black” Africa, or Ottoman slaving among the whites in the Balkans, or the North Africans slave raiding of whites in Europe, from Ireland through Italy and beyond. Your children will learn that only whites are racist.
Israeli Colonialists Are White Supremacists
A remarkable example of this line of thinking is the characterization of Israel as a settler colonialist, white supremacist, apartheid society Allegedly white Israelis are oppressing Palestinian people of color. The (non-postmodern) facts make this a difficult argument to sustain. As is well established by all evidence, Jewish tribes and kingdoms occupied Judea and Samaria for a thousand years before the Romans invaded and fought war after imperial war against the indigenous Jews, and then enslaved or exiled most of them, renaming the land “Palestine.” Then, five centuries later, the Arabs from Arabia invaded and conquered Palestine, going on to conquer half of the world. The Jews returned to “Palestine” after 1400 years; most were refugees or stateless, so not colonists from a metropolis. Almost half of Israelis are Jewish Arabs thrown out of Arab countries, not to mention the Ethiopian and Indian Jews. Furthermore, Arab Muslims and Christians make up 21% of Israeli citizens. So to characterize multicolored Israelis as “whites” oppressing “Palestinian people of color’ is an imaginary distinction.
Canadian? You Have No Right to Stolen Native Land
If indigenous Jews are deemed to have no claim to their ancient homeland, then Euro-Canadians, Asian Canadians, African Canadians, and Latin Canadians are colonialist settlers without even an excuse. You have stolen Native land. The only moral course, according to postcolonialism, is to give everything back. At the very least, in order for “decolonization” to be implemented, the First Nations must be ranked above the interloping settlers, must be given special preference in all benefits, the law must make special exceptions for them. First nations must receive ongoing grants, pay no taxes, be given special reserved places in universities and government offices, and they have a veto over any public policy and be ceremonially bowed to at every public event.
As we are guided by postcolonialism rather than by human rights, we can disregard the human right of equal treatment before the law. That is just a rule of foreign settlers anyway. And the cities and industries and institutions built by the settlers, so the decolonialization story goes, really should belong to the natives, even though they lived in simple settlements or were nomads, depending upon simple shelters, with limited hunting or cultivating subsistence economies. There was no civil peace among the many Native bands and tribes, with raiding, enslavement, torture, and slaughter common.
White Men Are Evil; Women of Color Are Virtuous
Social justice theory teaches that the world is divided between oppressors and victims. Some categories of people are oppressors and other are victims: males are oppressors, and females are victims; whites are oppressors, and people of color are victims; heterosexuals are oppressors, and gays, lesbians, bisexual, etc. are victims; Christians and Jews are oppressors, and Muslims are victims. Your sons will learn that they are stigmatized by their toxic masculinity.
Individuals Are Not Important; Only Category Membership Is
Social justice theory has taken university life by storm. It is the result of the relentless working of Marxist theory, adopted by youngsters during the American cultural revolution of the 1960s, then brought to universities as many of those youngsters became college professors. Marxism as an academic theory was explicitly followed by some in the 1970s and 1980s, but it did not sweep everything else away, because the idea economic class conflict was not popular in the prosperous general North American population. The cultural Marxist innovation that brought social justice theory to dominance was the extension of class conflict from economics to gender, race, sexual practice, ethnicity, religion, and other mass categories. We see this in sociology, which is no longer defined as the study of society but has for decades been defined as the study of inequality. For social justice theory, equality is not the equality of opportunity that is the partner of merit, but rather equality of result, which ensures the members of each category at equality of representation irrespective of merit. Your sons will learn that they should “step aside” to give more space and power to females. Your daughters, if white, will learn that they must defer to members of racial minorities.
Justice Is Equal Representation According to Percentages of the Population
As there is allegedly structural discrimination against all members of victim categories, in order for equality of result to prevail, representation according to percentages of populations must be mandated in all organizations, in all books assigned or references cited, in all awards and benefits. Ideas such as merit and excellence are dismissed as white-male supremacist dog whistles; they are to be replaced by “diversity” of gender, race, sexual preference, ethnicity, economic class, religion, and so on. (Note that “diversity” does not include “diversity of opinion”; for only social justice ideology is acceptable. Any criticism or opposition is regarded as “hate speech.”) Academic committees now twist themselves into pretzels trying to explain that “diversity is excellence.”
Members of Oppressor Categories Must Be Suppressed
Of course, the requirement of representation according to population applies only one way: to members of victim classes. If whites, men, heterosexuals, Christians, etc. are underrepresented, that is fine; the fewer the better. For example, females now make up 60% of university graduates, although in the general age cohort males are 51%. There is no social justice clamoring for males to be fully represented. Members of disfavored oppressor categories are disparaged. The classics of Western civilization should be ignored because they are the work, almost exclusively, of “dead white men.” Only works of females, people of color and non-Western authors should be considered virtuous. So too in political history. The American Constitution should be discarded because its writers were slaveholders.
Victims of The World Unite!
“intersectionality” is an idea invented by a feminist law professor. It argues that some individuals fall into several victim categories, for example, black, female lesbians have three points in the victim stakes, as opposed to male members of the First Nations who receive only one point. Further, on the action front, members of each victim category are urged to unite and ally with members of other victim categories, because sharing the victim designation is the most important status in the world. This leads to some anomalies. Black victims of racism are urged to unite with Arab victims of colonialism, even though Arabs have been and still are holders of black slaves.
Female victims of sexism are urged to support Palestinian victims of “white” colonialism, even though Palestinian women have always been and continue to be subordinated to men, and are subjected to a wide range of abuse. Your children will learn that to be accepted, they must assume victim status or become champions of victims, and ally with other victims.
Being Educated Is About Being on The Right Side
As Karl Marx said, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” The objective of a university education today is to ensure that students chose “the right side” in changing the world. The idea that it probably makes sense to try to understand the world before attempting to change it, is rejected as outmoded, modernist empiricism and realism, now superseded by postmodernism and social justice. If there is no Truth, and whatever one feels or believes is one’s truth, then trying to gain an objective understanding of the world is futile. Anyway, Marxist social justice offers all the answers anyone needs, so no inquiry or serious research is required. Be confident that at university your children will learn “the right side” to be on, if little else.
Alot of good info, however it seems today’s graduate wouldn’t be able to read all of this-with it’s length and many points.
I loved that this article highlights that facts don’t exist and that how one interprets things is how they take in the world. This is really good information for all students to learn.
Great blog, thanks for the info!
This is an awesome article. Going to university can be a life changing, eye opening experience and will completely shift the coarse of one’s life.
Search YouTube and you will find “The Grinding Down of America” (as of early 2019 last time I checked) in which the author points out how the socialists of the late 20th Century concluded there was no way they would win over the population of the United States with force (protests, riots, etc.) and concluded it would have to be done from within with Education being one of the drivers. It seems to me after having looked at the 50 year results of the Communist Goals set forth in the formal plan (with detailed objectives) that any reasonable person would now, looking over the past five decades, conclude their is no doubt they’ve succeeded at every level with Obama and Clinton almost closing the deal and Trump throwing a proverbial wrench into the “Social Justice” Machine. I’ve always maintained that Radical Liberals are themselves so radicalized that they fail to see that the very policies and programs they espouse will have the exact opposite effect because they lack the worldly experience of knowing right from wrong, good from evil, and the power of hard work, self-actualization, and a commitment to true freedom toward the pursuit of happiness . . . all of which are available to people who strive for success in America. I came to this country in 1956 at the age of 10 thrown into 4th grade without knowing English, no Father, and gradually seeing these “disadvantages” as actually motivating me to understand what is happening in life having to figure it out without having a mindset (say overlaid by a Father at the most important phases of growing . . . remember: A wise man once said the hardest thing for a Military man is not to embrace a new idea but to get an old out! (Case in point, Cavalry charging machine guns, the airplane used for reconnaissance, etc). I eventually got a Liberal Arts education almost flunking out my first semester of college, entered the USMC as an officer, became a Presidential Management Intern for the Air Force, and many years later “Crewchiefed” the publication of the first Air Force Materiel Command’s First Strategic Plan (integrated the AFLC (logistics) arm of the AF with AFSC (systems acquisition) arm after the two commands were merged . . . something I would have sought impossible a long, long time ago. We need to return to the basics of our Founding Fathers and “Make America Great Again”. It’s time to weed these internal enemies out and Trump is making that possibility more and more a reality!
P.S. The video is no longer available; however, for $2.99 you can download and watch it (entitled “Agenda: Grinding America Down”) for 48 hours at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/agendagrindingamerica/52009124 or buy it for $9.99. At http://www.agendadocumentary.com you can get it and what I assume is a later update (entitled “Agenda 2: “Masters of Deceit”) In the last two years, we’ve seen more open evidence of what they are doing . . . the goal is victory in 2020.
Thank you for the synopsis of education today. My daughter has “disowned “ me, for very similar reasons explained here. Her husband is a teacher, teaching his own demise. My daughter will be a teacher soon. The left, including my retired teaching ex, has brain washed their own, I could not stop the destruction, as my ex’s education is at a much higher level, and ohhh, so sublime and enchanting the rhetoric! I was amazed at the ability of the educational system to destroy a young fine mind such as my daughters.
I only expect that in my very late years, the reality and travesty of what has happened to my daughter will be addressed, and even then, there will be only a slight degree of compromise between our vast differences. What a waste of talent, these “universities” have become.
There is more freedom of inquiry within the hall of study of any yeshiva worthy of the name where one argues and determines and defines the meaning of a Talmudic or Biblical passage than in any university
Much of the decadence is due to easy money. Many parrot what their seniors and jobgivers would like to hear. The sources of a lot of that easy money are, in turn, easy money that some nations make. Take away that tap. The nonsensical theories and explanations will melt in a minute.
Is anyone surprised?
Once we tumble down the rabbit hole, drink the kool-aid, drop that Blue Pill, and munch on the sweet cake …anything is possible. Here in Wonderland, everything is relative and everything is right (except when we absolutely positively know it’s wrong).
Welcome to the world of Tweedledee and Tweedledum; welcome to the world of the True Believer.
And for those who Truly Believe, all the answers are already known as revealed by the 4-Headed God: Diversity, Inclusivity, Equality, and Social Justice.
Empty concepts — headpiece filled with straw — every one.
But to argue with any, of course, is to argue with all (all cut from the same post-modern cloth) and that argument must begin with both question and denial.
We are told that Diversity, in and of itself, is Good. We are told no one questions it. We are told it’s self-apparent. But it’s not. Not only is it not obvious, it is absolutely wrong. A diversity, a variety of anything is — by itself — meaningless. It creates no value; it has no merit. It has even less merit & meaning when we apply it to human beings, for indeed we are all, by our very nature, diverse. Snowflakes everyone!
So what?
We can’t tell a book by its cover so the fact that all our covers are different tells us exactly nothing. If we assemble a library, do we do so trying to maximize the variety of our bindings or do we maximize the quality of our texts? When I want a cardiac surgery team do I want one which is visibly different each from the other….do I choose a gardener, a baker, a candlestick maker, and a podiatrist? Or do I want expert cardiac surgeons even if they all look exactly alike?
We are told Inclusivity is a Virtue…but it isn’t. The fact that we have included everyone in everything makes of that everything, nothing. Here are our best and brightest….but wait….it’s our best and brightest as presorted by intersectional demographic categories. What?? In truth it is the very nature of life to be Exclusive, in category after category, time after time. It is the nature of growth to filter and separate. It happens everywhere to everyone. Every step along the way we exclude….every step along the way we discriminate. You may really want to be a cardiac surgeon but if your MCats are lousy you will be excluded. You may really want to play point for LA, but if you can’t hit an open jumper, there’s no way that happens. And if that exclusion makes the final distillation appear non-diverse, so what, who cares? If what you want is Quality, then Exclusion is essential.
We are told Equality in Everything is Everything…it is the Nirvana we hope to achieve. But it isn’t. It is, in fact, Hell. It is Pleasantville; it is Stepford; it is – as Orwell put it — “…imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
The truth is that we are all unequal. We come into life with an unequal set of genetic luggage….we arrive at the unequal homes built for us by unequal parents…and we proceed unequally. The question is not, are we equal– for we are not (except before God and the Law). The question is what will we do with all this inequality we have been given. And the additional inequalities which flow from that question are the very ones we ourselves are enthusiastically building.
Finally we are told that we must work to achieve Social Justice….because, presumably, when true Social Justice has been achieved … we’ll all be equal…we’ll all be diverse (in all the right ways)…and everyone will be included. Of course what is described there is Death, otherwise known as the most socially just of all great equalizers.
But in this world, filled as it is with a vibrantly unequal diversity of talents, dreams, and ambitions….each individual free to pursue whatever version of Happiness he or she prefers….the resulting filtering, the winning & losing, the rising and falling, the culling of the herd which allows the best, the brightest, the most talented, the most ambitious, the luckiest, the hardest working to succeed….so called “social justice” is the last thing we would want, if we are the Cream which rises to the top. At least it does until the State (presumably in the form of some ‘Diana Moon Glampers’ a la Vonnegut) comes to level things by social justice algorithm.
[I guess I’m OK with all of that as long as they’re taking from you and giving to me. Don’t care for it if it’s the other way round.]
But as Prof. Salzman notes, this is today’s Academy. This is Wonderland, behind the Looking Glass, and everyone here is very small indeed.
Brilliant!
The cake is a lie.
We have been asleep at the wheel for twenty years now. We need to place strict restrictions on federal money that is given to our universities. Demand diversity of professorships; 50% liberals and 50% conservatives professors. No balance or diversity of thought, then no federal dollars. We should also stop student loans to fields of study and degrees that do not result in getting jobs once a student graduates. These degrees in the social sciences results in heavy student debt and prospects of finding a job. The last thing I would suggest it ending tenure for professors.
Asleep at the wheel. In the UK this has been a problem for those of us who have tried to expose and oppose the Marcuse-Gramsci incremental ratchet-trajectory of “agenda-networking” through our institutions, from the 1960s “critical studies” and “multiculturalism” to the official “diversity [!] & inclusion” state-ideology embodied in the 2010 “Equality Act”, promoted in schools and enforced by policing of free speech.
Best comment ever.
It’s time to move Orwell from the fiction section to the non fiction section in all libraries. We might also do the with Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland
Post-modernism is the underlying philosophy of the man-made global warming dogma. Any scientific opinion is as valid as the next. It is therefore not necessary to debate the science, “The science is settled”. I am working on an article titled “Global warming and post-modernism”.
I was speaking to a very well educated Nigerian woman and asked how many languages and different tribal groups there are in Nigeria. She said over 500. Obviously, many groups must be small but nevertheless, it is problematic trying to govern. I jokingly asked if you have to go through 500 phone prompts to get someone who speaks your particular dialect. She didn’t quite understand.
What promises to be interesting is what happens once Equitopia has been declared. A black lesbian prepares to move into what used to be the deen’s office of e university only to find that a fat white Muslim woman has already pronounced e self as the new top comrade. What happens next? Both have three Victim points. I expect that eventually there will be the Equitron. A vast computer that carefully weights the victimhood of every person on the planet and assigns you to your place.
Ray–I don’t know if you like to write, but you have the germ of a dystopian story here. A graphic novel? A screenplay? Something. We had fun reading this.
This is a great and brave article. Sadly, this very same disease has spread to and infiltrated our schools and universities in New Zealand also. Even though our so called native population were colonialists themselves, who arrived here only 500 years before European colonisation, and who slaughtered the people who where here before them, almost totally wiping them out. They still claim “native” status and victim status and all the benefits and privileges the appeasers feel they must constantly dish out in their white guilt.
This is pervasive. Sorry to hear it’s happening in New Zealand. The Kiwis are just joining Australia with her aborigines and America with her indians. How long will it last? Until the money runs out. Eventually the debt for all of these social programs is going to get so high, there will be no money left for “white guilt” programs.
Here in America the tide is starting to turn (thank God). The University of Wisconsin is cutting programs—and laying off tenured faculty as well—because students aren’t signing up for some of these degree programs. The University of Missouri and Evergreen State College have seen 20% drops in freshmen enrollment due to social justice riots that occurred recently. This drop has resulted in cuts of millions of dollars in state funds (both are public universities).
I predict within 10 years you will start to see gender studies departments and ethnic studies departments and sociology departments shutting down in ever increasing rates. Students won’t sign up any more for crap from pseudo-academic topic areas. Why go 10s of thousands of dollars in debt for a degree that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Wow, great article.
Wow! Indoctrination has become a potentially devastating flood.
Fodder for contemplation…..gives us all something to think about….do not go running off…..to thine own self be true…..
My husband and I grew up in USSR in 1970s anc 1980s. This is, believe it or not, much worse than the Marxist-Leninist propaganda we were fed back then. We are raising our children in the US, and are trying to give them an antidote to Marxist indoctrination for their future college attendance. TurningPointUSA does a good job with High School and College kids teaching them values of capitalism and western civilization.
“Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Wow! I did not realize it has gone this far. My parents, who were educated in communist Czechoslovakia were taught basically the same things, other than Russians were virtuous as well; basically exempt from the white men category.
What can we do to change this situation?
Send your kids to Hillsdale college.
Well written.
Very sad that universities have come to this. With the increasing role of online education, this drift into becoming more and more unscientific, may result in classic universities losing their role as centres of enlightenment.
Truly excellent, succinct article that I will share widely with those that are completely missing what is going on in our universities. Many of my “liberal” friends seem completely blind to the reality that their institutions and political parties have been hijacked by these Marxist Far-Leftists. Hollywood, Academia, and the Main Stream Media have all been commandeered by the Far-Left radicals.
Shamefully apparent in national member organizations that support social sciences -also thank you for writing this Brave,strong and true
What your sons and daughters will learn from the conservative ideology:
-Truth is what are leaders say God says it is (nevermind “evidence”.. cuz faith!); Good is agreement with this, Bad is any alternate perspective
-My culture is greatest the culture there ever was or ever will be; Ignorance is Strength
-The West is the Best (forget the rest)
-Western Imperialism was really just good Christians civilizing the heathen savages; the fact that all the “savages” just happened to be a different skin color is purely coincidental (in any case, we’re over the whole “race” thing)
– Israel is just defending itself – in the same way that white American settlers were defending themselves from the heathen savages (genocide can too be a defensive act!); also, Jews are awesome… well, when they are in a faraway land with the strategic position to protect our regional oil interests, that is (not so much when they’re running librul Hollywood tho)
o Non-white cultures (but it’s not about race!) did bad things too, which automatically nullifies all the bad things we did. I mean sure…Western Imperialism was by far the most widespread (cuz it’s the best!) with far-reaching repercussions still causing damage to this day, and is kinda still going with all the many military occupations (totally defensive!), or in a privatized form outsourced to megacorporations, but that’s the price of Liberty (for some… that “Liberty for all” bit sounds too way too lefty for my comfort)
o Oh Canada, you are so adorable. Bless your sissy little hearts! And don’t worry, we’ll make you our new 50th state once God finishes drowning Florida (cuz gay marriage or something… but totally *not* global warming). Puerto Rico’s gonna be pissed, but tbh we can’t trust those people around the silver (it’s not about race!)
o White Male Heterosexual Christians are the most oppressed group in our society – just ask any random corporate executive or high-level government official, he’ll tell ya…
o Individuals are important… on a scale correlating to net financial worth (“category membership” is bunk, but *country club* membership, on the other hand…)
o Justice is Equal for anyone who can afford the legal fees
o “Victims” are just weak whining sissies trying to get attention… unless of course they are White Male Heterosexual Christians
o The phenomenon of higly educated people inclining more librul is absolutely *not* the inevitable result of being exposed to broad range of alternate perspectives or the development of critical thinking skills; it’s a conspiracy I tells ya!!
Well done Sir, you have drunk deeply of the Kool-aid and are ready to teach and convert the masses whom need to become ideologically possessed and pure as you! Victims of the world unite! You have nothing to loose but your reason, goodwill and sanity!!!
With all due respect, Crumbled…. It appears as though you know of all of the problems plaguing not only our country, but on a global scale as well. Yet oddly enough, it’s as though you are quite content merely repeating them and judging others that don’t agree with you…
It seems to me, Crumbled that you might be like many of today’s typical run of the mill left winging liberals… The type who parrots and panders to the indoctrinated left wing narrative, notoriously operating on rumor and emotion, rather than legitimate facts, and logically based reasoning.
I have found that these are the type of folks who very typically have a very high opinion of themselves, yet they are quick to make blanket generalizations without any evidence or support to back their claims, decontextualize every chance they get, latch to certain evidence while neglecting others, always falling victim to selection bias and confirmation bias, ironically calling for nuance yet fall into overly reductionistic reasoning to prove points, getting all Mr. Ockham on issues that are oh so prima facia for their pet causes.
When they are presented with facts that demonstrate a paradox in the SJW or urban Dem group-think; they’ll smugly laugh or tell you to chill, and that they’re only kidding, though they are quite visibly serious. I have found that their reasoning for doing this – serves their oppression narrative, which has turned far too many of them into bitter, frustrated, cynical, and vicious nihilists. Many of them literally think that if the world were more like them, we’d be just a day or two away from utopia.
They equate opposing opinions, disagreement and nonconformity into being actual hate issues, all the while spawning their parroted “arguments” – which are really just collected sound bites and references to historical events that they know the names of, but aren’t able to actually describe at length.
They go out of their way to personally attack people with contrasting views, even those who in most ways agree with them, but are not as philosophically pure as they think that they themselves are.
They are notorious for undermining the conservative ideology, insisting that it is systematically “bigoted”.
This adopted postulation is not only a complete and total non-argument, but it also does a terrible disservice to our society as a whole, as it minimizes the legitimate injustices and immoral inequalities that bigotry is definitive of.
Many of these individuals who resort to yelling, screaming, and name calling – refusing to listen to the oppositional arguments as rational, respectful members of society when things don’t go their way. They spitefully attack other progressives in the interest of “sending a message”, which ends up resembling the same type of temper tantrum that is thrown by a four year old. Not only is this behavior of theirs incredibly immature, but it also clearly demonstrates a severe lack of their intellectual security as well.
Now, with all of this said – there are definitely some fair minded individuals in these groups. Not all liberals are offensive to any standard of humanity, but most SJWs are absolutely lost. Educated Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and every party in between all have value and worth to contribute to this beautiful Country of ours.
It has been said that knowing how much you don’t know is the greatest sign of a persons wisdom. This is why I believe that it is so important to never assume that your views are inherently right, or that your opponents are just so obviously wrong. Because, in many cases what is logical is incredibly subjective, and what is factual is shrouded in controversy.
Today’s main stream media is a peremptory global mouthpiece recklessly filled with all sorts of half-truths that are stretched and skewed into sensationalized issues that misrepresent factual details into biased directives.
This alone has caused a lot of misconstrued information that both disguises and exaggerates problematic controversy’s that incites strife and provocations. (For instance, remember the “eat chocolate to loose weight” quote that was floating around that was apparently scientifically verified? That was a clear case of the media being duped by a single guy into reporting a study without even checking if it was valid.)
Sadly, far too many people make little effort to actually understand or verify the facts that they adopt, even though it can be empirically verified with some simple research.
Whatever your politics are – it would behoove all of us to show more tolerance for the opinions of our fellow Americans. And for God’s sakes, don’t ever succumb the thoughts and actions of an entitled snowflake, work hard, take self accountability, and don’t EVER think that society has a responsibility to take care of you.
And finally…. No matter what political party someone belongs to – if that person is capable of rational, logical reasoning, with the willingness to be congruent and open minded – they are the ones who have the steps to bring the enlightenment to those who want to better understand their ideologies.
Remember, it all starts with a conversation, NOT intolerance. I hope that this makes sense, and also, please know that while your opinions may differ from my own – I say all of this to you without any disrespect or disdain.
Take care, and may your ability to learn and grow never cease.
~Kelley Mackaig
Bravo, and well stated. Crumbled needs to wise up.
This is an excellent summary of the issues being faced in the academic environment. I’ve been a student of History for many years and am fascinated with these social and economic movements. I’ve taught for many years in college IT, been published multiple times in multiple disciplines, and fortunately was never affected by what was mentioned. Most of my peers were women and excellent teachers. I was in college in the late 60s. The biggest difference that I see is that in the 60s we had the freedom of speech movement. We respected the difference of opinion. It was “turn on, tune in, drop out”. Maybe we were against the war, but other than that you were on your own in the search for truth. The hippy movement was all about free expression, “do your thing”, enjoy life. Today many students seem to come out prepared for physical battle against diverse opinions and are prepared to do violence to support their cause. What history has shown and is often never discussed is that when the oppressors, in this case the Socialists, gain power they go after their own. Lenin exiled and killed Trotsky, his most fervent and strongest comrade. Stalin killed many of his supporters, top generals and exiled many to the Gulags. Hitler and Mussolini killed many of their top people out of fear of losing absolute power. The goals the followers cherished are tramped under the feet of Fascism. Fascism being defined as rule by one party and the suppression of contrary views and the oppression of non-supporters. When this is pointed out to the true believers, the counter-argument is that this time it will be different. But history has shown that it is always the same and the believers always are told that this time it will be different. But many don’t want to teach that for fear of retribution from the college, peers or students,.
Interesting strawman. What is most curious that it implies, that whoever wrote the article has the values you just professed. I don’t see a single line in the article that would support that. Critic of hard left != conservative right.
What a fabulous article. Sad truth of it notwithstanding, some students will reject the nonsense spoonfed them and with intellectual support of their parents will become “new dissidents”. It’s Soviet Russia all over again. “I know what’s real and I know what to write on my exam”, paraphrasing our 14 year old daughter.
This is excellent and should be compulsory reading for all students
As Ayn Rand correctly stated, “Force and mind are opposites”.
No one has any legitimate right to make the reading of any book compulsory, i.e. backed by law and the coercive means of its enforcement, which is what your assertion logically implies. No one has any legitimate right or entitlement to physically force someone to read anything. Even if one is physically forced to “read” it, no enforcer can get into anyone’s head and force him to apprehend and accept what is written.
One may recommend books, essays, etc., but not rightly require–force–people to read them.
Thank you, Mr. Salzman. Forwarding this to my two college kids. They already know this crap b/c they were taught truth in our home(school), but they cannot be reminded enough.
Keep up the good work. 31 years at Indiana University School of Law,1982-2013, made me a witness to horrid racial preferences in favor of blacks and Hispanics. Speaking out made me notorious. Race, class and gender are the only categories that can be written about in the IU History Dept.
“…there is no longer diversity of opinion. Only those committed to the ideology are admitted to academic staff or administration.”
What I find more chilling is the co-mingling of the fields of therapy and education, with therapy replacing teaching, and coercion replacing critical review. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.”*
Bluntly stated, it’s not just that diversity of opinion is no longer tolerated, but that it is now defined as mental illness — and increasingly addressed as such. And it’s not those who “feel different” going “voluntarily into a madhouse” but universities taking them there by force.
The Soviet concept of “Sluggishly Progressing Schizophrenia” — the belief that all dissidents are inherently mentally ill — has now come to higher education. It’s not just that there is a defined orthodoxy of approved thought but the perception that all sane people inherently adopt it — with failure to do so being perceived as a need for psychological “treatment.”
* I have seen slightly different versions, it is a translation from the original German.
My translation: “No herder and one herd! Each wants the same, each is the same: who feels otherwise, voluntarily goes to the madhouse.”
With a bit more of the context added: “One still works, because work is entertainment. But one takes care that work will not be demanding. One no longer becomes poor and rich: both are too arduous. Who still wants to govern? Who still obey? Both are too onerous. No herder and one herd! Each wants the same, each is the same: who feels otherwise, voluntarily goes to the madhouse.”