Washington Examiner column follows George Leef's lead
Published November 13, 2015
by Mitch Kokai, published in The Locker Room, November 13, 2015.
George has been arguing for years that “college is oversold.” Now the Washington Examiner‘s editors publish a column that proclaims “Political correctness controversies show that college is overrated.”
One possible explanation for perpetual campus outrage is that college campuses really are the most dangerous places in America, filled with the worst kind of people imaginable. As tempting as this sounds, there is a better explanation.
Most colleges are steeped in an intellectually corrupt, censorious left-wing culture that encourages students to assume the worst about their neighbors as a matter of ideoglogical dogma. This accounts not only for the disproportionate number of hate-crime hoaxes that are perpetrated on campuses each year, but also for the fact that campus communities are so credulous about the far-fetched idea that hate groups and hate ideologies secretly thrive in their ultra-politically-correct midst. (Consider the false rumors this week that the KKK made a surprise appearance at Mizzou.)
Considering the purpose of higher education, this latter explanation is even more damning than the former would be if true. Universities were first established to preserve and advance human knowledge, and to permit free-wheeling academic disputations that made even the civil and ecclesiastical authorities uncomfortable.
In 2015, the opposite is true. The dogmatists now control the campus. Free society anxiously witnesses from the outside their tyrannical purges of anyone failing to demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for their preconceived ideas. Universities are now expected to be “safe spaces” for students to keep out “trigger words,” “microaggressions” and, heaven forbid, ideas with which they don’t already agree. …
… Each year, students are taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debt to have their intellectual curiosity extinguished and their souls harmed in such an environment.
November 13, 2015 at 9:32 am
Norm Kelly says:
In order to be considered 'well rounded' when leaving an institution of higher learning, shouldn't students be exposed to ALL ideas? Shouldn't students be given all information and taught how to think for themselves? Wouldn't this approach allow students to make their own EDUCATED decision on specific topics?
Well, yes, that is true.
Which is why it does NOT happen this way. Allowing students to see all information and make their own decision prevents leftists from indoctrinating. Anything that opposes this indoctrination is shouted down. Witness what happens when a conservative is invited to speak at universities around the country. Often students shout down the speaker so those with an open mind can't hear what's being said. Often leftists throw things at conservative speakers. Students protest when a conservative is invited to speak. And there are even videos showing faculty/staff/professors violating the 1st Amendment and claiming that somehow it applies to themselves but NOT to those who don't share THEIR specific socialist agenda.
And what's the worst part of current university life? 'Free speech zones'. This nation was founded on the principle of free speech. Yet, for some reason, university life requires that zones be set up where people can express their opinion. But, then, even in free speech zones, speech is limited to what the PC police find acceptable.
It may be that George Leef is not PC. It may be the Washington Examiner is also not PC. But what good has PC done for anyone? Which college graduate comes out of their experience with a better understanding of life, a better idea of allowing or hearing opposing opinions, or is even open to FACTS?! When libs can't provide facts to support their agenda, they prevent opposing views. The local news rag, the N&D, normally presents a single side. When the democrat announced he was running for governor, stating his intention to take us back to the failed policies of prior democrat pols, the N&D wasted no time in endorsing him. No meat in the speech. Not much beside old, tired, used, failed, socialist policies stated in his speech, but the N&D editorial team jumped in celebration of his announcement. Any analysis of how these failed policies would HELP move the state forward? Nope. Just continued stories about why Pat is the wrong person for governor. No lib should ever be challenged, at least according to universities and the N&D rag!
