Ben Shapiro’s talk, video of which is here, was on what happens when “diversity” ideology and leftist censoriousness stifle free speech and intellectual pluralism. An irony that may have escaped the protesting students, who were busy feeling pleased with themselves while threatening violence if the talk didn’t stop and drawing swastikas on the face of a Jewish visitor.
higher education is not very high these days. it seems the goal is to becomes as stupid as possible.
Great speech by Ben. Brilliant mind.
Non-leftist Jew is an acceptable targeted villain, like white male. Hate on.
Our universities these days are becoming Komsomnol breeding grounds.
It’s not diversity – it’s deworseification.
If any middle school teacher pulled that crap on my 12yo kid … she would either be suspended and fired within 48 hours, or my kid would be enrolled in Catholic school within the same time frame.
It’s part of the failure to teach critical thinking in modern universities.
“Diversity” means people of all backgrounds, body types, and skin tones who all think identically. It doesn’t mean that we should be elitist regarding ideas but egalitarian regarding individuals or that you should tolerate those with whom you disagree. “Tolerance” now means the active silencing of anyone who disagrees with your group. “Multiculturalism” means that all other cultures must follow the core tenets of my culture and then they must be treated as equal. Much like the recently graduated engineer I talked with last month who felt that multiculturalism was great, because he thought that that meant that all cultures had to agree with him that each individual gets to make their own choices and have the same slate to choose from. When confronted with the idea that some cultures would grant him a lesser status on the basis of his skin colour and beliefs his initial response was disbelief that anyone could think that way. When he finally did admit that his culture was superior because of its egalitarian outlook (in his view, because he was really quite a fascist) he looked pleased at this proof of his own superiority, that it was good that someone else could point out how much better he was than he thought he was.
Another part of my discussion with the recent student was when I challenged him on his repeating how Trump is a huge bigot. I asked him to back up his words. After several false starts “He wants to block Islamic immigration!” (which lead me to ask if he knew the difference between “race” and “culture”, and lead to the slavery discussion quoted in an earlier post), “Have you seen the people that go to his rallies? His supporters start fights with protestors!” and other inanities, he finally agreed that he had no proof that Trump had ever said or done anything racist, but he still firmly believed Trump was a racist and couldn’t be swayed from that belief. Facts, like the outcome of every time his pet ideas have been put into practice, need not apply.
In addition to the use of 1984 as a guide, Animal Farm is being used as a how-to guide again. Refresh my memory, protesters, How does that end for the animals?
Cause célèbre is at peak silliness for these brainless attention junkies, where in order to be noticed you must display unconscionable behaviour and supreme counter-intuitiveness.
Lefties can’t stand others’ intolerance. They really hate that, so therefore give themselves the right to shout down opposing viewpoints. It’s the fruition of the dumb down PC conditioning of our children; common sense is now a superpower. IOW same day different double standard.
Millenials haven’t a clue what an actual racist looks like, Robert Byrd has been dead for years. Not having endured the Chretien era, they want to find out for themselves what bad government really looks like, having only experienced good government from Stephen Harper, then projecting the failures of progressive politics on him, their change now much more of their excesses, without need for accountability.
It’s a proven strategy. Trudeau could divide his cabinet, dictate to members, “fire” Senators, lose their minds over a boy on a beach, the victim of his father’s criminality, and inflame an inconsequential niqab issue (remember that was their fault); but Conservatives appeal to peoples’ worst instincts. Classic projection. He divides, his opponents are divisive.
That’s mainly because libertarians and conservatives let him and them, with occasional breaks to fix the fiscal mess statists always leave behind.
“How does that end for the animals?” Much the same way it ended for many of my extended family in the utopian Soviet Union.
Great comment btw.
Thanks Ken.
My great grandfather was fortunate enough to survive the Tsar’s POW camps (WWI) and brought the whole family over to Canada as soon as he could. My grandma kept in correspondence with some cousins in the old country, and despite the black ink of the censors she knew that things were bad by some of the comments.
In one letter she recalled, one of the few lines that survived the censors was “The rivers are full of fish”. The censors, not knowing that the second half of the line was “while we starve on shore because we have no boat”, let that pass. The modern censors in the universities are equally ignorant of the context of much that they seek to ban, or permit.
Those who will not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. So I make sure my kids are getting a more thorough version of history, and consequences of choices, than their school teaches.
C. Miner: “It’s part of the failure to teach critical thinking in modern universities.”
Yes, instead they teach critical theory, an offshoot of the failures of communism/socialism that simply looks only at “western” causes of discord and strife in the world. Much like their watermelon cousins, they look only for human/western input, so their conclusions should be unsurprising, in spite of overwhelming, but conveniently ignored evidence to the contrary.
We’re asked to suspend our common sense – that terrorists planning an apocalyptic war for which they are but a nuke or two away, is not an existential threat, no we’re not at war with them because we’re not at war with Islam. How comforting. We’re to believe the real threat, for which PC prescribed fear is quite appropriate, is our temperature changing .5C in the last 70 years is what we must “fight.” and pay, and yes, die. Just ask the Africans.
What should we expect when radicals are moderates, when identity politicians aren’t race baiters, when ever expanding government is a minimum requirement and a birthright to the nation? Look at our kids’ sources, media and the internet.
CAGW belief and terrorism do share some characteristics. Our so-called leadership is spouting off and collecting taxes while doing nothing to combat the threat. They also elicit, amongst staggering ignorance and hypocrisy that only racist yahoos (angry white men – AWG!!) don’t believe the former whose racism guides them solely on the latter.
Yes, the arrogance of the ignorant (hey Mildred this guy doesn’t believe in global warming ho ho ho) is something to behold. The few that actually listen are quite easy to turn. The trick is to get to the real meaning of what they’re saying, such as “they’re all crooks,” the one they used to ultimately get Harper. I now clarify, “do you mean politicians looking after themselves and crony capitalists,” and receive agreement to that idea. This is instructive to the Conservatives setting up their vision going forward, or at least is should be.