Why Academia Is Doomed

For long-time readers of mine, it should come as no surprise that I’m not a fan of academia. While I value education a great deal, I don’t have a lot of respect for those who spend their lives using roles in education to indoctrinate people, and that’s a lot of people in academia in this day and age.

When my son was attending a university, he told me about the political views of several of his professors. One was a somewhat radical feminist—that was obvious based on the way she taught her US history class—while his English professor was an avowed communist.

Yeah, people know my political views, but I get paid to share those views with others. They kind of have to know what those views are at some point in time.

But while one could argue that I spread propaganda and try to indoctrinate people, they’d be wrong. I share my opinions and I do it with an audience that is at least interested in what people think. No one has to sit through any of my writing in order to get a degree and move on with their life.

So yeah, I have issues with academia, and this story at Campus Reform sure as hell ain’t helping.

Faculty members are pushing back against Arizona State University for charging Code of Conduct violations against the female students who attempted to kick out two White men from the school’s Multicultural Community of Excellence Center earlier this year. 

Campus Reform obtained a copy of the email asking faculty and staff to sign an “internal letter requesting that the University Administration revoke Code of Conduct violation charges against” the students behind the now viral video from September.

Leah Sarat, an associate professor of Religious Studies, sent the mass email, which was co-signed by 11 other individuals, on Nov. 2. 

…

One of the recipients of Sarat’s email told Campus Reform, "I vehemently object to the [School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies] email list being used as a platform from which to advocate an agenda.”

The ASU employee, who requested anonymity, added, “I am very concerned about the potential for SHPRS faculty and staff intimidation and/or retaliation against members who do not sign this 'letter of defense.'”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why academia is doomed.

Employees at a university are being pressured to sign a letter in support of two students who made asses of themselves and tried to kick two other students out of a space because they held the wrong views.

They’re not really even trying to hide it, either. The letter notes that the two white students had “symbols” that included things like “Police Lives Matter sticker, a Chik-fil-A cup, and a shirt with the slogan ‘Did not vote for Biden’” and were supposedly linked to systemic racism.

Which is really just a way to claim the two black female students were justified without opening yourself up to libel lawsuits should the two white male students find out about it.

I don’t think it’ll work.

But things like Police Lives Matter stickers and Chic-fil-A cups and shirts with slogans that show a lack of support for Biden aren’t racist. If they’re anything, they’re indicative of a conservative worldview, which is supposed to be protected under the First Amendment.

These two students may well have been trolling. They may have grabbed everything they could think of to trigger someone and then walked into that multicultural building hoping for a confrontation. I don’t think so, but it’s possible.

Guess what, though? That isn’t against the rules. No one had to rise to the bait, and yet they did. That’s on them.

Rather than see this as a teachable moment, though, faculty at Arizona State University are looking to shield students from the consequences of their actions. Would they have felt the same if a couple of white students got aggressive over a black student wearing a Che shirt with a Black Lives Matter sticker and eating Ben and Jerry’s?

We all know that they wouldn’t have.

The idea of intellectual integrity is gone from our institutions of higher learning. Instead, it’s only about the leftist narrative.

Unfortunately, as we’re starting to see, there’s a bit of a pushback against that sort of thing. It’s limited, but more and more people are flocking toward non-woke entertainment. People are starting to look to the trades as an option after high school. Folks are backing laws restricting some of the leftist indoctrination on our school campuses.

So yeah, academia is doomed.

The problem is, they won’t realize it for years and years to come. They’re insulated from the realities of their rhetoric because they live in a system where that rhetoric is rewarded.

Eventually, though, the source for the rewards will dry up. They’ll evaporate and then academia will scream for help. They’ll tell us all about how important they are and how we need them.

The problem is, they’ll be about the only people who believe it, and that help simply won’t come.

I just hope I’m alive to see it.