Thanks for this reflection. I am currently a grad student at an elite university. I have read the books by Yasha Mounk and Susan Neiman. I am witnessing in real time, the critical theory/decolonization language and ideology permeate EVERYTHING. I am participating in the self censorship of pushing back. The rhetoric and its anti-progressive effects are crystal clear. Yet, the way to effectively dig ourselves out of this hole without becoming a pariah are not so obvious.
Yale is a notoriously bad place. Yale is where a speech with the title “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind” was given. While giving her ‘speech’ she fantasied about shooting innocent white people and feeling good about it.
The following is from her speech.
“I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a fucking favor. (Time stamp: 7:17)”
She was actually mad that Yale didn’t give her the video of the speech.
Sadly, Yale has a record of tolerating (rewarding) extreme racism, as long as it is PC. Yale actually gave an award (the Nakanishi Prize) to a racist student (Alexandra Zina Barlowe) who (with help) mobbed a Yale professor (Nicholas Christakis).
The author mentions Yeonmi Park. Good call. Columbia is a hard-core bastion of ‘woke’ craziness.
"I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think," Park told Fox News. "I realized, 'Wow, this is insane.' I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying."
“Even North Korea is not this nuts. North Korea is pretty crazy, but not this crazy," she added.
What are our elite universities preparing their graduates to do after graduation? The economy is global so that graduates are not only competing against fellow graduates of elite universities, but also against graduates of universities worldwide. Back when I was a hiring manager for people with engineering and science degrees, we avoiding recruiting from elite universities because the graduates were not willing, or perhaps able, to do the everyday work that goes into running a successful, global business.
“Erika was asked by some of the protesters to announce when she was going into the dining hall so that students wouldn’t be triggered.”
I’m curious to know more about this statement. Because any administrators, faculty, or students who in any way promoted such a request have deeply discredited their institution.
An analogous account of the experience of an Ivy League student from an "oppressed" class with social justice warriors who don't know what they are talking about is Ben Appel's, in his case, that of a gay man who grew up as a very effeminate boy in a fundamentalist religious sect attending Columbia as an adult and as a volunteer in an organization supposedly advancing civil rights of gay people. One interview can be found here: https://juliebindel.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-ben-appel#details (There are several available on the web but the others I knew were all paywalled.)
Thanks for this reflection. I am currently a grad student at an elite university. I have read the books by Yasha Mounk and Susan Neiman. I am witnessing in real time, the critical theory/decolonization language and ideology permeate EVERYTHING. I am participating in the self censorship of pushing back. The rhetoric and its anti-progressive effects are crystal clear. Yet, the way to effectively dig ourselves out of this hole without becoming a pariah are not so obvious.
We need mass rejection. Same with the Transgender nonsense.
Yale is a notoriously bad place. Yale is where a speech with the title “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind” was given. While giving her ‘speech’ she fantasied about shooting innocent white people and feeling good about it.
The following is from her speech.
“I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a fucking favor. (Time stamp: 7:17)”
She was actually mad that Yale didn’t give her the video of the speech.
Sadly, Yale has a record of tolerating (rewarding) extreme racism, as long as it is PC. Yale actually gave an award (the Nakanishi Prize) to a racist student (Alexandra Zina Barlowe) who (with help) mobbed a Yale professor (Nicholas Christakis).
The author mentions Yeonmi Park. Good call. Columbia is a hard-core bastion of ‘woke’ craziness.
See “A North Korean defector says going to Columbia University reminded her of the oppressive regime, saying she felt forced to 'think the way they want you to think'” (https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-defector-says-columbia-university-reminded-her-kim-regime-2021-6)
"I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think," Park told Fox News. "I realized, 'Wow, this is insane.' I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying."
“Even North Korea is not this nuts. North Korea is pretty crazy, but not this crazy," she added.
If White people were truly psychopaths, these people would not be freely spouting this nonsense.
What are our elite universities preparing their graduates to do after graduation? The economy is global so that graduates are not only competing against fellow graduates of elite universities, but also against graduates of universities worldwide. Back when I was a hiring manager for people with engineering and science degrees, we avoiding recruiting from elite universities because the graduates were not willing, or perhaps able, to do the everyday work that goes into running a successful, global business.
avoided not avoiding, my mistake.
“Erika was asked by some of the protesters to announce when she was going into the dining hall so that students wouldn’t be triggered.”
I’m curious to know more about this statement. Because any administrators, faculty, or students who in any way promoted such a request have deeply discredited their institution.
An analogous account of the experience of an Ivy League student from an "oppressed" class with social justice warriors who don't know what they are talking about is Ben Appel's, in his case, that of a gay man who grew up as a very effeminate boy in a fundamentalist religious sect attending Columbia as an adult and as a volunteer in an organization supposedly advancing civil rights of gay people. One interview can be found here: https://juliebindel.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-ben-appel#details (There are several available on the web but the others I knew were all paywalled.)