Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), a name that will live in infamy. This is the man progressives are currently emulating.
Wikimedia Commons / Library of Congress (United Press)

Almost 70 years ago,  a senator from the state of Wisconsin, Joseph “Joe” McCarthy, used the very real threat of communism to ruin the careers and reputations of innocent individuals. In so doing, he added the term “McCarthyism” to the general political lexicon, which today means the use of demagogic, reckless, exceptional and harsh false accusations to silence and repress an individual and his/her ideas.

The Shame of American Colleges and Universities

This morning Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal called the violence of Middlebury College students in silencing Charles Murray what it was: McCarthyism. Even more shameful for American colleges and universities, he observes that American campuses “have been in the grip of a creeping McCarthyism for years.”

It is no secret that many (probably most) American institutions of higher learning have come under the control of progressives, and that they have been actively using these institutions to repress and delegitimize neoliberal (aka conservative) thought. I personally experienced this fact when I went back to graduate school after coming back from Vietnam. Progressives have also been using this control to indoctrinate American students into the mysteries of progressive thought. This is a sad fact not just in the United States, but in Europe as well.

The election victory of Donald Trump has ignited the fury of academic progressives and progressives in general to violence, not seen at this level since the Vietnam War, on any nonbelievers in the one true faith of progressivism. The evidence for this is easily provided by pointing out all the destructive riots and demonstrations immediately following Trump’s election.

The traditional ideal for universities over the centuries has been they were supposed to be havens for free thought, with all sides of any intellectual argument free to contend in the marketplace of ideas. More than any other kind of possible diversity, universities and colleges were to be homes for ideological diversity. Instead, they have become propaganda organs for progressivism in general and for the Democratic party in particular.

Anything as quaint as freedom of speech cannot be tolerated on today’s campuses, especially if that speech were seriously to challenge fundamental progressive beliefs. Indeed, one progressive tactic to limit non-progressive challenges to college students is to assert students are sensitive, innocent “snowflakes” that might melt on being exposed to ideas contrary to their progressive indoctrination.

The violence of the Middlebury students to prevent the expression of Charles Murray’s neoliberal ideas is only the latest and most extreme example of a great many we have heard over the years. In the case of Middlebury, consider the Fox News discussion in the video below.

And what were Murray’s ideas that student demonstrators considered so obnoxious? Hear them from Murray himself in the video below.

Did you hear any racist, misogynst, nondemocratic, or xenophobic ideas or expressions? Not at all, but you did hear a great deal about a growing disconnect between the nation’s elites and ordinary people, ideas backed with facts.

Other examples of speakers forced to be silent by progressive demonstrations are neoliberal political commentator Ben Shapiro (disinvited by California State University at Los Angeles),  Israeli TV and radio analyst Basseem Eid (University of Chicago), CIA Director John Brennan (University of Pennsylvania), Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley (Virginia Tech), author and social critic Suzanne Venker (Williams College), neoliberal writer Milo Yiannopoulos (UC Berkeley), among many others. The seemingly blanket ban on any non-progressive speaker has become so noticeable and undeniable, even left-leaning newspapers are forced to take notice.

In his WSJ opinion-piece, Daniel Henninger noted the on-campus progressive monster is even beginning to consume its own, just like the French Revolution. Yale University professor Erika Christakis wrote an email to her students on October 30, 2015 critiquing a Silliman college-wide request to be careful not to wear “culturally insensitive Halloween costumes.” Christakis in her own words in a Washington Post editorial writes

I had hoped to generate a reflective conversation among students: What happens when one person’s offense is another person’s pride? Should a costume-wearer’s intent or context matter? Can we always tell the difference between a mocking costume and one that satirizes ignorance? In what circumstances should we allow — or punish — youthful transgression?

“I don’t wish to trivialize genuine concerns about cultural and personal representation,” I wrote, in part. “I know that many decent people have proposed guidelines on Halloween costumes from a spirit of avoiding hurt and offense. I laud those goals, in theory, as most of us do. But in practice, I wonder if we should reflect more transparently, as a community, on the consequences of an institutional (which is to say: bureaucratic and administrative) exercise of implied control over college students.”

The very unprogressive, non-politically correct character of her email outraged many students into demonstrations that forced Erika Christakis from both her teaching position and her administrative role as associate head of Yale University’s Silliman College. As it turns out, the Yale Jacobins cost the university more than just the services of Erika Christi, but those of her husband Nicholas Cristakis, the administrative head of Silliman college, as well. If progressive intolerance for all opinions and ideologies not progressive is that great, how long will it be before they start burning offenders at the stake for being the followers of Satan?

Why Are American Institutions Not Defending Free Speech?

And where oh where are the American institutions  that used to protect free speech? Where are the arrests of those at Middlebury who physically assaulted Prof. Allison Stanger and Dr. Charles Murray? Where are the college faculty who prize free inquiry and freedom of thought over an ideological straitjacket? Perhaps state governments and alumni of private universities should consider defunding colleges and universities if they do not show progress toward more ideological diversity in their faculty. At a bare minimum they should show progress toward a lot more ideological tolerance. After all, why should we subsidize institutions whose only purpose seems to be to indoctrinate our children into the single religion called progressivism?

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