Campus anti-Semitism may herald the end of leftist control of American universities

The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

A decades-long campaign has given the far left virtual control over academia. Just 20 years ago, I did not believe that our institutions of higher learning had become “left-wing fringes”, but I was wrong.

Our education system has become a nursery for the Left. All they want to do is brainwash students to imitate the dogmatic ideology of the Left. Today's college student is not taught to think. “The assumption seems to be,” said former Yale University President Benno Schmidt, “that the purpose of education is to induce right opinion rather than to seek wisdom and free the mind.”

I am appalled not only by what is happening on campuses, but by what the future holds. “Give me four years to teach the children,” said Lenin, “and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

A friend of mine who is a professor at a well-known university confessed to me that he has to keep his mouth shut because so few of his colleagues share his conservative outlook. One study found Democrats to Republicans in journalism departments at 1,500 universities by a 20-1 margin, and a whopping 33.5-1 in history departments.

“The next time you hear a college president brag about the diversity of his university,” said Walter E. Williams, a former economics professor at George Mason University, “ask him how many Republican professors there are in journalism , psychology, English and sociology departments”.

when did this happen How did the campuses become service points of the Left? The great ideological shift probably began as a byproduct of the hysteria against the Vietnam War. According to Ben Shapiro a bulliesuniversity administrators decided in the 1960s that it was “easier to appease rampant left-wing students than to deal with them. They made a deal with the wild beasts: Stop taking over the buildings and lock the doors, and we're going to start teaching you how shitty America is.”

Gradually this translated into leftist thinking becoming a prerequisite for employment. Many campuses require new professors to sign a “diversity statement” where they are forced to pledge allegiance to the university's leftist agenda. “What diversity oaths seek,” said Professor Williams, “is to maintain political conformity among faculty by indoctrinating our impressionable and intellectually immature youth. The last thing diversity fans want is diversity of 'ideas'.

One of the left's destructive agendas on campus has been white bashing. Minority students are encouraged to demand power based solely on race, gender or sexual orientation, Scott Greer told There is no campus for white men. It's a kind of identity politics, he says, “which is increasingly bordering on unabashed hatred of white people.”

After the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, hatred against whites transformed into hatred of Jews. “After October 7, the public was shocked by what it saw and heard on American campuses,” Victor Davis Hanson wrote in town hall. “Americans previously knew they were bigoted, leftist, and increasingly non-meritocratic. But immediately after October 7, pure student delight at the news of the mass killing of Israeli victims seemed more like Germany of the 1930s than in contemporary America.”

“Jewish students are currently stereotyped as 'white' and 'privileged,'” Hanson said, “and therefore considered fair game on campus. At the same time, the number of foreign students in the The oil-rich Middle East has soared on campuses.” Hanson points out that former victims – black, Latino, feminist, queer, trans, etc. – have received “a blank check to engage in racist and anti-Semitic behavior without consequences.”

Last week an amazing event took place at a congressional hearing. The elite presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn were questioned by Rep. Elise Stefanik, who harshly criticized them for allowing the harassment of Jewish students on their respective campuses. Stefanik asked each of them whether calling for the genocide of Jews would result in students being punished under their schools' codes of conduct.

All three presidents tried to avoid it question and refused to unequivocally condemn calls for the genocide of the Jews. None of them said that calling to kill Jews would necessarily violate their school's code of conduct. They said it would depend on “context” – the circumstances and conduct of the offending students.

“Is that your testimony today?” Stefanik said. “Calling for the genocide of the Jews depends on the context? Isn't that bullying or harassment? That's the easiest question to answer yes.”

Stefanik asked Harvard President Claudine Gay whether the Ivy League school would punish students or applicants who say “from the river to the sea” or “intifada.” “Do you think this kind of hate speech is against Harvard's code of conduct or is it allowed at Harvard?” Gay's response was, “It is at odds with Harvard's value, but … we accept the commitment to the free expression of even objectionable, offensive, hateful viewpoints.” The same response has not occurred when black or trans students have been bullied, but obviously a different standard is being applied when Jews are bullied. You can be fired as a teacher or expelled as a student if you misgender a trans person or question the DEI philosophy, but calling to kill Jews is acceptable.

All three presidents have been criticized by business leaders, donors and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a post to X that he was “ashamed” to hear the testimony, calling it “one of the most despicable moments in the history of American academia.” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called Penn President Liz Magill's comments “unacceptable” and “disgraceful.” A billionaire donor rescinded a $100 million gift to UPenn. Magill later resigned as president.

The outbreak of anti-Semitism on campus, along with offensive comments from three university presidents, may become the catalyst for establishing ideological diversity in academia. As donors rethink their gifts, universities will be forced to clean up their act. There's nothing like purse power. The government is also responding: 14 schools are now under investigation by the Department for Education.

Universities are coming under fire for requiring new hires to sign a diversity statement. Texas Tech University, for example, is overhauling its hiring processes after a conservative education advocacy group criticized how the university's biology department rates applicants' commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion .

The public's perception of elite universities has undergone a dramatic change. “At the current rate,” said Mark Victor Hanson, “a law degree from Stanford, a degree in political science from Harvard, or a degree in social science from Yale will soon scare away employers and the general public. These certificates will not mean a evidence of humility, knowledge, and decency, but rather undeserved self-importance, emptiness, and bigotry, and all these are to be avoided rather than courted.”

Many parents question the advisability of sending their children to a four-year college. Universities with a severe anti-conservative bent will be under increasing pressure to diversify their faculties if they hope to survive public condemnation. They are in danger of disappearing altogether. Maybe it's not such a bad idea.

Ed Brodow is a conservative political commentator and author of ten books, including the #1 Amazon Best Seller WHITE WAR: How hating white people became the new national sport. Their website is www.edbrodowpolitics.com.

Ed Brodowis a conservative political commentator and author of THE WAR ON WHITE: How Hating White People Become the New National Sport.

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