Was the Current Madness Birthed in the University? By Victor Davis Hanson

[mystery-ak]

Was the Current Madness Birthed in the University? › American Greatness
Victor Davis Hanson

America is currently sick.

The young conservative organizer and media personality Charlie Kirk was just murdered in a political assassination by a 22-year-old ‘anti-fascist’ and trans advocate, Tyler Robinson. As planned, he eliminated the most astute and successful political activist in a generation. Indeed, Kirk may well have ensured that Donald Trump won the 2024 election by not just increasing his youth vote by 6 percent since 2020 but, more importantly, by margins in the swing states of 15-24 percent, ensuring Trump’s victory.

No sooner was he killed than thousands on left-wing social media erupted in celebration—among them scores of teachers and professors. Their venom was eerily reminiscent of their earlier canonization of left-wing murderer Luigi Mangione. Recall, Mangione was the spoiled nepo baby who lethally ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thereby, he became an icon to the Left as a social justice warrior fighting the evil capitalist system, which had so enriched himself and his own family.

Such utter moral bankruptcy was on display as well by the social media praise of Palestinian activist Elias Rodriguez (“Free Palestine”), after he brutally murdered a young Jewish couple at the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Rodriguez supposedly showed the world how to deal with Zionists—reifying the hateful rhetoric that pervades the modern campus.

Was that ghoulishness confined to such anonymous left-wing nuts and fringe trolls?

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https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/15/was-the-current-madness-birthed-in-the-university/

[Bigun]

Was the Current Madness Birthed in the University?

Actually I think it goes back to the 1850s with universities as its prime promoters.

[mountaineer]

Children wouldn't be so open to the pervasive leftist indoctrination at college if they hadn't been softened up by teachers' union drones K-12 and, I suspect, by parents who neglected their civic and religious education.

[The_Reader_David]

Children wouldn't be so open to the pervasive leftist indoctrination at college if they hadn't been softened up by teachers' union drones K-12 and, I suspect, by parents who neglected their civic and religious education.

But the real rot in K-12 education comes from the universities as well.  The College of Education is always among the most left-leaning parts of any university that has one.  Only departments with names of the from [Affirmative-Action Beneficiary Group] Studies, and the Office of Student Life typically house more looney-left barking moonbats.  One of the best things ever GOP-controlled state legislature could do is pass "right to teach" laws that allow anyone with a relevant subject degree to teach middle school and high school, and anyone with a bachelor's degree who has taken courses on teaching reading via phonics and teaching arthimetic by the old rote-memorization of facts and drill in algorithms method to teach grade school.  Breaking the College of Ed monopolies is at least as important as breaking the teachers' unions.

[andy58-in-nh]

Actually I think it goes back to the 1850s with universities as its prime promoters.

The antecedents may be traced back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Revolution in the 18th Century, as a rejection of the philosophical and political underpinnings of the Enlightenment.

Then, of course there were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century and the rise of Communism (Das Kapital was published in 1848).

But what really kick-started the fundamental change to the classical "mission of the university" was the Progressive movement which took root in the United States in the 1890s, as represented by such people as Susan B. Anthony, John Dewey, and Upton Sinclair. 

[DefiantMassRINO]

Education and Government are two sectors of the economy that can thrive while devoid of reason, rationalism, and accountability.  They are a Safe Space for The Stupid and The Nonsense.

[DB]

That was one of his best essays.

[Bigun]

The antecedents may be traced back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Revolution in the 18th Century, as a rejection of the philosophical and political underpinnings of the Enlightenment.

Then, of course there were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century and the rise of Communism (Das Kapital was published in 1848).

But what really kick-started the fundamental change to the classical "mission of the university" was the Progressive movement which took root in the United States in the 1890s, as represented by such people as Susan B. Anthony, John Dewey, and Upton Sinclair.

Agreed!

[Bigun]

But the real rot in K-12 education comes from the universities as well.  The College of Education is always among the most left-leaning parts of any university that has one.  Only departments with names of the from [Affirmative-Action Beneficiary Group] Studies, and the Office of Student Life typically house more looney-left barking moonbats.  One of the best things ever GOP-controlled state legislature could do is pass "right to teach" laws that allow anyone with a relevant subject degree to teach middle school and high school, and anyone with a bachelor's degree who has taken courses on teaching reading via phonics and teaching arthimetic by the old rote-memorization of facts and drill in algorithms method to teach grade school.  Breaking the College of Ed monopolies is at least as important as breaking the teachers' unions.

"Colleges of education represent the slums of any university."

Dr. Walter Williams

[mountaineer]

But the real rot in K-12 education comes from the universities as well.  The College of Education is always among the most left-leaning parts of any university that has one. 

Absolutely true.

[Fishrrman]

I've said this before.

Close the universities.
That means just about ALL of them. Public and private. Shut them down.
The only exceptions being STEM (and take a critical look at those that remain open).
Use the campuses for low-income housing and sheltering the homeless.
Convert others to prisons.

Fire the administations.
Fire the faculty (tenure don' matter no mo', profs... you're FIRED).
Send the students home, with the admonishment to get a real job.
Gonna need folks to mow lawns and play Mexican bagpipes after the real Mexicans have been sent home.

You folks probably think I'm kidding about this.
Think again.

[mountaineer]

We still need people to be educated at the college level in English, History, Chemistry, Biology. We need scientists, engineers, accountants, architects, teachers, medical professionals, etc.

It's just the stupid, illegitimate, made-up ultra-woke courses of study that need to go, like women's and gender studies, sustainability, "Literature of Love, Sex, and Gender," "Black Consciousness," "Knowledge, Power and Desire," "French Kiss: Love, Sex, France," and "The Politics of Diversity." Enough, already. (What I've put in quotation marks are actual courses taught at Pitt and WVU).

[Bigun]

We still need people to be educated at the college level in English, History, Chemistry, Biology. We need scientists, engineers, accountants, architects, teachers, medical professionals, etc.

It's just the stupid, illegitimate, made-up ultra-woke courses of study that need to go, like women's and gender studies, sustainability, "Literature of Love, Sex, and Gender," "Black Consciousness," "Knowledge, Power and Desire," "French Kiss: Love, Sex, France," and "The Politics of Diversity." Enough, already. (What I've put in quotation marks are actual courses taught at Pitt and WVU).

 

[DB]

We still need people to be educated at the college level in English, History, Chemistry, Biology. We need scientists, engineers, accountants, architects, teachers, medical professionals, etc.

It's just the stupid, illegitimate, made-up ultra-woke courses of study that need to go, like women's and gender studies, sustainability, "Literature of Love, Sex, and Gender," "Black Consciousness," "Knowledge, Power and Desire," "French Kiss: Love, Sex, France," and "The Politics of Diversity." Enough, already. (What I've put in quotation marks are actual courses taught at Pitt and WVU).

They cater to their customers... The bottom line is many of these schools are there to make a buck... It has zip to do with any sort of real-world practicality.

[Bigun]

They cater to their customers... The bottom line is many of these schools are there to make a buck... It has zip to do with any sort of real-world practicality.

  

[berdie]

But the real rot in K-12 education comes from the universities as well.  The College of Education is always among the most left-leaning parts of any university that has one.  Only departments with names of the from [Affirmative-Action Beneficiary Group] Studies, and the Office of Student Life typically house more looney-left barking moonbats.  One of the best things ever GOP-controlled state legislature could do is pass "right to teach" laws that allow anyone with a relevant subject degree to teach middle school and high school, and anyone with a bachelor's degree who has taken courses on teaching reading via phonics and teaching arthimetic by the old rote-memorization of facts and drill in algorithms method to teach grade school.  Breaking the College of Ed monopolies is at least as important as breaking the teachers' unions.

Great post!