Higher education is brainwashing your children!
And other right-wing lies.
I can so clearly remember the time I came out to my Dad as a leftist. He was so disappointed. The poor guy saw his perfect little girl turn to dust and fall through his fingers. At the time, he was still under the impression that I was a liberal. I think he was even deluding himself into thinking I would somehow wake up one day and decide to be conservative.
He began seeing me shift further left when I got to high school and started thinking for myself. He definitely didn’t like that, but what conservative parent would? I was growing up and developing my own belief system that was almost entirely different from the one he raised me to have. I get why that can be damaging. I’m a Disappointment. I used to be the little girl who ran around in my princess dresses and a coloring book in my hand, and now I’m suddenly running around spewing fabricated left-wing bullshit like “love thy neighbor,” “women should get to decide what to do with their own bodies,” and “everyone should be entitled to healthcare.” I get it. I really do. That’s a lot of radicalism to handle.
I love my dad. I truly do. We have a lot of shared interests, great memories, and have a closer relationship than a lot of dads and daughters do. He never missed a softball game, a Daddy-Daughter Dance, or important milestone. He used to come eat lunch with me in elementary school and sign me out for lunch twice a month in middle school. He’s funny, caring, hard-working, and passionate about his family and the people he loves. I love my dad, but it’s no secret to anyone that we don’t see eye to eye on politics. It certainly makes for some interesting dinner conversations and text threads. I’m trying to cut back on having political conversations with him, though, so we can try to avoid conversations like the time I came out to him as a leftist.
I’d spent about half a semester at Loyola Chicago and decided to come home for the weekend. He was nice enough to pick me up at the train station, but I’d been working on a discussion post for my History of Western Civilization class over what I think was either the French Revolution or Irish Nationalism, so my mind was already on history and politics. I’m not entirely sure about how it came up, but I remember shifting in the passenger seat and saying “Dad I have to tell you something…I’m a democratic socialist.” I’m honestly surprised that he didn’t pull the car over right then and tell me to find my own way home or get on the next Metra back to Chicago.
He looked over at me with a smile on his face—probably under the assumption that I was just joking—but that smile quickly turned to a face of pure terror. “You don’t know anything about the economy. You have no life experience or financial responsibility,” he said. I’ve since heard this argument countless times from every conservative person that I know. Conservatives tend to think that young liberals, leftists, and comrades will shift to the center or right of the political spectrum as we grow up. The reality is that I’ve shifted further left as I’ve grown and experienced the “real” world. I don’t see that changing.
The main problem here is that my Coming Out cemented this idea he had in his head that higher education institutions (and public grade schools for the matter) are indoctrinating, brainwashing, and forcing kids to become radical leftists. This, unfortunately, is nowhere near even the tiniest whisper of the truth. I’m not a leftist because my professors taught or forced me to be. I’m a leftist because my professors taught me history, literature, rhetoric, research, writing, psychology, sociology, and overarching critical thinking skills. I think that I would be a leftist even without my education simply because of the empathy and understanding that I have for people.
So, needless to say, I guess it’s possible that higher education is radicalizing your children, but it’s only doing so by teaching young adults to think for themselves, research, and form their own opinions and ideologies on the past, present, and future. In my four years of college, I never once had a professor tell me “You should believe this about the world because my colleagues and I do.” It was only ever “here is what this study or this book or this person says about this. Read it, use your critical thinking skills, and form your own opinion on it. If you need help making sense of it, I’m here to discuss it or answer any questions you have.” To think that anything else is happening in most classrooms is entirely deluded, naive, and just plain embarrassing.
I can also almost certainly guarantee that no student is being thrown out of the classroom or failed simply for having conservative views. If there are any students with this experience, I promise you that it’s incredibly uncommon. I’ve seen students removed or told off for spewing hate speech, but most of the conversations my professors, classmates, and I had with conservative students were entirely peaceful and relatively productive.
All of this is to say that many “normal” civilians on the right, aka Facebook Republicans, are calling for right-wing politicians to attack higher education without really even knowing what’s happening inside the classroom. How is that fair? Higher education institutions are currently facing funding cuts, public pressures, and legislative challenges at both the state and federal level not because the GOP believes that colleges and universities are indoctrinating and brainwashing young Americans, but because they know that they’re teaching young Americans critical thinking skills. Here is where the problem lies for the Republican Party: most intelligent, empathetic, educated people do not subscribe to their harmful ideology and propaganda pushes. President Trump himself said “smart people don't like me, you know? And they don't like what we talk about.” (At least he’s self aware!)
He was, of course, referencing reports about Tyler Robinson, the alleged assassin of conservative “activist” Charlie Kirk. The right-wing media claims that Robinson was radicalized after he went to college, and that’s why he decided to shoot and kill Charlie Kirk. Robinson spent one semester at Utah State University back in 2021. I’m not sure how much you, dear reader, know about Utah culture or higher education in Utah, but Utah State is generally considered to be in the top 10 most conservative colleges in the country alongside schools like Brigham Young, Cedarville, Bob Jones, and Liberty. I really don’t know how radicalized a boy from a gun-loving, highly conservative, Evangelical family could get at Utah State. Sure, it’s certainly possible that Robinson is a liberal or even a leftist, but, if he is, I’m not sure that it happened because he stepped foot on campus at Utah State. All of that is besides the point, though; I’m mentally exhausted from trying to decipher the political leanings and backgrounds of all of the American assassins and school shooters just from this year alone. I’m not an investigative journalist. People don’t care what I have to say about Tyler Robinson, his political views, or if his roommate/maybe romantic partner was possibly transgender.
The higher ups in the Republican Party aren’t scared that higher education institutions are indoctrinating students; they’re scared that students are being taught to think freely. People with college educations are far less likely to fall for fascist rhetoric, misinformation, and propaganda because we’re taught deductive reasoning, critical thinking, media literacy, and research skills. So, no, the scary part of education isn’t indoctrination or brainwashing; it’s intellectualism.
If a Republican tells me even just one more time that I don’t know anything about the world, the country, politics, or media, I’m quite literally going to pull all of my hair out and start screaming. Don’t tell me that I’m not reading/listening to/watching the right news sources or that I blindly believe everything I see on social media. I have a degree in English rhetoric and digital media. I know my stuff. And because I know my stuff, I wake up more and more terrified every day.
Every single day, I see people all around me falling for propaganda and fascist rhetoric. Comedians, actors, researchers, professors, and really anyone who outright disagrees with the Trump administration has been labeled a Communist zealot. It’s like the Red Scare all over again. Censorship is on the rise. It was just recently announced by ABC that Jimmy Kimmel Live! is being pulled from the air indefinitely1 simply because Kimmel said
The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it
during his Monday night monologue. In response, Trump posted this on his Truth Social account:
Kimmel’s cancellation comes just two months after it was announced that Stephen Colbert’s Late Show will be pulled next May under the guise of low viewership, when, in reality, CBS faced pressures from the Trump team after Colbert said he was disappointed that Paramount Pictures settled a lawsuit with Trump. While it may be true that Colbert’s show was losing some money, no one really believes that the show’s financials are the main reason why it’s being pulled from the air. Colbert and his team just won the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series, mind you. Colbert also received multiple massive standing ovations from the rest of the television academy and other Emmy nominees on Sunday night.
In response, Trump said “I absolutely love [that Colbert was] fired…I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert. Greg Gutfeld [conservative pundit] is better than all of them, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight show.” Jimmy Kimmel was next, so it can only be assumed that, like Trump promised, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers won’t be far behind. I’m sure other talk show personalities like John Oliver and Jon Stewart are waiting with bated breath to get the call, too. Who else will be silenced next? Will every late night or talk show host be replaced with one of Trump’s Maggats? We’re slowly inching towards state-sponsored media and away from free speech in this country, and it’s utterly terrifying.
Many politicians have called for anyone who dares speak against the Late Great Charlie Kirk to be fired by their employers. Oliver Homes at The Guardian wrote on Monday that “A ‘mass doxing’ effort to track down, intimidate and harass people perceived not to have sufficiently mourned the killing of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk was endorsed on Monday by JD Vance.”
What’s the next step? Am I going to be thrown into Guantanamo if I call Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans heartless, hateful fascists? Bring it on. Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans are heartless, hateful fascists who are going to cause this country to implode from the inside out, and we need to stop them before it’s too late.
I think it’s also important to point out that, not to speak ill of the dead…but, Charlie Kirk’s entire mission and calling in life was preying on college kids. Turning Point USA, Kirk’s nonprofit, is an organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. I see no issue with advocating for conservative politics to be accepted on college campuses (mostly because I actually believe in free speech, unlike the rest of the GOP), but I think the line should absolutely be drawn at hate speech. Unfortunately, Charlie Kirk crossed that line every single time that he stepped foot on a college campus or podcast set.
Some of Charlie Kirk’s Greatest Hateful Hits:
Public Executions: Said executions should be "public," "quick" and "televised," and that, "at a certain age it's an initiation." (Referring to children watching executions)
Gun Violence: “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
Side note: He would have supported his own death. I certainly don’t, but it’s just collateral damage to him.
Race/Violence: “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”
Taylor Swift’s Engagement: “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.”
Abortion: When asked whether he would hypothetically support his 10-year-old daughter getting an abortion after being raped, he said “The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.”
Abortion again: When asked if he was comparing abortion to the holocaust, he said “Absolutely, I am. In fact, it is worse. It's worse.”
Gender-affirming care: “We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately.”
Immigration: “America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that.”
Islam: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
Homosexuality: Said that Leviticus 20:13 serves as “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”
Leviticus 20:13: If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them
Separation of church and state: “There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication, it’s a fiction, it’s not in the constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists.”
COVID-19 Vaccine: Said that vaccine mandates were “medical apartheid.”
Organized (but did not attend) the “Stop the Steal” protests that turned into the January 6th Insurrection
So so so so much more…
Let me make something abundantly clear: gun violence against anyone is abhorrent, sickening, evil, and should never ever happen. There is not a single part of me that celebrates Charlie Kirk’s murder. I am against gun violence in general—not just when the violence is against innocents. I could get into this country’s need for gun control in this post, but I really have no desire to, so I’ll just leave it there.
I am all for Kirk’s family, friends, and supporters mourning him. He was an important person to them. I just don’t understand why the Presidential administration is forcing the entire country to mourn him when most people didn’t even know or care about him before his murder. Where was this energy for Melissa Hortman, the leader of the Minnesota House Democratic caucus, and her husband Mark when they were assassinated in July? Flags weren’t flown at half staff for her, and she was an elected official! Charlie Kirk was a glorified podcast host. Where was this energy for the victims of the Evergreen High School shooting that happened on the same day as Kirk’s assassination? Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
For all the big game that Trump talked about Kirk’s murder, he genuinely doesn’t seem to care at all. When asked how he was holding up three days after the death of his “close friend,” President Trump said “I think very good. And by the way, you see right there all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.” What does that have to do with anything? Why are you so focused on your new $200 million-dollar ballroom, blaming autism on Tylenol usage, controlling D.C., and H1-B visa fees when you could be focusing on lowering grocery and gas prices, creating jobs, and helping the American people like you promised? Right…because you don’t actually care about the American people.
All of this is to say that the GOP is lying to you!! They don’t care about you or the general American population. They are not going to help us. They are not going to fix the economy. They are not going to make your life easier. They are running this country into the ground, making us the laughing stock of the Major Powers, and doing irreparable damage to democracy in the United States. They’re continuing to spew hatred, disinformation, and false fascistic rhetoric to distract you from what’s really going on: Trump is a lying, disgusting, rapist dictator who is probably mentioned in the Epstein files far more than anyone thinks.
I’m not afraid to speak up about the truth. I’m far more afraid to see what will happen if more people don’t speak up soon. Please, I’m begging you: wake up, do your research, and fight back. If you don’t, this Hell may be what’s in store for this country for the rest of our lives.
At the time of editing and publishing this post, Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been given the green light to return to air. Clearly, ABC realized how stupid they were being after they saw the immense pushback from the general American population and Hollywood community.