If I took a shot (tequila preferred) every time I saw a “safe space” sticker, heard a professor say “trigger warning,” or had a professor make political jabs at conservatives, I would be drunk enough to believe in Barack Obama’s failed message of “hope and change” or Bernie Sanders’ plan to spread the wealth.
Reflecting on what colleges once were, I ask, “Is this still the same environment where people are free to express and be introduced to differing viewpoints?” Or maybe, just maybe, this is now an environment where the left is trying to brainwash politically undecided students. You are free to choose which is more accurate, but I will choose the latter of the two. In fact, if you do not think academia has gone mad, you are more than likely a part of the madness.
So-called “safe spaces” are just a nice way of saying that your adult child can’t handle the real world. The real world is a place where you must work hard to be successful. While these adult children throw a ski mask on and riot on campus over “mean words,” smarter individuals are working hard on a major that will help them start a promising career. To my peers: You accomplish absolutely nothing by rioting over something solely because you don’t agree with it. Please, take the pacifier out of your mouth and grow up.
Professors have grown delusional as well. They think that it is okay to harass students with opposing viewpoints. A video surfaced earlier this school year of a high-school teacher going off on two students for wearing “Make America Great Again” shirts. She should have been fired immediately (she wasn’t), but in many circles, she will be praised.
I can’t even trust my own professor to give me guidance on political matters because I know he will hate anything I share just because of my conservative views. Professors have a job. That job is to teach their students and treat all students fairly. Easily put, professors aren’t doing their jobs.
The delightfully witty Ben Shapiro makes a valid point: “By giving professors jobs for life, universities create a feeling of unanswerable power among too many. Tenured professors who are uninterested in serving the student body are less likely to respond favorably to criticism, and are more likely to feel the freedom to intimidate or harass those with opposing viewpoints.”
Professors are taking advantage of the platforms that they have been given and are spewing bias without consequence. I find it funny how one of my professors stated earlier this school year, “If talking politics or religion isn’t in your career path, then keep your mouth shut.” Wouldn’t it be nice if all professors had that same mentality?
Academia has created a bubble where young adults are taught that it is okay to be sensitive, that it is okay to lose, and that it is okay to run around campus trying to shut down a voice that differs from theirs. While I might think your viewpoint is dumb beyond belief, you do not see me trying to silence your voice. Everyone has a voice, whether you agree with that voice or not. The moment someone tries to shut down someone else’s free speech is the moment we are dipping our feet into boiling hot water.
It is too late for most. College campuses have successfully been taken over by the hysteria on the left, but young conservatives are pushing back. Conservative students are organizing, conservative speakers are touring campuses, social media stars are rising up and giving a voice to millennial conservatives everywhere, and more importantly, the real world is waiting for these college snowflakes. They will be shocked back to reality as soon as they graduate, assuming they don’t hibernate in mom and dad’s basement after commencement.
In the meantime, I will continue to sit back and laugh at the sensitivity I see on campus every day. I will continue to laugh at the professors who subliminally try to tell me that supporting President Trump makes me an idiot. I will continue to laugh at the students who walk out of class because they are offended that someone believes there are only two genders (yes, that actually happened in my class recently).
I laugh because they are all in for a shock when they leave their safe spaces and enter the real world. TRIGGER WARNING: It will not be easy for them.
Brandon Uhalik is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Founder and President of Turning Point USA at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
