I don’t have kids heading off to college but if I did I would for sure share this video with them. It’s brought to you by the Factual Feminist’s Christina Hoff Sommers, who smartly explains how to navigate the gender jungle minefield of sexual politics of higher education. I could not agree more with what she has to say about thinking for yourself and welcoming differing opinions. Below is an excerpt.
“Now, if you are liberal and idealistic, and also a woman, you face a different sort of risk. When you get to campus you will find a large and excited group of gender activists—students and some professors—eager to recruit you to their cause. They will present you with shocking statistics of sexual violence on campus, and theories about an oppressive patriarchy. They will tell you how mistreated and traumatized you are. It will seem new and exciting—a way to make friends and fight injustice at the same time—and you may be tempted to sign up. Just be aware that most of the victim statistics you will hear are wildly exaggerated and the theories about women’s oppression are twisted and surreal. As for trigger warnings and safe spaces—these are infantile. They are the opposite of empowerment.”
“You shouldn’t take my word on these matters. You shouldn’t take anybody’s word. Think for yourself. Your feminist foremothers fought and won a battle for your right to be educated on a par with men. They knew you were tough, and wanted you to have the opportunity to put that strength to use. Don’t waste it by falling captive to a pointless ideology or indulging in victimhood.”
Opposite of empowerment indeed! Having someone challenge your ideas forces you to actually think critically about them and either strengthen your argument, or, gasp, admit you were wrong and actually learn something. There are few things more freeing than realizing you can disagree with others but still have mutual respect and enjoyment for each other.
To think how far our society has strayed from this basic truth is truly depressing. Really, sometimes I can’t even read the news. Here’s hoping videos like this are making a difference and that the pendulum shifts back towards sanity soon!
Freedom Through Empowerment 
Good article. Our oldest granddaughter will start college in a year and I believe she is already a free thinker. She avoids any and all “clics” in high school and makes friends based on their individual merits. She will enjoy this.
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Your granddaughter sounds like a smart girl Al, she probably gets that from her grandpa. 😉
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My niece is a college senior in a blue-state school. So far she seems to have kept her feet on the ground and avoided getting sucked into the vortex of “professional victims”. Oh God, please, just one more year!
My nephew (her brother) is going to be a freshman at the same school. I worry about him more. They don’t give boys too many breaks these days. It’s almost as if the PC police are just waiting for the smallest little slight. Like his sister, he’s a thoughtful, intelligent kid. I just hope he can go four years without offending everyone on the entire earth simply by being male. .
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Good for your niece! But yes, I worry more about the boys too as the main strategy of all this victimology hoopla seems to be to destroy males. Sounds like you have good common sense genes in the family though, I’m sure that will help. Of course so many people these days are offended by simple common sense too….;)
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Excellent video! I hope she is right, but I think the lady downplays the effect of this propaganda too much. I see too few signs of the renaissance she is talking about. Without a lot of hard work and hard fought battles that is not going to happen. We have to reduce the size of our government the control it has upon our education systems and the mass media. The resistance is already fierce. Look at Gov. Walkers battles in Wisconsin. In some places, such battles may have to be fought to the death.
I have two daughters. Fortunately, my wife made certain they were raised as Christians. Thanks to that they got through college indoctrination relatively unscathed, and they married decent young men. But look at the divorce rate. Too many children grow up without even understanding the purpose of marriage and its relationship with sex. People may understand the “facts of life,” but many have no appreciation for the moral issues.
Unfortunately, college indoctrination is just the tip of the iceberg. The battle begins well before our children reach college. We need videos like this one to advise parents on the influence of the corporation-owned mass media and the public school system.
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It is a good video Tom, isn’t it? I’ve been following CHS’s work for awhile and she is very educated on the ridiculousness of campus politics, (and get’s absolutely vilified by the left of course) but I think she made a concentrated effort with these videos (there’s a whole series) not to sound alarmist or like she’s slamming a political party, in hopes they will appeal to non partisans, i.e. normal folks that just want to get a good education for their kid and have no idea what’s really going on out there.
You bring up a very good point about the battle starting long before kids reach college age. It is a bit depressing but good for you and your wife for instilling strong values in your kids. Our generation is going to rely a lot on the younger ones as we grow old and senile; I’d much prefer they have right thinking brains when they take over the reigns of leadership! 😉
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Right thinking brains? It took me took many years to figure out what that might mean, but I think the key is humility. You may find this relevant.
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Too early. Here is the link =>https://insanitybytes2.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/orcs/
Another lady with a great blog, BTW.
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Oh yes, I love IB’s blog and her Orc piece was great! More and more people are waking up to the sheer nonsense going on in our country but I agree it’s an off the rails train that may be difficult to stop. Humility will definitely be needed. Thanks for coming by. 🙂
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I have four in college right now, another who’s almost done the Masters…and it’s all too true. The Masters in English Lit world has been utterly coopted by feminism.
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