The American Mind

The orthodoxy of the left

William Hillman

(7/2018) What a school year it’s been and thank God it is over. We started the year with my son’s 8th grade teachers sharing their gender identity and preferred pronouns. Each student was asked to fill out an index card with their gender identity and preferred pronouns and then made to stand and read the card to the class. This happened throughout the day in every class.

From there, the year went downhill. Each week the reading assignments were New York Times opinion articles on "evil" President Trump, "evil" America, "racist, sexist, and ignorant" America, "racist, sexist and ignorant" Republicans, the United States Constitution is racist, evil and needs to be replaced, the Republicans stole the election, the president and Republicans are killing Puerto Ricans, and then the articles just got nasty and stupid.

We spent a lot of time going over these articles and delving into the reality.

One day I asked my son how his math class was going, he was struggling with the current topic in Algebra class, his answer blew my mind. He said, "we didn’t do any math in math class today. The math teacher had us watch videos of black people being beaten by police, then he had a talk about how police are racist and bad."

The unfortunate school shootings gave the faculty the excuse they needed to push their propaganda that the constitution is outdated, irrelevant, racist, sexist and homophobic.

NFL players kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem and students walking out of class in opposition to The Constitution is protected free speech. But a student who objects to the liberal orthodoxy is said to be disruptive.

One day in my son’s school they had an assembly on the 27 different genders, (please don’t ask me what they are, I only know of two). The students were informed that "just because you are genetically a male, does not make you are a male or being genetically female, does not make you a female".

Sorry, but by definition, if you are genetically a male, you are a male, and if you are genetically female, you are a female. I explained to my son that regardless of what the school said, there are only two genders: male and female. There are, however, males who have strong feminine tendencies, and females who have strong masculine tendencies and there are people who are physically attracted to others of their same sex. All of this is fine, but none of it changes the fact that a person is ether male or female from birth, regardless of what they do to themselves physically.

Now, if the boy Joey down the street wants to dress as girl and call himself Josephina, that is a choice made between him and his parents. Out of compassion and neighborly respect, I will call him Josephina, and I expect my children to do the same.

For all the chest pounding and self-righteousness of the teachers, politeness, neighborliness and good manners are not taught in school. What is taught is something they call tolerance, but in this age of double speak, tolerance is not what you think. Tolerance is unquestionable acceptance and adherence to the left’s orthodoxy. Anyone who questions or holds opinions that are outside the orthodoxy is labeled "intolerant". To express opinions or ideas that might be counter to the "approved" agenda is said to be hurtful and therefore hateful. Good people worship the environment, want more immigration, guns banned, abortion on demand, and bad people object or raise questions.

Follow the logic. To hold the position that abortion is murder and morally wrong, may offend someone who has had an abortion. That offence is "hurtful" just as much as a physical "hurting". Yes, you read that right, the kids are taught that words can cause physical pain just like a punch to the kisser. There is no distinction made between what I would consider malicious bullying an individual and disagreeing on moral and social issues.

Debate and disagreement on meaningful issues is strictly forbidden because someone might be offended or "triggered". Kids never learn how to have disagreements and talk about issues. They do not learn that we don’t need to agree with each other on everything in order to be friends.

I hear the words Hitler and Nazi thrown around by the left so often I’ve become numb to it. These words are generally used to label someone who disagrees with the new social orthodoxy. Hitler and the Nazis committed one of the largest atrocities of the 20th century, killing millions. The message is, someone who fails to fall in line on an issue is committing horrible violent atrocities against millions and any actions, violent or otherwise, is justified in stopping them. "Would you be doing the world a great service if you could have shot Hitler before he became Hitler?" This is why we see violence on college campuses against public speakers and Hollywood elitists calling for the son of Melania Trump to be violently raped.

We now have a generation who believes those who do not accept the new orthodoxy and speaks out against it, by their words are doing no less than physical violence. Therefore, physical violence, in response to their words, is justified.

There are even members of the left who are seeing this danger and its long-term impact on society. Sarah Schulman’s book Conflict Is Not Abuse, analyzes and critiques what she calls the "overstatement of harm" as an activist tactic that breaks community bonds and reinforces the power of the State to control and imprison people.

What has been lost is the important fact that to have a truly free society, open debate and disagreement must take place. And yes, sometimes it hurts and is uncomfortable. But to drive it out of the public square, discipline those that engage in questioning the "accepted orthodoxy" is by definition an act of fascism.

The liberal agenda of the schools is failing our children and poisoning our future. Children are not learning to respect others who have different opinions. The school is too concerned about protecting students against opinions and facts that might make them unconfutable. It never permits the kids to grow. People who want to live in small insulated boxes are not free, they are imprisoned. Please don’t let our children become prisoners. And lastly, "Any society that trades safety and security for Freedom will have neither." - Ben Franklin.