Political Correctness Gone Wild in our Universities

People who know me have come to accept that it is not easy to figure out which political box I fit into.

I am a fierce fighter for the underdog, a skeptic of those who hold power and imposes their will on the populace. But also a realist who believes humans benefit from struggle and a believer that sorrow and sacrifices carve out space in the soul for the character to take root and reside.

But something about the modern day university campus really angers me.  Institutions charged with protecting intellectual dialogue and exploring ideas are now sanctuaries for tepid, timid individuals more concerned with thought control than challenging accepted norms.

The recent events at Wilfred Laurier University where Lindsay Walker, a Teaching Assitant was chastised for presenting controversial opinions to first-year students disturbs me at the core. I am all for a forwarding thinking policy and challenging conventional wisdom and bringing everybody into the tent. But when political correctness runs amok, lead by political activists, the intellectual thought is killed.

Universities in Canada, at least Social Science departments seem to have become havens for those who conform to political correctness rather than those who challenge and explore ideas. In today’s world, we are rewarding conformity with liberal values rather than rewarding good thinking. The professor who chastised Lindsay Sheppard should be fired. He criticized Lindsay for airing the opinions of Jordan Peterson to her class that dealt with the topic of transgender pronouns. Apparently, one of the students in the class felt threatened by the fact that Jordan Peterson questioned the use of transgender pronouns. It is nonsense that our schools would allow for the degradation of thought to such a level that curriculums are designed to make students feel safe rather than to promote thought.

In the past, some decades ago 18-year-olds went to war or to work, today they go to university and ask for “safe space” so that their fragile concept of self is not offended by the realities of the world… and this is supposed to be the place where they prepare for adulthood; I think it is setting them up for failure.

To me, it appears that postmodernist thinkers are moving closer to religious thinkers in their desire to describe the world as they want it to be; rather than as it is. They prefer it that way because it’s a less offensive world, I would prefer we simply deal with the beautiful world and its challenges as it is and give our youth the skills to make change without having to protect them from discomfort.

Now I may be criticized for this but am comfortable speaking frankly about the issue Lindsay Walker raised to her first-year students; which is the issue of transgender pronouns. I happen to think you cannot decide to change your gender, no more than you can change your age or height, I am not a scientist, but it would appear an organism is born with a set of chromosomes that make that issue fairly clear.

But certainly, this topic can be debated. For years advocates for sexual equality stated that you cannot choose your sexuality, that you are born homosexual as much as you are born heterosexual. But if you cannot choose your sexuality how can you choose your gender? Are we not opening ourselves up to people who would take advantage of this. Could not any job applicant now say they are transgender, how you-you be able to disprove it if it is a subjective decision? I think this is a debatable topic without having people lose their minds at the suggestion that someone disagrees with you.

Now we are encouraging young people to select their gender when they cannot select their high school courses, does this seem wise to allow a 14 year to decide on their gender, maybe we can just relax a bit and let things play out before we encourage young people to fulfil the political fantasies of liberal socialists.

For the sake of our universities and schools, we need to bring a dose of realism and pragmatisms to the debate without smart people having to fear being labeled as fascists. Otherwise, we will be chasing the idea of looking politically correct over the principle of doing the right thing.

Bellow is the Link to the Toronto Star Article

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2017/11/15/suppressing-tvo-video-stifling-free-speech-is-making-wilfrid-laurier-unsafe.html

Read our most recent post

Is your Non-Resident Client or Counterparty on the Hook for Withholding Taxes?

When is GST Payable on the Sale of Residential Property?

Con Artists and their Strategies: You are More VulnerableThan You Think