What happens when a country raises a generation of young people who cannot think for themselves? It is a question that is being discussed more often, especially among conservatives who are concerned by the indoctrination taking place in K-12 schools and even higher education. The Washington Examiner interviewed a number of young conservatives at the most recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) about this issue and reported:
Indoctrinated ignorance is crippling young minds and incapacitating the next generation’s ability to lead the nation, according to conservative college students from around the country.
Persistent use of social media, a lack of financial literacy, and a reliance on leftist university professors and those in Washington, D.C., are destroying the critical thinking of people in their 20s, said Generation Z attendees of the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
A 23-year-old student named Juan Rubio told The Examiner that [i]gnorance brought on by the left, the indoctrination from the schools, to the media, to the culture of Hollywood” is “the biggest issue.” He continued, recounting his own experience with discovering the truth.
“The more I started waking up, the more I started reading and getting around different outlets in different environments, I realized I was indoctrinated. I was taught to only think a certain way. I was taught to only look at the left, think of the left, and reject everything from the Right,” he said.
Allegra Maloney, another student at CPAC, cited “constant pressure” to embrace hard leftist ideas is having a damaging effect on young people. She said:
“I think that’s what really sustains people and supports people to think for themselves,” she said. “Especially in education, when a lot of times in higher education, you have professors indoctrinating students who don’t know any better than to passively agree for that degree. We need critical thoughts to be at the core. We need to have debate and discourse again. You don’t see many people our age standing up for what they believe in in the classroom and getting into a productive debate.”
Maloney’s comments are reflective of what many see as an effort on the part of the hard left to raise a generation of people who self-censor.
Indeed, a recent Real Clear Education study revealed that about 80 percent of college students admitted to censoring themselves to avoid repercussions from professors and other students for expressing viewpoints that do not line up with the prevailing left-wing orthodoxy.
If leftists in universities are attempting to indoctrinate young people into progressive ideology, what is the solution? Since the hard left has a stranglehold on most of America’s higher learning institutions, it stands to reason that escaping this brainwashing would be nearly impossible, doesn’t it?
One student named Anastasia Budrick provided a possible solution to the Washington Examiner: Young Americans must learn how to educate themselves. Budrick, who plans to run for school board in North Carolina, said: “We’re not aware enough. I feel like we’re not educating ourselves, and we can see this across the board. Young people are just not knowing what’s going on in our country, which is causing more turmoil because this generation is completely numb to what’s going on.”
She added: “I think TikTok, I think social media has just kind of dumbed us down and distracted us from the true issues going on. I also think that spending four years at a liberal university, in a bubble, can also do that.”
There can be no question that the hard left is trying to create a new generation of left-wing activists. They are conditioning children in K-12 schools by infusing progressive ideology into the classroom. Teachers are including elements of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in their lesson plans and even teaching progressive ideas regarding gender and sexuality. Given the fact that progressives do not have the level of power required to push their agenda in Congress, it seems they have adopted a long-term strategy that includes influencing the minds of America’s youth.
But those seeking to push back against this trend could be providing solutions. Some have touted school choice as a way to subvert the left’s efforts. Many parents have pulled their kids from public schools and have sought different options like charter schools, private schools, and even homeschooling. Others have taken precautions when it comes to the colleges and universities to which they send their children.
The battle for American’s young minds continues to rage as the left pursues its quest to indoctrinate the youth. But despite their control of the education system, there are still ways for everyday Americans to shield their children from the brainwashing. The question is: Will it be enough?
