The Patriot Post® · Mob Rules at Evergreen State College

Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, is the latest instance of the growing epidemic of insanity best described as postmodern social justice ideology. It is also proving to serve as an example of how not to deal with these social justice warrior bullies.

The college has a long running reputation of commitment to the leftist worldview. In the 1970s, in order to embrace the concerns of and better empathize with black students, the school began a tradition known as the “Day of Absence.” Black students would leave the college for a day to “emphasize” minority groups’ contributions to society. The idea was that black students’ and faculty’s absence would help to lead the inherently racist majority white students and faculty toward greater appreciation of them.

Earlier this year, several students proposed a change to the tradition and demanded instead that all white students and faculty leave the school for the day. This rubbed Bret Weinstein, a biology professor, the wrong way and he responded by sending an email to his fellow professors stating his disagreement with the change as well as his refusal to concede to the demand. His email stated in part, “There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles, and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away. The first is a forceful call to consciousness which is, of course, crippling to the logic of oppression. The second is a show of force, and an act of oppression in and of itself.”

A SJW mob then confronted him, demanded that he recuse himself, called him a racist, and eventually demanded his resignation. The college police advised him not to return to campus because college president George Bridges ordered them to stand down. As a result, Weinstein was forced to conduct his classes off campus. Meanwhile, Bridges was accosted by the mob and essentially forced to hear out their demands — demands as ludicrous as ordering faculty not to assign students homework while they were engaged in protest.

There is no reasoning with these SJW bullies. They shut down any attempt at engaging in genuine conversation, avoiding listening to or addressing any counterarguments. The SJW mob uses imagined oppression as a pretext for justifying the oppression of others. The inmates are running the asylum. And too often, presidents like Bridges seek to appease the bullies rather than stand up to them — probably because he, like Dr. Frankenstein, created this beast.