The Patriot Post® · Thought Police at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri officials have finally reached the apex of totalitarian-style thought. They’re not just silencing free speech, but policing free thought — in case it might turn into offensive speech.
Starting in January, all incoming students, as well as faculty and staff, will undergo mandatory diversity and inclusion training that promises to cover all the cliché -isms, but with a particular focus on racism. Guilty or not, all freshmen must successfully pass the training to be eligible to enroll in regular classes.
Why such lunacy? A single, drunk white student shouted racial slurs to a group of black students. That’s one student out of thousands who literally had nothing to do with the incident.
Chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin is the bow tie poindexter behind it all. “Racism exists at Mizzou. It’s not everyone. It’s not necessarily even overt sometimes, but it’s there and we have to deal with it,” said Loftin.
Deal with it? This sounds like a new pre-crime program inspired by the movie Minority Report (2002). Here, Mr. Loftin thinks he’s a morally superior pre-cog who can predict when a crime is about to take place, opting for his elite campus free speech correctional unit to punish the would-be criminal before the crime is actually committed.
Perhaps the Chancellor is trying to justify his $450,000 a year Mizzou salary at a time when tuitions are skyrocketing. Or maybe he’s filled with indignation over a pay cut. After all, he did receive a cool $1.1 million in 2014 when he was President of Texas A&M.
As for reaction to Mizzou’s new pre-cog thought control scheme, a mother of a UM student called into a local radio station and said people were very upset about the required sensitivity training. She expressed great concern that politically correct decisions like this are precisely what’s fueling the growing racial animosity in this country. I couldn’t agree more.
But in fairness, let’s look at what progressives think is the positive side of all this.
Life will certainly be easier on the Mizzou campus — mindless in fact. No arduous free thinking. No inclusive free speech. No knee-jerk reactions to those who say stupid things. No need to develop coping skills because, as they say, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it."
But things are just getting started. Mizzou is reportedly conducting a national search to fill yet another morally superior position in an effort to expand their thought policing program — that of Vice Chancellor of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. Ah, utopia!
Unfortunately, we’re living in an age where a new breed of totalitarian-minded bullies are coming out of the closet hellbent on forcing their anti-American ideologies onto everyone else. We have already witnessed their bans on things they don’t like and how they viciously target, shout down, and smear anyone who disagrees with them. They will continue these tactics until everyone — guilty or not — is forced into submission. It is, after all, the Alinsky way.
As for the University of Missouri, apparently this institution of higher education is going to be less about real education and more about a politically correct re-education under their new campus pre-crime program.
This article was originally published at American Thinker. Kimberly Bloom Jackson holds a doctorate in anthropology. She can be found at SnoopingAnthropologist.com.