War on Woman, University Style – Please Leave Your Tolerance at the Door

Anita Gunn May 15, 2014

296 2 minutes read

Remember when college students used to speak truth to power and crusaded for diversity? Well those days are over and intolerance and fascism are now in vogue on college campuses. The thought police have taken over the universities and the shutting down of prospective college speakers by censorship-inclined students, faculty and administrators has become trendy this graduation season. The latest targets are women including, shockingly, women of color.

It started last month when more than 85 faculty members at Brandeis University signed a letter asking the university to rescind its offer of an honorary degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali born women’s rights activist. The letter stated its opposition to Ali because of her “hateful” comments she made about Islam. Ali was raised in a strict Muslim family and, after surviving a civil war, genital mutilation, beatings and an arranged marriage, she renounced her faith. In 2007, Ali helped establish the AHA Foundation, which works to protect and defend the rights of women in the West from oppression justified by religion and culture, according to its website. The foundation also “strives to protect basic rights and freedoms of women and girls. This includes control of their own bodies, access to an education and the ability to work outside the home and control their own income.” Hmmm…sounds hateful.

Then there was the incident a few weeks ago involving Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state and national-security adviser under the George W. Bush administration. Notwithstanding the fact that Rice is the first black female ever to hold this powerful position, she was harassed into declining the invitation by Rutgers University to address this year’s convocation. The faculty actually referred to Rice as a “war criminal” in their resolution. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton also supported the Iraqi war, one would think that Rice rolled into Iraq in a tank, and personally held down three known terrorists while they were being water-boarded. Rice is currently a professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University. But Rice is a “war criminal” and therefore her accomplishments are null and void.

And then finally this week the university intolerance mob struck again, petitioning that International Monetary Fund Managing (“IMF”) Director Christine Lagarde, the first woman to serve as the head of the IMF, withdraw as commencement speaker at Smith College. In the petition, students took issue with Lagard’s role at the IMF saying: “The IMF has been a primary culprit in the failed developmental policies implanted in some of the world’s poorest countries. This has led directly to the strengthening of imperialist and patriarchal systems that oppress and abuse women worldwide.” Because Legard stated that austerity measures should be a prerequisite for further monetary aid in places like Greece, one could extrapolate that she must hate poor people and hence must be silenced.

Lefties like to whine about the alleged war on women, but they seem to only focus on free birth control and “reproductive rights.” They are weirdly vitriolic when it comes to supporting powerful and successful women who have truly broken through the glass ceiling. Could it be because these three women also happen to have conservative beliefs and values? That would certainly explain why they were chased from university campuses with pitchforks. But what about tolerance and diversity?

Greg Gutfeld said in “The Joy of Hate”:

“The idea of tolerance—a seemingly innocuous concept—has now become something else entirely: a way to bludgeon people into shutting up, piping down, and apologizing, when the attacked are often the ones who hold the key to common sense. They speak an unspeakable truth, and they get clobbered by the Truncheon of Tolerance. Tolerance has turned normal people into sheep/parrot hybrids, followers in word and deed—bloating and squawking at everyone in a psychological torment not experienced since Dave Matthews picked up a guitar.”

In other words, behind the liberal double-standard is actually a single standard: The left holds a monopoly on what is considered acceptable speech.

To avoid future controversies, maybe universities should consider bringing back such inspiring speakers as Snooki and Jerry Springer. Yep, problem solved.