Category: Musings

In hindsight, perhaps a stroke would have been better.

I’ve been searching for a job for a number of reasons.

Among those reasons; I want to go back to school.

The goal is to get a degree that will make me more marketable in the workplace, feed my sense of personal accomplishment, and perhaps provide me with another career should the bottom fall out of whatever I end up doing between now and that as yet, undetermined future.

I think I may have waited too long to execute this educational goal. Here’s one of the reasons I’m concerned.

Ben Shapiro, an attorney, conservative, Orthodox Jew, author, journalist, & millennial, was scheduled to speak at CSULA

Author Ben Shapiro was invited to speak this afternoon at Cal State LA by the Young Americans for Freedom, which is a registered student organization. The event, “When Diversity Becomes a Problem,” was funded by the Associated Students, Inc., the student government.

Leading up to the event, there were a number of emails and social media posts that caused concern for the campus community. Given threats and expressions of fear, President William A. Covino proposed a rescheduled event that would be civil and inclusive, and in which Mr. Shapiro and speakers with other viewpoints could offer their perspectives in an organized forum.

“My decision was made in the interest of safety and security,” Covino said. “I am disappointed that Mr. Shapiro has not accepted my invitation to speak in such a forum. He has indicated that he will come to Cal State LA to speak today at the University-Student Union Theatre, where he was originally scheduled to deliver his talk,” Covino told the University community Thursday morning.

Covino added: “I strongly disagree with Mr. Shapiro’s views. But if Mr. Shapiro does appear, the University will allow him to speak. We will make every effort to ensure a climate of safety and security.”

A reporter filming the BLM crowd’s protest of Ben Shapiro was assaulted outside the venue. Attendees of Shapiro’s talk were forced to enter the venue via a back door because the school’s police wouldn’t clear the protestors from the main entrance.

Shapiro and the Attendees were forced to wait in the building until a police cordon could be established that allowed them to exit safely.

I can no longer clearly determine which is worse, Daesh (ISIS), The Taliban, Al Queada, Fundamentalist Christians, or Black Lives Matter.

I think I missed the opportunity to obtain higher education without becoming embroiled in some harebrained Social Justice Warrior bullshit.

If I’m going to pay for an education, I’m not interested in having to put up with a bunch of leftist crap. I wouldn’t mind IF both sides of an argument were explored with a purely academic objectiveness.

That is what I always thought education was supposed to do. I’ve believed that education presented you with the facts, and you were supposed to evaluate the merits of each side of an issue then make a decision based on your upbringing, personal beliefs, and personal philosophies.

I believed that as you learned more, and gained experience, that you could and would change your mind, and positions.

I never expected in my lifetime to see higher education perverted into an SJW exercise where the people on the side of “Right” would demand freedom as an oppressed group and at the same time prevent people with differing opinions from expressing those opinions.

I never in a million years expected to see in this country, MY Country, people accepting, even tacitly condoning the suppression of other people’s rights.

I expected to see us marching into a Star Trek like, egalitarian future.

Clearly I’m an idiot!

Now I’m considering really strange things. Do I want higher education? If I do, now I have to choose a school not only based on it’s academic qualities, but also on it’s political leanings. Should I try to determine if a school’s reputation for the antics of the SJW crowd will taint any degree I may graduate with?

The antics at CSULA last night were absolutely beyond belief. They’ve made me think that perhaps I’m right in considering questions other than the simple academic standing of a particular school. 

Legitiamately, I’m asking if I would even be physically safe on a college campus because my opinions do not line up with the SJW or BLM crowd.

Participation in classes, particularly those dealing with the Humanities would potentially expose my beliefs and therefore potentially compromise my personal safety leaving classes or being on a campus.

I suppose I can attend classes on-line.

Even then, would my grades be adversely affected by expressing dissenting opinions? Would I get a fair shake based strictly on the merit of my work?

I should have done the whole school thing a long time ago.

Yet again, this is one of those times when I wonder where the hell I am.

Maybe I did have a stroke, and I’m really in a coma.

Perhaps my area of study should be Physics.

With luck, I might be able to build the means to get off this planet of psychotic apes.