American college campuses have been permeated by corrupted college professors who themselves corrupt students. Without a doubt, college professors are the most dangerous people in America.
They’re not dangerous because they challenge the status quo, or because they encourage their students to think critically. On the contrary, they are dangerous because they encourage impressionable young college students to adhere to the doctrines of the professors they choose without providing the chance to meaningfully challenge those doctrines.
During the recent pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas protests on elite college campuses, thousands of students put up tents on private property, commandeered university-owned buildings, defaced private property, and chanted disturbing, antisemitic rhetoric. But while we constantly talk about the actions of the students, we fail to recognize that these students aren’t alone, but educated and cheered on by their college professors.
At Columbia University, hundreds of the university’s professors joined in on the protests, donning orange reflective vests and standing alongside students in protest of Israel and—apparently—support of the students’ right to free speech. Of course, these professors, like their students, are not Constitutional scholars, yet teach their students that what they’re doing is protected.
The First Amendment does not protect the right to vandalize or trespass on private property, which is what these students were doing, or make terroristic threats or aid a terrorist organization, which arguably many of these students did. The very idea that professors were aiding the students in their illegal takeover of the university should sound alarm bells.
Even in the face of the college professors’ statements and actions, which were to the effect of “we support our students’ right to protest,” no rights were being violated, but you can be absolutely sure that the impressionable college students seeing the professors’ actions and reading their statements feel more emboldened than ever and as though they were the ones wronged, not the scores of Jewish students who were barred from campus, nor the many impoverished students who were unable to access the now-closed dining halls.
There can be no doubt now that students who witnessed their professors—people of great authority and respect to them—supporting a protest that resulted in the unprovoked stabbing of a Jewish woman in the eye with a Palestinian flag, chants of “death to America” and “globalize the intifada” (a violent uprising in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered in the early 2000s), students claiming “We are Hamas,” and a significant number of students donning Hamas militant headbands, will think that any violence or violent rhetoric on their part is somehow justified.
Look no further than the case of Cornell University professor Russell Rickford, an associate history professor, who took a leave of absence after openly stating that the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, were “exhilarating” and “energizing.” He was seen back on campus, protesting in solidarity with the students and giving a speech in support of the students and Palestine.
Why should a student feel afraid of being suspended—or even expelled—when a professor of the institution who met a similar fate is back on campus voicing his support of Palestine?
One of the things that any college student will learn, particularly one who challenges, rather than questions, authority, is that when that authority is overwhelmingly liberal—that is, the professor, the administration, and even the student body, questioning a professor’s dogma is a recipe for failure and being labeled an outcast. For a college student, a bad grade can make or break their college career, which is the most important immediate thing in their life. Giving a college professor the ability to judge a student more harshly because they disagree or even simply question the professors’ beliefs is the perfect recipe for indoctrination.
Let’s be clear: College professors should not be feared; they should be respected—when they earn that respect—the same as anyone else. The only power they wield is the title they were given by their institution, a title that can be quickly stripped away from them. To college students, these professors are the most academically accomplished people they know, so students follow them mindlessly; that’s why they are dangerous.
Well-educated people are oftentimes the least intelligent. They are so confident in their ability to think critically and convincingly that they have successfully told themselves that they can do no wrong. It is only when students have an honest professor who understands their fallibility that they can truly learn.