Commentary: On some college campuses, students now hate America more than ISIS

Over the past half-century, college campuses have transformed from a place of honest intellectual debate and inquiry to socialist indoctrination camps. And in many cases, taxpayers like you are footing the bill.

I know, you’ve heard all this before: College students are, generally speaking, a bunch of pampered, over-caffeinated cry-babies. After years of earning participation trophies and being told every white man in history is a racist bigot unworthy of even the slightest bit of respect, what more could we expect?

But as bad as the socialist indoctrination on college campuses has been, it has yet to spark a widespread hatred of the country. College students might want socialized medicine, vote for Bernie Sanders and demand they have their safe spaces, but all these issues have fallen under the umbrella of transforming America — not wanting to see it perish.

All that could be changing. Driven in part by the left’s hatred of Donald Trump, college campuses are becoming increasingly more hostile toward Americanism itself. And “diversity” has become such a grand obsession for some that their hatred of even the vilest of groups now often pales in comparison to the rage many young college students feel when the National Anthem is blasted over loudspeakers at football games or some fool dares to waive the American flag and say taboo things about the United States like, “This country stands for freedom.”

But don’t take my word for it. Documentarian Ami Horowitz recently traveled to the University of California at Berkeley to see how America’s little socialists might react when confronted with two very distinct symbols: the American flag and the flag used by ISIS. Incredibly, the murdering, raping, pillaging, misogyny, and extreme homophobia of ISIS seemed more tolerable to the students than Horowitz’s unapologetic patriotism.

“Greatest country in the world, right?” Horowitz said to one student while he waived an American flag.

“The opposite,” one student replied. “The complete opposite. God, f*** this country.”

The United States is “the one imperial power right now in the world,” another student said.

“It [the American flag] signifies military rule,” an older gentleman replied to Horowitz.

“God is not proud of us,” another student said.

“F*** America!” another student shouted.

If this is how students at one of America’s supposedly elite public colleges react to the American flag, a reasonable person might assume they’d react even more harshly upon seeing Horowitz waive the ISIS flag and shout slogans like, “The black flag of ISIS will stand over the White House,” and “I denounce Western imperialism.” But we’re not living in reasonable times.

Instead of ranting and raving about ISIS’ crimes against humanity, a few students offered positive comments upon hearing Horowitz’s anti-American rhetoric, and just about everyone else said nothing at all.

“I love that you’re saying that,” one student said.

“Good for you, man. Good for you,” another student said.

According to Horowitz, after “several hours” of announcing the superiority of ISIS and waiving the ISIS flag, only one student bothered to respond negatively.

I realize Horowitz’s flag experiment is hardly scientific, but I think it does say something about where U.S. college campuses are today. Can you imagine similar displays being tolerated in the 1940s with a Nazi flag? Or in the 1950s with a flag of the Soviet Union?

College students are learning from their left-wing high school teachers and college professors to hate the United States and everything that it stands for, but for what purpose? My theory — and I realize there is little empirical evidence to support this claim — is that if socialists can associate America and every U.S. symbol with racism, imperialism and other evils, it’s much easier to destroy the values at the heart of Americanism.

For instance, if the United States is the land of capitalism and racism, it’s easier to make the argument both are evil and that the whole system needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up, relying on traditional left-wing beliefs, of course.

Perhaps the worst element to the declining higher-education system in the United States is that most of the colleges are still funded by taxpayers, including the tens of millions of taxpayers who believe in free markets and individual liberty. By paying your taxes, you’re literally helping to pay the salaries of left-wing ideologues that are working tirelessly to destroy everything this country has always stood for.

It’s fair to argue that this means conservatives are, at least in part, to blame for the current anti-Americanism fervor at universities in virtually every state. If all taxpayers are going to help prop the education system up, then the education system should represent the views of everyone, and if it doesn’t, we should stop funding these disasters and force them to compete with private colleges. Further, conservatives shouldn’t agree to send their kids to schools that aim to destroy constitutional rights. If enough parents stood against left-wing indoctrination on campuses, then schools would be forced to change — or close.

All conservatives want to stop the spread of socialism and anti-Americanism, but thus far, not enough have been willing to do what it takes to end the far left’s college takeover. If we don’t act now, what’s happening at Berkeley will happen everywhere, America will be lost and we conservatives will be partly responsible.