Stop complaining that the Left is mean and unfair — and fight back

Yesterday, the Left scored another victory in the never-ending campaign to destroy the lives of conservatives they hate, and so far conservatives don’t have a good answer for it.

Harvard University rescinded Parkland shooting survivor and conservative activist Kyle Kashuv’s acceptance into the school, ostensibly for offensive comments he made when he was 16. The long story short is that Kashuv used very offensive language with his friends in an internet chat a couple years ago, before the shooting. When those comments resurfaced in May, Kashuv apologized, said he’s grown into a different person, and promised to do better. But the woke mob will not accept his apology. The Left campaigned to get Kashuv’s acceptance to Harvard canceled, and the leftist admissions officials at Harvard finally obliged.

Conservative commentators were outraged. Ben Shapiro lamented that our universities “may be irrevocably broken” and slammed Harvard’s decision as “the worst move I’ve ever seen in academia.” David French remarked that the incident shows how “in today’s post-Christian, allegedly more-tolerant culture, apologies are not enough” and Kashuv “has to be punished.” RedState’s Brandon Morse identified Harvard’s motive as punishing a “high-profile conservative.” Matt Walsh pointed out the Left’s hypocrisy given that Ralph Northam is still governor of Virginia after his blackface controversy and declared the rules “are not applied equally.” The American Spectator’s Melissa Mackenzie summarized:

All exactly right. All spot-on. And we’ve heard it all before.

The Left is intolerant. The Left is unforgiving. The Left is not fair. This is known. It’s not a secret that the vast majority of college and university faculty is progressive. It’s not shocking that there’s wanton bias against conservatives. Read the front pages of Campus Reform or The College Fix and you’ll find a new story of leftist academia’s double standards and hostility to conservatives every single day.

We’re having the wrong conversation. How many more articles do we need essentially saying, “Wow, the leftists at Harvard are really mean, bad people. Shame on them”? Aren’t we well past the point of writing strongly worded articles condemning academia’s hypocrisy and intolerance? We get it. Now what are we going to do about it?

Conservatives should brainstorm practical steps to weaken the dominance of leftist academia. Take individual responsibility. If you’re a parent, don’t support leftist academia by sending your kids there and paying tuition. You don’t need to go to college to have a great career, and conservatives should stop supporting the system. If you’re an employer, hit these schools in their job-placement rates by refusing to hire their graduates. Make opportunities to hire kids without college degrees. This country was founded on the principle of self-government. The same goes for culture: It is what we make it. Want cultural change? Take individual responsibility for it.

There’s also a role for government here. It’s undeniable that Harvard, a private institution, has the right to admit or deny students as it sees fit. But it doesn’t have a right to untaxed endowments. It doesn’t have a right to federal research funding. Conservative policymakers should stop subsidizing universities that hate them and instead support alternatives to college like trade schools or apprenticeship programs.

What happens after the next Kyle Kashuv is bullied by the Left? Do conservatives respond with more outraged typing? Has any of it persuaded the bullies to stop yet? No? Then it's time to fight back.

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