WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN DOCUMENTARIES
Humorous and hard-hitting examination of politically correct campus speech codes and the ‘thought police’ who enforce them. [ Indoctrinate U credits: Dir: Evan Coyne Maloney/ 87 min/ Documentary/ Freedom of speech, Propaganda]
“Indoctrinate U does a good job of ripping the lid off of modern campus life to reveal the pale, squirming, snarling, dirty, socialist academics underneath.”
Pity the college-bound young people of today. They face not just the usual challenges of college life–being away from home for the first time, learning independence, and long hours of rigorous coursework. No, this generation must also endure a politically one-sided and aggressively-PC university system that demands from its young charges intellectual conformity, and backs those demands with threats of social and physical intimidation, “psychological counseling,” and ultimately career-shattering dismissal. It can’t be that bad, you say? Watch Indoctrinate U.
Detailed here is an appalling litany of abuse, revealing frankly open and unapologetic betrayal of the traditions of free speech and inquiry upon which the entire idea of organized education was founded.
Examples shown in this film include: besieged conservatives and libertarians, both professors and students, being publicly, and in some cases officially with university backing, labeled Nazis, fascists, racists, etc.; openly-biased hiring, funding, and speaker recruitment decisions; “prosecutorial discretion” in which rules are selectively enforced in the service of the Left’s agenda; a university policy requiring that all classes—even science and math—include in their content discussions of race, class and gender issues; academic kangaroo courts in which students are prosecuted in lengthy and intimidating “hearings” without the presence of a lawyer; and everywhere a double-standard in which conservative and libertarian ideas are suppressed and left-wing ideas are encouraged and enshrined.
Labeling a person sexist, homophobic or racist might seem like no big deal, but in a state of “prosecutorial discretion” in which rules are selectively enforced, such words can presage organized isolation, expulsion, and even physical intimidation.
And it works. Says one student “[Students] are afraid to give their viewpoint in class because they know it won’t be tolerated. They are afraid because their grade is in jeopardy.”
The simple injustice of the situation would be bad enough, but it has as well profound long-term implications for the nation. Research shows that it is in the age range 13-24 when people pick lifetime political affiliations; the college years of 18-21 just happen to be smack-dab in the middle of that range. What is going on in college campuses today will be going on everywhere tomorrow, because this is where the opinions of tomorrow’s most influential citizens are being formed.
Writer/director Evan Coyne Maloney is the voice of the film, narrating and interviewing throughout. He’s ideal for this role, young enough to pass as a student and so gain entré into college campuses, gutsy enough to keep asking questions even after academic authorities have told him to go away, and with an easy-going reasonableness and self-deprecation that contrasts favorably with the stonewalling academic bureaucracy.
While the subject of the film is serious, the tone is decidedly light-hearted. Academia prides itself and presents itself as a community in pursuit of truth, but as revealed here it has in fact become a ludicrous Dickensian caricature of fixed opinion guarded by left-wing harpies preying on young minds. The screaming irony allows the film to mock without ever departing from simple dead-pan reporting.
You have to wonder how the American university system ever became, intellectually speaking, a one-party state, and in so short a time. In fact it happened so fast that few know just how far it has gone. Indoctrinate U does a good job of ripping the lid off of modern campus life to reveal the pale, squirming, snarling, dirty, socialist academics underneath. More than just a warning, it’s a three-alarm wake-up call for parents and students and a call to action.
External Reviews
“Get this documentary. It’s extraordinary.”
Lou Dobbs, CNN
“Indoctrinate U hits you in the gut, in a way that no column or blog post can. Seeing the faces of the protagonists in these campus conflicts, and hearing their stories in their own words, makes it seem as if you’re learning about the problems of campus bias and tyranny for the very first time. After the screening, audience members had a chance to question Maloney. I particularly remember a woman who said she was almost too shaking with anger to speak…”
National Review Online
“The average taxpayer and parents who foot the bill know little about the rot on many college campuses. Indoctrinate U is a recently released documentary, written and directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, that captures the tip of a disgusting iceberg…”
Human Events
“In a mere eighty-seven minutes, Maloney has assembled a coherent narrative from interviews with over two dozen subjects in this masterful depiction of PC’s rampant and systematic attack on free thought.”
The New Individualist
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Links
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Related Film: Silence U
Moving Picture Institute
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
Amazon (Instant Video): Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. “Academic Freedom and Berkeley”
Book: One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy