Once again, the leftists are going after Nick Sandmann
Nick Sandmann, who earned the left's wrath for wearing a MAGA hat while listening politely as a crazed leftist beat a drum in his face at a Right to Life event, is in the left's crosshairs again. This time it's because he decided to attend university. Both an ACLU staffer and a professor at the university promptly collapsed into censorious, anti-Sandmann puddles of hatred.
Sandmann, who we hope has enough CNN and Washington Post settlement money to buy and sell Harvard, has decided to attend Transylvania University, a small private liberal arts university in Lexington, Kentucky. Sane people will wish him good luck on his intellectual journey. Insane people will try to destroy his educational opportunity or promise to spy on him.
Jonathan Turley writes that at least one ACLU staff member and one Transylvania University professor have, between the two of them, promised to do both of those insane things. Turley first tells his readers about the ACLU employee:
Recently, the ACLU has abandoned its famed neutrality and has not supported some on the right while supporting those on the left. Now, the ACLU's Samuel Crankshaw in Kentucky has targeted Transylvania University for admitting Nick Sandmann, who was falsely accused of abusing a Native American activist in front of Lincoln Memorial. (Crankshaw identifies as an ACLU staffer on social media) Despite various media organizations correcting the story and some settling with Sandmann, some in the media have continued to attack him. Yet, it is far more alarming to see an ACLU official rallying people against a young man whose chief offense appears to be that he is publicly (and unapologetically) conservative and pro-life.
Crankshaw (and what a perfect name that is for a leftist crank), upon hearing about Sandmann's college plans, took to Facebook to attack Transylvania U for admitting Sandmann:
Does anyone else think it's a bit of a stain on Transylvania University for accepting Nick Sandman? I'm sure it's a "both sides" defense, but it's pretty counter to their mission and another instance of there not actually being equal sides to an issue. I think TU should accept anyone willing to have an open mind and engage in debate, regardless of their views. That's how we all learn. That's Transy's mission ...
Having experienced the incredibly high standards Transy requires for admission and then holds its students to, this seems like a slap in the face. I hope some time in a real classroom changes him, but his twitter and public persona suggest otherwise. (Emphasis mine.)
Equally pathological was one of Transylvania U's professors. Turley explains:
One person responding positively was Dr. Avery Tompkins, an Assistant Professor and Diversity Scholar at Transylvania University, acknowledged that the university supported diverse viewpoints but promised to closely monitor Sandmann while he is on campus: "If he were to cause problems by being disruptive, trolling, or engaging in unethical behavior of any kind, I would immediately document it (just like I would for any student doing the same thing)...and he would just be putting himself in a position for me to file a conduct report."
Turley properly lambasts Tompkins for assuming that Sandmann will be a troublemaker and require watching. I hope Sandmann is a troublemaker. Someone needs to reacquaint leftists with the entire concept of a side other than their own. I mention sides because you might have noticed Crankshaw's snide reference to "both sides." To the leftist, the concept of "both sides" no longer exists. There is only the left side.
All of this reminds me of an elderly woman I knew who had a bad fall. The head injury caused her to lose all awareness of the very concept of a "right side." The right half of her body did not exist as far as she was concerned, nor had it ever existed. Likewise, anything to the right of her frame of reference did not exist. She had no sense of loss. Her whole world had shrunk to "the left."
Thankfully, my friend recovered, regaining her sense of a balanced world.
American leftists, especially in academia, have adopted a worldview that is as brain-damaged as that elderly lady was after her fall. However, while my friend suffered an injury from which she fought her way to recovery, people like Crankshaw and Tompkins have willingly abandoned that sense of balance.
For leftists, there is only the left. To the extent they acknowledge something other than the left, that "other" is an evil phantasm they are determined to destroy.
Please read Turley's entire post. He discusses in depth the significant problems with Crankshaw's and Tompkins's views, including the fact that, while Crankshaw rightly argues that he's free to speak his mind on his Facebook page, he sees no disconnect between his private views and the ACLU's ostensible goal of advancing free speech.
My only question after reading the post is this: when will Turley realize that, in today's world, he's a conservative, not a Democrat?
Image: Carpenter Academic Center and the Transylvania Lawn, by TUPictures. CC BY-SA 3.0.