An academic disciplinary case out of Tennessee Tech reminds us that leftism flourishes even in conservative states.  When an assistant professor applauded for a junior high school keeping its "Redskins" mascot, two fellow academics slandered him and Turning Point USA by posting flyers on campus calling both "racists."

Andrew Donadio, a former Navy medic, is an assistant professor of nursing at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee.  While at a meeting of the Putnam County School Board, he applauded when the board couldn't find enough interested people to form a committee to change a local junior high school's Redskins mascot.

Donadio later explained, "I don't like changing things like that just because you have a small group of people who complain.  I'm not a fan of that."  He might have added that Native Americans feel proud of teams that carry the Redskins name.

Unbeknownst to Donadio, Julia Gruber, a fellow associate professor, took umbrage on behalf of Native Americans.  She was so offended that, when she left the meeting, she texted Andrew Smith, an instructor in the English Department.

Smith had already been angry at Donadio for agreeing to become the faculty adviser for a new chapter of Turning Point USA., an organization supporting conservative students who are usually a tiny minority in a sea of campus leftism.  It advances classic American values, including judging people by character, not color.

What's really gotten the goat of leftist academics is that Turning Point has created a Professor Watchlist that allows students to identify the more radical professors at their institutions.  Yes, it's doxing, but it's necessary because so many leftist academics abuse their positions to proselytize, with many acting punitively against conservative students.

Smith and Gruber (who, ironically enough, sound like a gun-manufacturer) put together a splashy flier accusing both Donadio, who has never uttered a word against people of a different race or been accused of doing so, and colorblind Turning Point of being racists who peddle hate speech:

This racist college professor thought it would be a great idea to help start a Tennessee Tech chapter for this national hate group, where racist students can unite to harass, threaten, intimidate, and terrorize persons of color, feminists, liberals, and the like, epsecially [sic] their teachers. Their organization created a national "Professor Watchlist" to harass and intimidate progressive educators, including many women, African-American, and Muslim professors.

Professor Donadio and Turning Point USA. You are on our list.

Your hate & hypocrisy are not welcome at Tennessee Tech.

No Unity With Racists.

Hate Speech Is Not Free Speech.

In fact, hate speech is free speech, but one can scarcely expect modern, college-educated people to know that.  Tennessee Tech has charged Smith & Gruber with violating school policies requiring staff to behave with decency and to promote "academic freedom, diversity, fair treatment and respect."

What's incredibly funny is learning that Smith is a former Presbyterian pastor who holds a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School.  Turning the other cheek is not part of his religious repertoire.  His Facebook page also reveals a dedicated leftist and *ahem* poet:

Smith is also an *ahem* English teacher who wrote this train wreck of a sentence:

Tennessee Tech alumnus & renowned "Liberal Redneck" comedian Trae Crowder will have Julia Karen Gruber & I [sic] on his "Evening Skews" this coming Thursday night.

With a truly stunning lack of self-awareness, Smith complains that the university's disciplinary action against him violates his right to free speech.  (You see, it's not hate speech when he says it...):

Smith also keeps insisting that "a flyer is not a crime."  That may be true, but it's against his employer's policies, and slander and defamation are actionable.  I advise Donadio to sue.  Pain is a great teacher, and leftists, while exceptionally good at inflicting pain through litigation, seldom experience it.

Gruber uses her Facebook page less aggressively than Smith.  It's clear, though, that her politics hew far, far left, whether it's feminism, free speech for her but not for others, racial obsessions (including that stupid cultural appropriation theory), or any other leftist flavor of the month.

Why am I making so much about who Smith & Gruber are?  Because you must understand who is teaching the next generation.  And you need to understand that an institution's location in a red state will not prevent these pernicious anti-constitutional, anti-liberal, race-obsessed ideas from being pounded into students' heads.

Wherever it's been tried, Marxism has failed — it's destroyed economies and, when taken to the limit, led to mass deaths through starvation and government killings.  Yet it's more popular now than ever.  That's because its supporters are the ones who scream most aggressively, especially to the young.  They can be compared to the worst team in the league making the championships because its cheerleaders are the loudest.

Image: Smith & Gruber poster attacking Andrew Donadio.