Students need exposure to more ideas in colleges

Universities and colleges have become a breeding ground for anarchists who fear conservative thought.

Administrators allow diatribes against ‘right wing’ extremism even while lecturing students on tolerance. They kowtow to protesting students who shut down politically incorrect behavior and unpopular ideas because these might result in hurt feelings.

Colleges should provide intellectual openness and tolerance for opposing ideas; instead they are hostile to diverse viewpoints. A good education is offensive because you have competing conceptions of good and justice. Being offended is the price we pay for our diversity.

Too many intellectually weak students fall for the strident prattling of the latest political deception. Too many intellectually curious students fail to stand-up to the political bigots on campus; they join the jellyfish leadership by college faculty and administrators.

Intellectually courageous students need to stand up to ignorant and indoctrinated students and faculty to fight for their right to think. College students today need more than knowledge; they need guts!

Affirmative action for political thought would allow student access to conservative political philosophy and policy approaches. The alternative is political intolerance. Students are intellectually crippled when allowed access to only one political opinion. Affirmative action increases understanding of racial, gender, sexual, and ethnic issues; why not political issues?

Political affirmative action would provide broader political discussions by fully informed students. The only objectors to political affirmative action will be students and faculty who wish no questioning of their political positions and no challenge to their political thought. This is political intolerance.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 9:28 AM with the headline "Students need exposure to more ideas in colleges."