For what seems like forever, conservative media has lamented that the Left has taken over the American college campus. Article after article has been written about classes teaching critical race theory, programs mandating diversity and inclusion, administrations censoring speech, and the overall second-class treatment of students who love America and what she stands for.
All of that is undeniably happening. Go to any college campus, from an Ivy League university to a community college, and you'll quickly observe the pervasive, monolithic viewpoint. If the Left refers to a coalition of prideful, militant activists who despise Christianity, America, beauty, and objective morality, then yes, the Left has taken over the college campus, and there's no sign of that changing.
Why has the Left succeeded? Let's first get the obvious answers out of the way. Of course, the media indoctrinates young people. Yes, young people are emotional and naive. And sure, young people are selfish and short-sighted.
But here's another reason: the most prominent opposition to the Left, the mainstream conservative movement, sucks. It's lame. It's fruitless and uninspiring. It frames every issue in opposition to the Left rather than charting its own vision for the future. It offers nothing viscerally exciting to young people.
Young people have grown up in an increasingly soulless society. Issues that took priority in previous generations — taxes, the national debt, budget deficits — no longer take precedence in the minds of the future. Instead, crises that affect the soul of the nation and the individual — hedonism, nihilism, moral relativism, multiculturalism, secularism — are front and center and will only become more destructive as time goes on. Neither side of the mainstream political debate addresses what could accurately be considered a spiritual crisis.
Studying the past and appealing to tradition are vital, but not everything. Our establishment sat back while Gen Z became the most alienated, depressed, confused, and mentally unstable generation in history. Instead of solely preaching “traditional values,” we must offer an image of the future that animates the soul. And that image will likely need to be inherently spiritual. “Facts and logic” are a pipeline toward the right direction, but not the solution.
So, we prefer the term “dissident” rather than “conservative” because we want to conserve the future. We reject the establishment and welcome dissenting viewpoints. And we firmly believe that today, honoring Christianity, America, beauty, and objective morality is the most dissident act someone can commit. Above all, it is necessary to secure the America we love.
Gen Z is the future of America, and if dissident students lack a platform to fight on their college campuses, that is tantamount to surrender. In this ongoing battle against the establishment, every voice counts. College Dissident will amplify those voices.
