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Victor Davis Hanson: Campus Chaos Has Come to Congress

Victor Davis Hanson: Campus Chaos Has Come to Congress

“the postmodern idea of relativist truth”

This is a point I have also been making lately. The left wing insanity we have been documenting on college campuses for years has now infected our politics at the highest levels.

Hanson writes at National Review:

Campus Chaos Has Come to Congress

The polarizing atmosphere of the university has now spread to Congress.

During the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, we witnessed how college values have become the norms of the Senate. On campus, constitutional due process vanishes when accusations of sexual harassment arise. America saw that when false charges were lodged against the Duke University lacrosse players and during Rolling Stone magazine’s concocted smear of a University of Virginia fraternity.

Americans may disagree about the relative credibility of either Kavanaugh or his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. But they all witnessed how the asymmetry of the campus governed the hearings.

Ford’s veracity hinged on empathy and perceived believability. There was little requirement of corroborating testimonies, witnesses, and what used to be called physical evidence. In contrast, Kavanaugh was considered guilty from the start. He had to prove his innocence.

One belief of the university is the postmodern idea of relativist truth.

On campus, all can present equally valid narratives. What privileges one story over another is not necessarily any semblance to reality, at least as established by evidence and facts. Instead, powerful victimizers supposedly “construct” truths based on their own self-interests. As a result, self-described victims of historical biases are under no obligation to play by what they consider to be rigged rules of facts, evidence, or testimony.

This dynamic explains why Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J) insisted that Dr. Ford told “her truth.” In other words, evidence was not so relevant. Ford’s story of events from 36 years ago inherently would have as much claim on reality as Kavanaugh’s rebuttal — and perhaps more so, given their different genders and asymmetrical access to power.

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Comments

Good, maybe now they can stop leaving us good folk that work in this field of “higher education” to be fodder for this grievance industry BS. I know there aren’t many of us left, but we are still here!

I wonder if Cory Booker realizes he is justifying the lynching of hundreds of young black men who were accused of sexual assault in the early 20th century. If you should always believe the woman, and physical evidence is not needed, then Booker must conclude that these black men deserved what they got. Frankly, I suspect that most of them were innocent, just like Kavanaugh.

VDH has nailed it yet again. May this be spread far and wide.