Columbia University Feels like North Korea

Some of us have been unusually critical of the new woke educational standards. Unfortunately, these standards are so absurd and so stupid that our critiques often read like caricature. It can’t really be that bad, can it?

So, the thoughts of Yeonmi Park draw our attention. A North Korean defector, Park is well qualified to compare North Korea and the university she attended in America-- that would be, Columbia University.

To her mind Columbia, for all its pretenses about being a place for free inquiry, is as repressive as North Korea. The only difference is, that what is forced on North Koreans, against their will, is embraced by brain dead American academics.

Park was especially impressed to see American students learning how to hate their country and to hate their civilization. Moreover, free debate and discussion are not allowed at Columbia:

Yeonmi Park attended Columbia University and was immediately struck by what she viewed anti-Western sentiment in the classroom and a focus on political correctness that had her thinking “even North Korea isn’t this nuts.”

“I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think,” Park told Fox News. “I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.”

The 27-year-old told The Post that she couldn't believe she would be asked to do “this much censoring of myself” at a university in the United States. 

So, self-censorship in the name of freedom. Obviously, the people who are in charge of this institution are certifiable idiots.

Of course, since students are all suffering from chronic depression, aka, dysthymia, they are so thin-skinned that they must be warned any time difficult or potentially triggering material is going to be discussed. Therapy has taken over for education:

Her professors gave students “trigger warnings,” sharing the wording from readings in advance so people could opt out of reading or even sitting in class during discussions, Park told The Post.

“Going to Columbia, the first thing I learned was ‘safe space,’” she said.

“Every problem, they explained us, is because of white men.” Some of the discussions of white privilege reminded her of the caste system in her native country, where people were categorized based on their ancestors, she said.

In one class, a teacher discussing Western Civilization asked students if they had a problem with the name of the topic – most students raised their hands, according to Park. Some, she said, mentioned issues with the “colonial” slant of the discussion.

And, of course, preferred pronouns are all the rage:

And classes often began with professors asking students for their preferred pronouns, with the use of “they” becoming scary as she feared being socially penalized for not being inclusive enough in her vocabulary.

You would imagine that it would be a good thing to like Jane Austen’s novels. After all, they count among the greatest works of English literature. You would be wrong:

She told Fox that she also was chided for saying she enjoyed the writings of Jane Austen.

“I said ‘I love those books.’ I thought it was a good thing,” Park told the network. “Then she said, ‘Did you know those writers had a colonial mindset? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you.’”

Americans are now being consumed by self-loathing. 

“I thought North Koreans were the only people who hated Americans, but turns out there are a lot of people hating this country in this country,” she told The Post.

“Other times (in history) there’s a military coup d’etat, like a force comes in taking your rights away and silencing you. But this country is choosing to be silenced, choosing to give their rights away.”

Go figure….