Much has been made of the advanced education of the latest would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, whom the suspect described in a manifesto as a “pedophile,” “rapist,” and “traitor.” He graduated from the California Institute of Technology, one of the most selective schools in the country.
As to Caltech, Daniel McCarthy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute writes: “In the most recent City Journal college rankings, Caltech took the top spot for ‘value added to career,’ but languished at a dismal 95th place for ‘student ideological diversity.’
“The rankings noted the school’s ‘disproportionately large Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bureaucracy’ — with ‘roughly ten DEI staff members per 1,000 students’ — and its ‘overwhelmingly liberal’ student body, ’16 liberal students for every conservative.'”
Education, by itself, is not the problem. The problem is something else: ideological certainty reinforced in environments where dissenting views are scarce.
In 2024, The Duke Chronicle wrote: “In the Harvard Crimson’s spring 2023 faculty survey, 31.8% of respondents drawn from Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences identified as ‘very liberal,’ while 45.3% of respondents identified as ‘liberal.’ Fewer than 3% of respondents identified as ‘conservative’ (2.5%) or ‘very conservative’ (0.4%).”
What happens when smart people are surrounded mostly by others who think the same way? Often, it produces not wisdom, but moral certainty — an unshakable belief that one’s conclusions are not just correct, but righteous.
A survey from the Skeptic Research Center suggested those with graduate degrees are nearly twice as likely to believe “violence is often necessary to create social change.” The Skeptic Research Center wrote: “In the politically tumultuous Summer of 2020, PEW reported the results of a survey indicating that 80 percent of Americans have ‘none’ or ‘just a few’ friends with political views different from their own. A few years later, the American Psychiatric Association found that around 20 percent of Americans had become estranged from family due to political disagreements, with an additional 20 percent skipping family events because of political disagreements. Another recent study found that around 1 in 6 Americans have ended or considered ending a romantic relationship because of a political disagreement.”
My closest friend — someone I had known for more than 40 years — ended our friendship over Trump. A law professor, he received a perfect score on his SAT. He has a son with special needs. But he became convinced that Trump had mocked a disabled reporter out of cruelty.
I explained that Trump did mock the reporter, but not because of the reporter’s disability. Trump ridiculed the reporter because, in Trump’s opinion, the reporter distanced himself from his own article when Trump used it to corroborate an assertion Trump made that on 9/11, some Muslims in New Jersey were seen cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers. I referred my friend to a website called Catholics4Trump with a video from several other instances where Trump used his hand-waving “mocking” gesture to make fun of himself, an able-bodied general, and others.
“Why,” I asked my friend, “would I support someone who would do such a thing? Why would his supporters? And what politician would think is a good idea to get votes by mocking a disabled person?”
But this narrative stuck. In 2016, before the election, NBC News wrote: “When asked in a recent Bloomberg poll what bothered them most about Donald Trump — of a slew of controversies — likely voters picked one action above all others: When the candidate mocked a reporter with a disability last November.”
Trump, of course, denied the accusation and insisted he was unaware of the reporter’s disability. The reporter, in fact, is a calm, articulate speaker who does not wave his hands in the comic fashion as Trump did.
None of this mattered to my friend. And it struck me. Once someone, no matter how intelligent or well-educated, is invested in hating Trump, no amount of information or alternative explanation would make him unhate Trump.
As to the would-be assassin, the question is not how much he learned, but whether he ever learned to question his beliefs — and whether in his environment this was encouraged, tolerated or punished.
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit here. Follow Larry on X @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage.
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Schools & Colleges don’t educate anymore, they indoctrinate students.
Let’s call a spade a spade.
Cole Thomas Allen may have been “book smart” but this man is a freakin’ psychopath.
I often wonder if we suffer from mental malaise, we are the only people on Earth that have it nice and easy, due to endurance of those who came before us. We have no idea about the plight of truly poor in India, about the life under burka, about what it is like to live in the male dominant society and under male’s thumb. Our brave feminist rave and rant about the oppression and aggression, of the ugly white men who gave them automatic transmission and automatic washer and dryer and made life much easier in every way. Freud’s patients were all well to do upper middle class bored women, the poorer ones were too busy to be bored. Every generation is trying to leave something better for the children, only we are trying to destroy it out of selfishness and attitude apres nous deluge. Insane.
I wonder why, as a Christian, anyone would take it into his own hands to “take out” the man whom God raised up to lead this great nation. I pray for our Presidents, whoever they are and no matter what they’ve done. The Scriptures clearly tell us God puts them into their offices, whether kings or presidents, and He takes them out. That’s not our job. I’m a Christian and a Constitutionalist who loves the republic our founders established, and I know that God judges nations that turn from righteousness. Therefore, I also pray that He would turn the nation back to Himself as the churches return to the truth of the Scriptures. If we just believe God, He will bless our land.
Colleges and Universities fail to teach students how to question everything they learn as to whether it is true or false. A young person away from home for the first time is often indoctrinated by the beliefs of their college professors. Students get brainwashed because the information provided is so one sided and students are not taught to question everything they are exposed to as right or wrong. This is the great tragedy of higher education.
The People’s Republic of California needs to be put on a short leash. How? I don’t know. I do know that there are plenty of sane folks that want to have nothing to do with that place. I just wish that when their citizens leave California that they leave their ideologies there. They have already destroyed Colorado and are working on Texas.
They no longer educate. They teach feelings and opinions.
Trump making a funny gesture about a reporter who was not handicapped in any way makes Trump persona non grata, the left hates. When Biden whose brainwaves were weak said what others had written for him and made half the country domestic terrorists where were all these democrats. The left has a well oiled machine behind them by owning the Legacy Media. With the money provided by the millionaires in their party they are marching again. While doing nothing for the poor or the homeless in this country. They don’t want America to succeed by hounding one man who is working 24/7 to raise this country’s economy up. Create jobs. Eliminate fraud in every department in the federal govt. he raised up the military, with enlistments up. He sleeked down the IRS only the democrats nitpick at little things because they don’t want a sleek IRS or any other dept. They didn’t care when the Chinese balloon flew over our country. The Chinese owning the Panama Canal. Or the jobs going overseas. Or Iran attacking Israel and other countries in the Middle East. After all they love Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, ISIS. They love the Muslims in this country. 3,000 mosques in this country. Those are the people that march and protests, they are the paid protesters and the sheep, who never have heard the great things Trump has done and listen to the Legacy Media, will never change. Kennedy was assassinated the country went into mourning.Today they make fun of Melania Trump about being a widow. This is hatred so deep they will never overcome it even if President would be killed. They want every right wing politician and their supporters be gone. They are planning a genocide of the white race. They are Satan worshippers and they have no soul.
Excellent post!
I lost a friend of 24 years from a group of 4 of us. We worked together for the phone company and pal’d around for 24 years, and never had a problem with our different political views.
We never stopped laughing and teasing each other…UNTIL…Trump was reelected. Then our friend said she needed distance and couldn’t be around us. Two of us are Conservative Nationalists. One is a Libertarian, and our friend is ultra liberal.
*I have not given up on her and have invited her to my 80th B’day party…praying she’ll come!
Best analysis I have read, explaining, just how supposive brilliant individuals can be sometimes intellectually blind.
PARENTS HAVE TO TAKE BACK THEIR KIDS EDUCATION..THEY ARE INDOCTRINATING THEM STARTING IN PRE SCHOOL NOW…THE DEMS WANT THEM UNEDUCATED..MAKES THEM EASIER TO COERCE..WHEN THEY CAN’T READ, WRITE, OR ADD 2+2 YOU CAN CONTROL THEIR THOUGHTS..THEY LEARN NOTHING ABOUT ACTUAL HISTORY..ONLY ABOUT THE LYING CRAP THE SPOON FEED THEM DAILY..DEMOCRAPS ARE A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION..A MAFIA..A CANCER ON OUR COUNTRY..THEY NEED TO BE DISMANTLED TOTALLY & COMPETELY…THEY ARE THE THREAT ON OUR COUNTRY !!!! YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOUR KIDS BACK BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE…
These so-called college-educated people exist in a BUBBLE and never reach outside to find contrasting opinions or salient FACTS!
Shooter Idealogical issues stem from
Indoc
Education
Peers
Home Life
to be a shooter
Your friend is proof positive that one can be very well educated and a great student and STILL may not be smart! But my sister illustrated that for me many years before this!
The radical liberals call Trump a Nazi, a Hitler, a Fascist, and pretend that is awful and that is what makes Trump “bad” yet, they support the these same horrible ideologies in their “Democrat” choices for public offices. Take this new guy who has emerged who is vying to take over Susan Collins’ seat in our Senate. He has a swastika tattooed on his chest and has a list about 10 lines long that professes how much of a Nazi HE is. These radical liberals/Communists just root for whomever is against Trump and the people who love him. They have no morals. They agreed with the Pope yet hate Christianity. They are mentally ill over the success of President Trump. They have no one who even comes close to him and his cabinet and what good they are trying to do for we, the people. Much of their angst is simply jealousy!!
Purely a problem of Democrat indoctrination. They can’t tolerate anybody that has an opinion different than theirs. If you have a different opinion then they do violence is there response. They spew that hatred everywhere
THE ROOT TO ALL EVIL, ALL MISERY, ALL UNRIGHTEOUS, ALL PERVERSIONS, AND ALL UNHAPPINESS IS THE PLURAL OF ONE WORD – DEMOCRATS!!!!!
Sanctimony is an inherent trait of libs.
The next thing we will hear is this killer’s mental health. Please, when does a mental patient plan a murder in such detail, and of the President, and why is it so hard to decide his punishment? Just asking. Our media outlets are partially to blame, but no thinking adult or one with a pure heart plans an event so horrible. Jail is too good for his ilk.
Everyone has “free choice”. I don’t think anyone will dispute that fact. They may say the person was manipulated or coerced or something else, but they STILL have a choice. Taking that fact and the VALID argument, a choice may have been manipulated or coerced, it makes the situation clear, ANYTIME a person has been denied the full spectrum of choices or completely one “pole” of the choices, their choice can ONLY be the “pole” not denied. COMMONLY known as brainwashing. HELLO, the bulk of the Academia, Media, Entertainment and Sports, Unions, …, STRANGELY predominantly Left and also STRANGELY predominantly the TDS inflicted (a direct parallel).
THIS IS why we have the First Amendment, the door to informed and reasoned choices.
Goes right along with THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND, by Lukianoff and Haidt. Very interesting read and sums up this new trend very well.
This article reminded me of my university years. I attended a Communist leaning university in South America. There, when the Students Council decided we could not go to class, all school activity ceased, sometimes for months. During those days, the Council, aside from performing violent marches like the ones we are witnessing in the US, would gather the students in the amphitheater and read the Mao’s Red Book, where Mao Tse Tung repeatedly stated that the ‘revolution must be bloody’. Now I wonder if some kind of subtle indoctrination like that takes place in all universities: Change has to be violent…
Hatred and TDS are conditions of the heart. I hope someday we have the death penalty return. Anyone that commits or tries to commit a murder with a weapon should face the death penalty. Then, teach our children the 10 commandments. Pretty simple.
As my Dad used to say about people like this, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, I’ve already made up my mind.”
Please post your “money making spam somewhere else. We are trying to have a discussion on serious matters that affect our country.
Excellent information. I wish articles like this would be run by the irresponsible media elite.
Perhaps someday the FCC director will be fired and be replaced with someone who WILL enforce broadcast law.if a ham operator said what robert denero said at an awards show he could look for a suspended license. These licenses are issued to serve the public interest not special interest.
We need to return to accountability.
TERM LIMITS , TERM LIMITS , TERM LIMITS
“The problem isn’t education. It’s ideological isolation.”
And, how does that make you feel? (smmfh)
NO HISTORY: NO U.S.A, NO RESPECT, OUTSIDE INFLUECES, TAKE THE 2025 CIVICS TEST/USCIS, EASY TO BECOME A U.S. CITIZEN TO JUST STUDY FOR ONE TEST AND BE ON YOUR WAY TO WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITIES WHILE AMERICAN’S DREAMS ARE FORGOTTEN WHILE THEIR VOICES ARE SILENCED:
It seems that we are Not the United States of America! Probably not for some while!!! NEW JERSEY IS and HAS BEEN A SANCTUARY STATE set up by our Previous Governor, Murphy, Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal for quite some time!
KNOW HISTORY, KNOW HOW TO PROTECT OUR COUNTRY FROM OUTSIDE INFLUENCES!
Gradually, yes Gradually since the 70’s forward whether Born here or Immigrated here!!! “Gurbir Grewal was born in America to Parents of India in JUNE 1973! Proof is in the Details:
“In November 2018, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued the “Immigrant Trust Directive,” a landmark statewide policy designed to strengthen trust between New Jersey’s law enforcement officers and the state’s diverse immigrant communities. The Directive ensures that victims and witnesses feel safe reporting crimes to local police without fear of deportation.” — NJ.gov
We now have many OF OUR OWN AMERICAN people who lost all sense of our “Normal” American Lives since the 50’s! We have given our Cities/Towns/States over to an ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF OUTSIDE INFLUENCERS WITH THE OPPORTUNITY TO GRADUALLY/SILENTLY REJECT OR CHANGE OUR LAWS, MAKE THEIR OWN LAWS, USE OUR LAWS AGAINST US! SEE HOW EASY IT IS TO BECOME A CITIZEN:
2025 Civics TestUSCIS will administer the 2025 Naturalization Civics Test to aliens who file Form N-400, Application for Naturalization on or after October 20, 2025.
The 2025 Naturalization Civics Test is an oral test consisting of 20 questions from the list of 128 civics test questions. You must answer 12 questions correctly to pass the 2025 Naturalization Civics Test. You will fail the test if you answer 9 of the 20 questions incorrectly.
People were for God and Country! Now we have people who constantly literally/verbally/physically have lost complete control of themselves to all the outside influences whether they are Anti-God, Anti-Religion, Anti-Catholic (yes, children were taught RESPECT FOR GOD AND COUNTRY/AMERICAN HISTORY as their parents paid for their Education!) Anti-American, etc.!
HOW MANY AMERICAN’S: CITIZENS, POLITICIANS, GOVERNMENT WORKERS HAVE BEEN NOW CONFUSED BY MANY IMMIGRANTS: WHO HONOR, OBEY FALSE MANY FALSE gods OVER THE ONE TRUE GOD WHO BLESSED US ALL THESE YEARS AND THEN WE TURNED AGAINST THE ONE TRUE GOD AND EACH OTHER WHETHER RELIGIOUSLY, POLITICALLY, AND AS PARENTS, ETC.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: WHY CANT OUR PEOPLE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES, AND SACRIFICED/SACRIFICE STILL AND THAT OUR COUNTRY IS BASED ON THE WORD OF GOD THE BIBLE NOT ON OUR ORIGINAL COUNTRIES CUSTOMS/HERITAGE AS:
THE IMMIGRANTS WHO CANNOT SEPARATE FROM THEIR CUSTOMS/CULTURE BUT USE THEM AGAINST US AND BECAUSE WE ARE SO WEAK, WE HAVE IMMIGRANTS WHETHER BORN TO IMMIGRANTS ON AMERICAN SOIL WHO HAVE BEEN CHANGING US INTO AN ALMOST 4TH WORLD COUNTRY!! AND:
WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHTS TO RUIN AMERICA? BET YOU DON’T KNOW THAT GOD WARNS AGAINST ALLOWING FALSE god’s on your land to be PUNISHABLE BY THE ONE TRUE GOD OVER THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
CHURCHES ARE FREELY OPEN IN AMERICA WHILE OTHER’S HAVE CREATED: CULTURAL COMPOUNDS WITH GATES AND YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN AND ON AMERICAN SOIL!! HMMMMMM . . AND:
WHO CREATED THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH/PRAY AND STATE when AGAIN OUR COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON GOD’S WORD/THE BIBLE: BUT AND YET AGAIN “FOREIGNERS” are ALLOWED ON AMERICAN SOIL TO COMBINE TAKEOVER STRATEGIES IN THEIR
TEMPLES/PRAY AND TAKE OVER THE U.S.A.?
BRING BACK NOT ONLY OUR HISTORY BUT ALSO WORLD HISTORY SO YOU CAN SEE WHO WAS AND IS COMING INTO OUR COUNTRY AND WHAT MENTAL BAGGAGE THEY HAVE BROUGT AND STILL BRING! HERE IS AN OLD WORD: AUDACITY:
THAT THEY ARE CREATING OR INFLUENCING OTERS BY THEIR UNREASONABLE DEMANDS ON THE U.S.A.: A SHOCKING OR RUDE DISCRGARD FOR PERSONAL SAFETY, CONVENTION OR RESTRICTION. IT IMPLIES EXTREME IMPUDENCE, INSOLENCE, OR A SHAMELESS APPROACH TO SITUATIONS! AS THIS HAS AND IS INFLUENCING OUR LAWS AND AMERICANS!
It seems like almost everyone on this post is taking an ideological stance on the republican side. Democrats are all bad and republicans are all good and Trump can do nothing wrong…..you are the same. Just on the other side.