High school was over, and I would soon be departing to my home for the next four years: the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My conservative extended family would joke with me at gatherings that I “shouldn’t let that liberal institution poison your brain.” With sayings like this, alongside the knowledge that Madison is one of the most liberal college cities in the nation, I thought I knew what I was in for. I am strong in my right-leaning ideals and was not worried that a liberal university could indoctrinate me; however, I didn’t realize just how forceful they would be trying to ram their leftist agenda down my throat. The university’s attempt to sculpt me into a college liberal started on day one: registration.
I arrived in Madison for my advising and registration in June, and they split us into small groups with a campus counselor. First thing they did was round us up and have us introduce ourselves. We had to answer the basic questions: where are you from, what type of music do you like, what dorm are you living in, and the other monotonous small talk. The last question we had to answer struck me: What are your gender pronouns?
The last question we had to answer struck me: What are your gender pronouns?
I was dazed and confused. What does this even mean? They then explained that you can identify as a he/him/his, she/her/hers, or they/their/theirs. I answered he/him/his because I didn’t even fully grasp what they were even asking.
I was puzzled so I researched and discovered that apparently gender identification is an articulate emotional science that is taken very seriously in our millennial age. I had heard of LGBT identifications but was not current in the fact that it has now expanded to LGBTQQIASREBIGG. The last seven or so letters of the acronym are an exaggeration, but give it a few years, and we will see how hyperbolic I am actually being.
Right from the start, some societally liberal indoctrinations were laid upon me. It didn’t surprise me that I was then introduced to even more proselytization later that evening. All the students at orientation had to go to a poetic performance where they portrayed the effects of white privilege and how we need to be open-minded to the diverse cultures and personalities that college life contains. It was a lot to take in, and I was definitely knocked off guard by their portrayals of students of other races suffocating in a white-dominated collegiate atmosphere.
The performance wasn’t even the end of the culture shock; the curtain closed and rather than clapping, we were supposed to snap instead to keep from triggering students who have traumatic experiences associated with a booming applause. This was another first for me: my initial introduction into the ludicrous world of triggerings.
What my college was doing at this orientation is not necessarily bad. I can see their motives to prepare us to be an inclusive and unprejudiced student body; however, the method of doing so and the objectives exposed were very liberally biased and noninclusive of other ideologies. I didn’t let these ideals poison my brain, as my uncle forewarned; rather, I began hypothesizing that our society is rapidly turning into a politically correct, overly sensitive, crybaby culture. As my freshman year is drawing to a close, I now know just how correct my hypothesis was.
Tyler Whitmore
I grew up in a conservative city inside the liberal state of Minnesota and had the ideals of conservatism in my household from birth. I am a firm believer that anyone who works hard can succeed, and that you are entitled to absolutely nothing.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
@Tyler_Whitmore
