This last week, I chaperoned our high school's senior class trip and had the opportunity for more outside the classroom one-on-one conversations with a number of students. I was surprised and encouraged to hear from more than one of them that they were going to forgo college, at least for the time being.
To be clear, nobody was planning a gap year or thinking about backpacking through Europe. Those who weren't going to college had lined up apprenticeships, internships, and job-site training with employers, planning to get a jump on their careers.
How embarrassing for me that I stood there impressed by their decisions, when I should have been letting them know that if they don't go to college, they will never be qualified to share their opinions on matters of public policy. At least that's what I saw Dr. Ian Copeland and a bevy of other leftists apparently believe:
Is it Dr. Copeland's contention that a person must have an advanced degree in a particular field, either undergraduate or graduate, before opining publicly on that topic? Is that the standard for what he believes qualifies as an informed opinion – one worth listening to? If so, might I ask why he is, as a trained biochemist and physiologist commenting on political matters?
As someone with an advanced, graduate level degree in political science, I'm not sure why I'm expected to share the platform of public dialogue with someone so uninformed. Dr. Copeland's very first tweet was expressing an opinion about migrant families. That isn't about chemistry, biology, or physiology, so why is he speaking?
The whole brain-shame routine smacks of uppity elitism, but it's actually worse than that. Copeland and others on the left don't really believe the things that they're saying. They platform Greta Thunberg for crying out loud, holding her up as an expert on matters of climate change. In other words, they don't mind those with high school diplomas or those who, like Greta, dropped out of high school. What really drives this isn't some noble appeal to expertise. It's craven politics – tell Dr. Copeland and company what you are going to say, and then he'll tell you if you're allowed to say it.
Secondly, this week I came across this gem of an exchange:
This is what happens when someone who isn't victimized, but really enjoys pretending otherwise, encounters someone else who really was a victim. Nikole Hannah-Jones has made a lot of money saying buzzwords, making up narratives, and then crying racism when called on it. Van Fleet meanwhile has made a life for herself after surviving Mao's brutal cultural revolution and immigrating to the United States in her 20s.
Where's Dr. Copeland when you need him to tell the uneducated, inexperienced race-baiter that she lacks the expertise to weigh in?
Finally, I realized this last week just how deeply the left fears Ron DeSantis. Trump may be their foil, but they need him, they use him, and they rely on his predictable lack of discipline to play right into their hands.
They love to hate Trump, but they also love to provoke him into volatile rants to make him look bad. With DeSantis, they are the ones engaged in the volatile rants, making themselves look bad as they rush to oppose the popular Florida Governor.
In case you don't follow that last reference, Florida recently executed convicted murderer Donald Dillbeck. He killed a deputy and then after escaping custody, stabbed a woman to death. He was a vile murderer. But giving his last words, he criticized DeSantis, and suddenly didn't seem like that much of a bad guy to committed leftists who led their coverage and commentary of the execution not with a tribute to his victims or chronicling of his heinous crimes. No, they decided to offer anyone who would listen the opportunity to take political advice from the capital offender.
I hope he had more than a high school diploma.
