The Czar has been anticipating a massive academic correction in Higher Education for some time, now. Awareness is always a positive first sign, and for years now the average American understands that college tuition is ridiculous for what you get for it. Alternative college programs are already capitalizing on this, offering fully accredited classes for steep discounts, provided you attend on-line, and so forth. Old world colleges are definitely feeling this squeeze, although few of them have reacted in a meaningful way, but let us hope they do.

Another sea change is happening even faster, because even the Left admits there’s a problem. And while this change may have no visible effects right now, the perception exists that there is a serious problem, and this perception is starting to filter into regular society.

Specifically, there is a growing awareness that Leftist influence in academia is a bad thing.

No, really—even Nicholas Kristof of The New York TImes has acknowledged there is a real problem with academia. But his piece is merely the most visible in a growing line of jeremiads and editorials that Leftist thought has—as ever—gone too far.

Of course it has. Since the 1950s, and possibly earlier, Leftist thought has spread like a virus through the humanities, and now festers in the sciences, law schools, business schools, nursing schools, and education schools. Practically any course you study is fraught with relentless Social Justice messages, students demanding Action Now!, and condemnation of conservative values. You know this, so the Czar won’t bother with adding details because pretty much anything you’ve heard about college these days is true. Except for the rapey stuff.

Thus, when a nationally syndicated columnist and long-term liberal advocate says we need to balance out academia, it’s a problem. And perception—as any conservative voter knows—immediately becomes public reality. We are at a strange but anticipated tipping point in American culture where “progressive liberal” is becoming a dirty phrase. Expect this perception to gain acceptance in the cultural mindset.

So what’s the deal? Basically, most liberals viewed the 2016 election as a bucket of ice cold reality splashed on their faces. Expecting a liberal blowout, they saw conservatives (and non-liberals) dominate all levels of government: and many of them were elected not by preaching smaller government, pro-life, or pro-military messages but by demanding the liberal mindset just stop polluting the media. While there are many reasons explaining the collapse of liberalism, the liberals themselves seem to think they went too far this time.

Yeah, they go too far every time. But there is merit to their thinking; liberals are now publicly admitting (even on such lefty whine-fests such as Saturday Night Live) that they’ve been living in a bubble for almost two decades. And where did this start? For many, it started in college.

The feeling among liberals is that they really aren’t all that liberal—something you have been saying for years. Progressives require that liberals walk, talk, chew, and think the same way, and woe unto thee who digresses. As Kristof mentions in his editorial, liberals love people who look different, provided they think the same way. Actually, Nick, liberals generally like their followers looking the same way, too. They’re just slow to admit it.

Again, most of this starts in college: only “approved” speakers may be invited to speak. Classes must cover diverse perspectives (even with the probability of irrelevancy), rather than rely upon classical thought. Everything must be politicized. Means to an end, that sort of thing. But the argument adds that the diversity liberalism really needs is intellectual diversity: most liberals lose arguments to conservatives (Twitter, Facebook, the dinner table) because they have never been exposed to conservative arguments. Most liberals have little idea whether or not facts support their side or the other because they’ve done no research, just copy-and-paste statements. And too many liberals find conservative arguments, well, a little persuasive. Religious dogma has replaced liberal reason, and that’s a problem.

Yes, liberalism has become a religious cult. The Volgi and the Mandarin here have been saying it for years. Want proof?

	Liberalism is a religion.
	I’ve been also saying that for years.

The Czar won’t lie to you, here. Scrubbing out liberal nonsense from higher education may take generations; certainly, a lot of conservative professors aren’t lining up to apply anywhere because there aren’t enough left to form a line. Many instructors haven’t even read the classic texts, just the liberal counterarguments—like a certain famous guest Constitution law lecturer who evidently never read the actual, you know, document. It’s going to take a long time, and like painting a battleship, it may never actually get completed.

But there is an acknowledgment—coming soon to an ordinary person seated next to you somewhere—that liberals have wrecked college, and that maybe liberals ought to be studying conservative arguments and theories in order to argue better.

Of course, the Czar patiently knows, the more a liberal is exposed to conservative logic, the less he or she wants to remain a liberal. Once you become aware of your cognitive dissonance, you realize how damned loud it is.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.