Brandeis Decomposes: Janet Tassel
“It is difficult to say exactly when Brandeis, an esteemed center for higher learning, was deformed into a pathetic hive of postmodernist brainwashing for the perpetually aggrieved. But, as with every American university, Brandeis was a casualty of the poisonous sixties and early seventies–affirmative action to Woodstock–and has never recovered. It is probably safe to say that the biggest factor in Brandeis’s institutional devolution was its star faculty member from 1954 to 1965, the guru of the counterculture, Herbert Marcuse. His Eros and Civilization (1955) and his 1964 One-Dimensional Man resonated with the leftist student movement, and he soon became known as the “father of the New Left.” It was Marcuse who invented probably the silliest maxim of the Sixties: “Make Love, Not War.” Jonah Goldberg, in his fascinating book Liberal Fascism, makes a persuasive case that Marcuse, in his attack on Western society and “liberal tolerance” was, like so many self-proclaimed leftists, in reality a dangerous fascist.”
“Don’t send my boy to Harvard,”The dying mother said.
“Don’t send my boy to Syracuse,”I’d rather see him dead!
“Yes, send my boy to Princeton, or better still Cornell,”But as for Bran-D-E-I-S
“I’ll see him first in hell!”
In that ancient fraternity drinking song, the original punch line was “Pennsylvan-I-A.” But now Brandeis, certified (by Daily Caller) as America’s second “Most Rabidly Leftist, Politically Correct College for Dirty, Tree-Hugging Hippies,” walks away with the honor.
What in the world has happened to Brandeis, nestled in leafy, suburban Boston, named for Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, friend to Zionism, incorruptible crusader for justice? The opening of Brandeis in 1948 was called “one of the great moments in Jewish history,” its 13-member faculty, under president Abram Sachar, a distinguished roster of artists and scholars.
Brandeis now– despite a faculty and student body on the whole devoted to the ideals of its namesake–has become a miasmic bog of crazy Left-wing ideology. Let us review the more publicized highlights, or rather days of dishonor, at Brandeis this past year, a year notable, incidentally, for the university’s apparent decision to revoke the First Amendment.
There was, we recall, the ignominious ditching of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the noble human rights activist, from graduation ceremonies. Among the 87 faculty members instigating Hirsi Ali’s disinvitatation was Mary Baine Campbell, a professor of literature, who called Hirsi Ali “an ignorant, ultra-right-wing extremist, abusively, shockingly vocal in her hatred for Muslim culture and Muslims….” And that was one of the less offensive rants.
And on the subject of Brandeis faculty rants, senior Daniel Mael (about whom more in a moment) revealed a hitherto secret faculty listserv, which for bottom-feeding vulgarity verges on the pornographic. Here, for example, is Donald Hindley, professor of comparative politics, who writes that when he dies, his organs probably will be taken by Israel and “if not of use to His people, recycled as (non-Kosher, I hope but money doth corrupt us all, as witness the Jewish Orthodox occupiers of Palestinian territory) sausages-frankfurters-weenies-erstwhile hot dogs.” Elsewhere he observes that “We are at a Jew-controlled and –financed university….” Oh, and he also volunteered a picture of his penis.
This year at Brandeis was also notable for the Left’s Marxist reaffirmation of the police as a particularly favored target for vilification. Thus, when the baleful events of late 2014 in Ferguson and Staten Island inflamed the souls of so many professional victims and sympathizers, the aggrieved at Brandeis too were aroused. When the national grieving circus culminated in the execution of two New York policemen sitting in their car eating lunch, the aggrieved at Brandeis arose and spewed.
One student, a junior, Khadijah Lynch [Khadijah was the name of Muhammed’s first wife] rushed to Twitter to let everyone know HER response: “lmao [laughing my ass off], all i just really don’t have sympathy for the cops who were shot. i hate this racist f**king country.” You will note that among the victims at Brandeis are grammar and usage.
Khadijah was not through. On and on she tweeted:
- i have no sympathy for the nypd officers who were murdered today.
- what the f**k even IS non-violence.
- ya’ll out here waiting for a white messiah, im waiting for Malcolm X to return.
- the fact that black people have not burned down this country is beyond me.
- i am in riot mode. F**k this f**king country.
- i need to get my gun license. Asap.
- a social justice themed institution grounded in zionism. word. that’s a f**king fanny dooley.
- amerikkka needs an intifada. enough is enough.
It was the aforementioned senior, the courageous Daniel Mael, who wrote about her tweets at TruthRevolt.com. When, after Mael’s article, TruthRevolt contacted Lynch, she tweeted, “so bdeis ‘journalists’ be creeping on my twitter. byee.” Lynch deleted them and resigned as student representative to the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. Needlessly, perhaps. The department chairman, Chad Williams, stated that though Lynch’s comments “do not reflect the views of AAAS” etc. etc., nevertheless he reminded us that:
In 1961, the great American writer James Baldwin poignantly noted that “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” While is may be easy and convenient at this emotionally charged moment to condemn Ms. Lynch, we must also strive to understand why she would make these comments. This means openly and honestly recognizing the very real pain and frustration that many young people of color struggle with in trying to navigate their place in a society that all to often delegitimizes their existence.
Even the Brandeis Asian American Student Association declared “sympathy” and a “readiness to stand by” Lynch. Their Facebook page states that Lynch “has been wrongfully targeted and harassed.”
Meanwhile, the student most wrongfully targeted and harassed became, to no one’s surprise, Daniel Mael. The Lynch mob was on the move. Senior Michael Piccione, a member of the Student Conduct Board, circulated to the president of Brandeis, faculty, and students an e-mail that read in part:
Subject: VERY IMPORTANT: Holding Daniel Mael accountable, and other threats to student safety!
Mael, a regular contributor on a website called “TruthRevolt,”…wrote an article targeting Khadijah for a series of tweets she made on her own personal Twitter over the last month….
Whether one agrees or not with the very blunt comments Khadijah made on her Twitter account, the audience of these postings was originally those who frequented her Twitter….After having posted the aforementioned article, Mael has exposed Khadijah to the largely white supremacist following of the website on which he posts, which has led to harassment, death threats, rape threats, and excessive hate speech directed to her personal Twitter (now private), Facebook (now deactivated), and LinkedIn.
The Brandeis Class of 2017 Official Page contains a post by sophomore William Amara: “I am sorry that Khadijah has to put up with these f**king assholes publishing (and likely distorting) her private opinions to further incite racial hatred and oppression. I hope the university will stand with you if these cocksuckers cause things to escalate further.” It is far from the only such post on that page from the Lynch mob. In addition, a “standwithkhadijah” hashtag has been started, as has a Change.org petition attacking Mael, signed by Brandeis president Fred Lawrence. Students for Justice in Palestine signed on “with love and solidarity to Khadijah Lynch, who has been the target of a very vicious and personal campaign of severe harassment….”All this bile is being spewed despite the fact that Mael wrote on his own Facebook page early on:
Any threats made against Khadijah Lynch are repulsive and morally reprehensible. What Lynch wrote was vile and so too are some of the threats made against her. It must stop. Now. We must overcome vicious hatred through real dialogue and a strong commitment to a better future.
Though President Fred Lawrence weighed in with an anodyne, cliché-clogged message about freedom of expression and a national conversation on race, his principal thrust seemed to be on safety: “We have no greater concern than the safety of our students at Brandeis.” One hopes he means Daniel Mael, because Mael has been the recipient of threats to his life, as have members of his family. Mael is already a battle-scarred veteran of attacks at Brandeis. Among other skirmishes, he survived a legal threat from the campus chapter of the leftist “pro-Israel” J Street. And he was Aayan Hirsi Ali’s major campus supporter during the contentious Spring of her iniquitous disinvitation. (Indeed, his Facebook page features a picture of himself with Hirsi Ali.) He will return to Brandeis this semester in hopes that the Brandeis Police will provide the safety emphasized by President Lawrence, though the campus police have been forthright about his needing to keep an eye on his own car and belongings. As to his person, Mael will have to provide his own security.
It is difficult to say exactly when Brandeis, an esteemed center for higher learning, was deformed into a pathetic hive of postmodernist brainwashing for the perpetually aggrieved. But, as with every American university, Brandeis was a casualty of the poisonous sixties and early seventies–affirmative action to Woodstock–and has never recovered. It is probably safe to say that the biggest factor in Brandeis’s institutional devolution was its star faculty member from 1954 to 1965, the guru of the counterculture, Herbert Marcuse. His Eros and Civilization (1955) and his 1964 One-Dimensional Man resonated with the leftist student movement, and he soon became known as the “father of the New Left.” It was Marcuse who invented probably the silliest maxim of the Sixties: “Make Love, Not War.” Jonah Goldberg, in his fascinating book Liberal Fascism, makes a persuasive case that Marcuse, in his attack on Western society and “liberal tolerance” was, like so many self-proclaimed leftists, in reality a dangerous fascist.
But the damage is done, and it will take generations to repair. In the meantime, parents, take heed. Before letting your kid sign up for Brandeis, think long and hard. And remember, for close to $70,000, you can buy him a 2015 F-type Jaguar, stripped of demented left-wing indoctrination.
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