Cultural Marxism in all of its ugliness is going through Academia and public education in general like a hot knife through butter these days. The latest travesty is a proposed new rule from the Department of Education that was posted for public review on 19 April in the Federal Register entitled, “Proposed Priorities-American History and Civics Education.” It includes this “priority”:

Proposed Priority 1—Projects That Incorporate Racially, Ethnically, Culturally, and Linguistically Diverse Perspectives into Teaching and Learning.

Proposed Priority:

Under this priority, the applicants propose projects that incorporate teaching and learning practices that reflect the diversity, identities, histories, contributions, and experiences of all students create inclusive, supportive, and identity-safe learning environments.

In its application, an applicant addressing this priority must describe how its proposed project incorporates teaching and learning practices that—

(a) Take into account systemic marginalization, biases, inequities, and discriminatory policy and practice in American history;

(b) Incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives and perspectives on the experience of individuals with disabilities;

(c) Encourage students to critically analyze the diverse perspectives of historical and contemporary media and its impacts;

(d) Support the creation of learning environments that validate and reflect the diversity, identities, and experiences of all students; and

(e) Contribute to inclusive, supportive, and identity-safe learning environments.

“Identity-safe learning.” Marxist claptrap straight out of Critical Racist Theory malarkey that is aimed at dividing Americans rather than emphasizing shared experiences!

And while that proposed new rule is aimed at further perversions of American history and civics textbooks in America’s public schools, the Left also is hell-bent on ensuring that its ideologues and activists are put in place everywhere in order to ensure compliance. Academia, meet George Orwell! One example is a recent announcement of a new position of “Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (AP-DEI)” at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA:

Duties and Responsibilities: The Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (AP-DEI) works directly for the Provost and Academic Dean and is the primary advisor, promoter, coordinator, and manager of programs related to diversity, inclusion, mentorship, equity, and development that affect faculty, staff, and students at NPS. The Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion works independently under the direct supervision of the Provost and collaborates with other entities within NPS (e.g., Faculty Affairs, EEO, Faculty Council, Human Resources, Office of Council, Dean of Students, others) as well as external DoN, DoD, and other organizations.

These diversity commissar jobs are popping up all over. What might the “measures of effectiveness” be in determining the value-added to their institutions of these billets? Or is this all merely required acquiescence to the ongoing takeover of our institutions by the woke cancel culture crowd with the rest of us merely forced to conform or be ostracized from their latest version of Utopia?

A friend eloquently makes what should be the universal response to such chicanery – but won’t be because these days people have been cowed into silence by the Left’s brown shirts. Here is his response to that NPS advertisement:

This is just what this country needs – more woke, progressive, McCarthy-like, Jacobin terror apparatus inside of our armed forces’ academic institutions. What no one ever stops to think about in setting up these kinds of billets are the following:

1) Diversity is not something that can be measured. You can measure a learning institution’s failure or success by standardized tests like the GRE. If the test scores are falling, then there is something wrong with the academic workload or the cadre of instructors. But how to measure diversity? The only way to measure it is by body count. How many letters of reprimand have been issued, how many people have been censured, how many have been expelled, etc. So, the same measures of merit as used by Comrade Stalin’s NKVD now apply – the more bodies, the better the job you must be doing.

2) The diversity mafia does not look upon their function as a standard that has to be maintained at a certain level. That level is never defined, and the status “achieving a premium level of diversity” is never declared. Diversity commissars also shy away from any kind of empirical objectives. If you measured diversity by the number of departments, curricula or courses that have some descriptive category followed by a hyphen and that followed by the word “studies,” then diversity was achieved – maybe even over-achieved – a long time ago. Empiricism does not apply here. Diversity is viewed like a product. There always has to be more of it every year – and the only justification given is that there are “systemic” ills of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobism, etc. You do not have to point any specific person or action. You just declare it is “everywhere” – just like counter-revolutionary thought was “everywhere” during Communists China’s cultural revolution. Any mentality that runs counter to the diversity mantra has to be eradicated and its followers sent to a proper re-education facility.

3) Diversity as defined by the diversity mafia is the ultimate oxymoron. It is not looked upon as an activity that is meant to enhance or enrich the educational experience by broadening one’s view of the world. It is just the opposite. By its very nature it demands ideological conformity, and those who refuse to “will the general will” in the manner espoused centuries ago by Jean-Jacques Rousseau must be cast out.

4) Test scores that measure academic prowess tend to decline because of an added emphasis on diversity. Therefore, I am sure it is a shocking revelation to learn that an increasing number of graduate programs in the US are dropping GRE scores from their admission process. To quote one particularly nauseating article on this subject:

“While many students enjoy a sigh of relief that they may not have to endure the grueling studying and test-taking activity involved in excelling at this test, graduate schools aren’t taking the student preference of going test-free into consideration. Instead, many programs have decided to eliminate this from their list of requirements because they do not see a noteworthy correlation between GRE scores and students’ ability to succeed in graduate school.”

It is hard to believe any self-respecting educator had the integrity to write this. They make preparing for the GRE sound like something more demanding that passing Navy SEALS training. The reason that they are dropping the GRE from their entrance requirements is that the educational lobbying organizations like American Federation of Teachers are in the “don’t know because don’t want to know” mode.

One of the more scintillating titles of an article on this subject reads, “Physics Is the Least Diverse of the Sciences, and the GRE Could Be a Barrier.” Silly me. I thought that the only barrier was if you were not talented in science and math then you won’t be a good physicist. Now I understand why the atomic bomb was not invented by a black transgender woman. It was those evil GREs to blame.

5) It is bad enough that we take the children of what are sometimes very privileged families and send them to university and then even further remove them from the realities of everyday life. Turning them into hothouse plants who are not subject to wind, severe weather patterns, drought, etc. – making them permanently endowed with an adolescent mindset. To then assume that somehow after this experience they can function in the real world is an act of sheer tomfoolery and unpardonable idiocy. But what makes it even worse is that now we are going to do the same with America’s warrior class – and will be doing so with taxpayer money on top of it all.

Good luck defeating the Chinese with this kind of a raison d’être that has predominance over all else – particularly when they understand that this is one of our greatest and growing weaknesses, and they become masters at using it to manipulate us. This country is doomed if we do not wake-up.

My friend is absolutely right! We need a tsunami of similar pushback against the continuing efforts by the Left to destroy our public and military education systems – and to ultimately destroy Western civilization in the process. For that is what the Left’s goal ultimately is – to replace our constitutional Republic with their vision of a socialist paradise. One that over time – as always happens! – will deliver nothing but death and misery to everyone except those at the very top of society. We need to do everything possible to prevent that from happening. And the LAST thing we need are diversity commissars infesting our education system.

The end.