The Beat Goes On.....

This is not about the election, not directly, but about the continued reaction.  There seems to be a growing contingent of students, at least on the U of M campus, who are upset.  And, it's not what one might suspect.

Apparently a petition has been signed by hundreds of students protesting, no, not Don Trump or his election or the obviously "racist, bigoted, misogynist, ignorant white males."  The protest, this time, is directed at the president of the supposedly "inclusive," "diverse" university.  I think anyone with an open mind has laughed when U of M continually gives itself a congratulatory pat on the back for its efforts at "inclusiveness," "diversity," etc.  Hey, didn't it even hire some administrator at $150K to oversee all this?

Last week, the U of M president said, of the students there, "Ninety percent of you rejected the kind of hate and fractiousness......"  You can imagine the rest.  A number of students, a growing number, took exception to the statement.  And they showed an openness (Dare I call it "diversity" of opinion?) not usually seen in Ann Arbor.  One student called the president "extraordinarily arrogant to assume" those who voted for Trump support "racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of hatred."  Yep, it is.  But the president, like so many others on his side, are just as described, "arrogant."  They are always right and always know what's best, better of course than those ignorant guys.  Other students, male and female, added their own versions of the hypocrisy shown on the campus.  One suggested students are free to express ideas, as long as those ideas are those of the university.  By that, I guess, it's meant the administration, faculty, etc.

I know I've expressed many times my views on why many people supported Trump.  And it's know I am not one of those supporters.  He still worries me a great deal.  (As did a potential Clinton presidency.)  But I'm getting tired of this.  Where are all these vaunted "critical thinkers" our schools were supposed to have produced?  ("Critical thinking" isn't on the state tests?)  It is stunning to hear supposedly intelligent people merely reciting the latest prejudiced statements they heard on the radio or television.  I guess they haven't yet figured out the LameStreams?

The latest is the appointment of Steve Bannon as a chief Trump adviser.  I don't know a lot about the guy, very little in fact.  But he's already portrayed as a "white supremacist," "an anti-Semite," etc.  A lot of the fodder for these accusations come from a nasty divorce report?  Again, I have no idea what this guy really is.  But where was the concern when Obama appointed a communist (He admitted as much, although I don't know if he later repudiated his statement.) to his administration?  Yep, he was forced to resign and maybe this Bannon guy will be forced to resign, too.  It's not the communist or even Bannon.  It's people's reactions, just accepting the latest things they hear from often very biased sources.

OK, I fall victim to that, too.  It's easy, I supposed, with all the ease of getting "information" today. (Did one Trump protester really hold up a sign reading that Trump's wife should be raped?  I saw the photo, but was it doctored?)  And it's easy to fact-check, although I guess I am like others and am often too busy or lazy to do so.  So perhaps I am too harsh.  Still, the immediate rush to judgment of Trump voters, characterized as they have been, is very disturbing.