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Remember when our nation’s colleges and universities were actual institutions of higher learning, where ideas were accepted or dismissed on their merit, and rational, evidence-based discussion and debate were encouraged? Yeah, I know, I’m dating myself, as those days recede ever farther into the distant past. Davidson College in North Carolina has just demonstrated yet again that today, these once-great institutions are nothing more than radioactive wastelands of far-left indoctrination: it has rebuked the school’s Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter for daring to distribute a pamphlet refuting some of the pro-Hamas crowd’s lies about Israel.

That’s right. Davidson didn’t make any attempt to show that the pamphlet, “The Five Myths About Israel Perpetrated by the Pro-Hamas Left” (which I wrote), was wrong. It didn’t encourage students to engage in mutually respectful discussion of the issues at hand. Instead, according to YAF’s communications chief Spencer Brown, it claimed that merely by making the pamphlet available to Davidson students, YAF members were guilty of “harassment.”

NEW: Davidson College is going after the school’s @_YAFreedom chapter chairwoman because she committed the apparent thought crime of sharing a pamphlet debunking Hamas sympathizers’ lies about Israel written by @jihadwatchRS.

As always, @YAF has her back. 🧵

— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) March 4, 2025

Yes, it has come to this. After decades of hard-left domination of our academic institutions, even just disseminating ideas that depart from the leftist line constitutes “harassment.” Never mind whether or not those ideas are true. A Davidson apparatchik wrote to the chairwoman of Davidson’s YAF chapter, reminding her that “a priority at Davidson College is to provide a holistic student experience focusing on students’ well-being and college success.”

This apparently involved sheltering students from unwelcome thoughts: “My office received information that, if accurate, may indicate that you violated the Code of Responsibility and thus go against this priority.” The official went on to speak of what happened as if a crime had been committed: “The information is regarding an incident that occurred on or around Sunday, October 6, 2024 at approximately in or near Davidson College campus.”

The official then kindly went on to detail the nature of the crime: “The Dean of Students has received several complaints that leaders of the student organization Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) distributed a pamphlet entitled ‘The Five Myths About Israel Perpetrated by the Pro-Hamas Left’ which allegedly includes misinformation that promotes islamophobia.” Now, Hunter Biden’s laptop taught us all we need to know about what it means when the left starts claiming that something is “misinformation,” and “Islamophobia” is another propaganda word that is designed to shut down speech about Islam that the left dislikes. And so all that Davidson actually established was that the YAF chapter had done something it didn’t like, and was going to be punished as a result.

The Davidson official went on to say that YAF had also shared a post “speculating [about] the gender/identity of Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, which allegedly includes misinformation that promotes transphobia.” (Spoiler alert: he’s a dude.)

And so now, Spencer Brown explained, “as a result of the YAF students’ wise refusal to go along with the Left’s ‘Newspeak’ at Davidson, they were given two untenable options: 1) falsely admit guilt and waive appeal rights or 2) go before a campus kangaroo court and accept whatever ‘accountability plan’ is assigned.”

The KGB and the Stasi didn’t do it any better, and those are the ideological forbears of the Davidson administration. But for all its talk of phobias, Davidson has in this incident shown itself to be remarkably phobic in its own right. It fears opposing ideas, it fears informed debate, and above all, it fears the truth.

As a result, Davidson College doesn’t deserve the name “college.” In a sane world, this incident would lead its donors to desert it in droves, to the extent that it would either have to allow for the free exchange of ideas or shut down. But as this is not a sane world, I’ll offer an alternative solution: as the author of the pamphlet in question, I’ll come to Davidson College and engage in a debate on the issues discussed in the pamphlet with any pro-Hamas spokesman they wish to put up. This won’t cost Davidson a thing: I’ll raise money for the trip and for the security personnel I’m sure to have to bring in order to avoid being torn limb-from-limb by the pro-Hamas thugs that clearly dominate the Davidson campus.

I won’t start packing for the trip. Davidson is certain to deny this offer, or more likely, ignore it completely. If they do say anything about it, it will be some hand-wringing twaddle about how the presence of a 63-year-old, 5’5” public intellectual on their campus would make their students feel “unsafe.” And they’ll go right on persecuting and harassing Davidson students who dare to tell the truth.