Michael Knowles Says “NO” to Redefining “Diversity & “Inclusion” on College Campuses|Opinion
April 15, 2019
Murphy Review|Hope Murphy|Opinion
The term “diversity and inclusion” continues to suffer from semantic satiation for students and staff on college campuses. We have seen an ever-growing liberal overreach to quiet Conservative speakers. Protesters have been known to shout over the speaker and stage walkouts. And it was no different for Michael Knowles last Thursday.
Knowles prepared a lecture titled “Men Are Not Women” for a group of students at the University of Missouri Kansas City, hosted by Young Americans for Freedom. He began by reading a Snapchat from a student protester, which encouraged fellow students to register for the event under aliases and silently walk out 5 to 10 minutes into the speech. Knowles did not make it 5 minutes into his speech. The heckling began immediately after he read the Snapchat to the audience.
The protesters increasingly became more disruptive to prevent those willingly in attendance from hearing the truth. In fact, one student used a squirt gun to spray Knowles with an unknown substance, later identified to contain lavender oil and other non-toxic ingredients. Campus law enforcement subdued the student, Gerard Dabu (23) with a stun gun and later arrested him.
Not only did Dabu miss the lecture, but he has seemingly succeeded in diverting attention away from it as seen in the headlines. However, Knowles’ lecture is one worth listening to in full. The lecture focuses on the Left’s control tactics and the effects thereof, which Knowles illustrates with a brilliant reference to Alice in Wonderland.
“When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “It means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice”, whether you can make words mean so many different things”.
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all”.
This reference exemplifies the Far Left’s attempts to change the true meaning of words in our language and suggests the reason is to control society, “to be master”. Knowles addressed the controversy of using the words “man” and “woman” and the need to preserve our language by using words intentionally. A man is still a man under the dress. We cannot change the definition of words to mean what we want them to mean.
Knowles insists the push for gender-neutral language stems from a political ideology that defies biology and common sense. The behavior of student protester Dabu emphasizes the effect misusing words has on society. Benjamin R. Dierker (2018) of The Federalist spoke of words as weapons when he stated,
Dieker further stated that we are getting closer and closer to living in George Orwell’s fiction novel, 1984. Written in 1949, Orwell described a society, set in futuristic year 1984, where everything is opposite of what we know to be true. Considering the outlandish reaction at UMKC to an innocuous statement that men are not women, I would say he is right.
Knowles revealed the left’s definition of “diversity and inclusion” to mean, “…everyone must look different, but think the same”. Dabu and other protesters at the event clearly show that civil rights and liberties only apply to the “oppressed”, which now must mean the “privileged”. And the “privileged” claim certain social advantages.
Knowles blames the left for creating this culture of victimhood that believes speech is a hate crime. An individual’s feelings determine what is and what is not, even if completely independent of reality. He stated gender ideology is the biggest “sex scandal” in the history of our country and called experimenting with gender-neutral everything “dangerous and impulsive”.
Knowles concluded that the left wish to be masters of changing language and insists we must chose truth because “there is more at stake than pronouns and bathrooms”.
Read more www.murphyreview.com
Follow Murphy Review on Twitter Murphy Review
