From Lecture Hall To Street Riot: The Dangerous Gospel Of Identity Studies
By PNW StaffMay 16, 2025
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It's not a mystery anymore--it's a warning flare. The radicalization of America's college students isn't an accident. It's an outcome. And increasingly, the source isn't foreign propaganda or internet echo chambers. It's the classroom.
Columbia University's recent chaos--where 65 students were suspended and 80 arrested after an illegal pro-Palestinian occupation of the campus library--was not the act of random agitators. It was a display of calculated ideological extremism. Flyers distributed during the takeover praised a known terrorist suspected of orchestrating attacks in Israel. And yet, these students weren't fringe figures from the streets. They were university-trained, overwhelmingly female, and emboldened enough to shut down academic life during final exams in the name of "resistance."
The trend is spreading like wildfire. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), 52% of students majoring in Ethnic, Gender, and Area Studies now say violence is an acceptable response to offensive speech. That's not a typo--more than half of students in these fields think violence is a legitimate tool to silence opposing views. Compare that to just 26% of STEM majors. The difference isn't just academic; it's ideological.
These departments are no longer intellectual spaces. They are activist training grounds. Under the guise of social justice, students are indoctrinated in a worldview that teaches them to see oppression everywhere and justice only in destruction. They are told that the systems of the West--capitalism, law, religion, the nuclear family--are inherently evil, and that dismantling these institutions is not just good, but righteous. With this theological fervor comes permission--no, obligation--to silence opponents. Sometimes with words. Increasingly, with fists.
Duke University professor Timur Kuran describes the phenomenon as a two-way street. Students already predisposed to resentment or radical politics gravitate toward these disciplines. But once inside, even those who enrolled simply for the easy grading or social activism credentials become immersed in an echo chamber of ideological extremism. The result? A pipeline that produces agitators, not graduates.
We've watched this metastasize for years. Universities once committed to intellectual diversity have replaced scholarship with grievance rituals. Entire departments now view disagreement as trauma and debate as oppression. Is it any surprise that students are turning to disruption and violence? They're being taught to.
This is the direct fruit of critical theory run amok. Gender and Ethnic Studies courses increasingly reject objective truth in favor of "lived experience." Facts are subordinate to feelings. Western thought is labeled as colonial. White, male, or Christian perspectives are seen as inherently oppressive. When everything is violence--from pronouns to privilege--it's no wonder students believe actual violence is a reasonable reply.
According to a 2024 Knight Foundation survey, 70% of college students now believe offensive speech is as harmful as physical violence. This moral sleight of hand is destroying the very foundation of a free society: open debate, civil disagreement, and the presumption of good faith. If words are violence, then violence becomes self-defense.
And what do these students walk away with? A costly, debt-funded degree with virtually no economic value. A 2023 CSPI report showed that Gender and Ethnic Studies majors have among the lowest post-graduation employment rates. Outside of academia, activist groups, and DEI bureaucracies, these degrees offer little. Yet their influence is massive--because their alumni don't just get jobs. They get platforms. They shape media, education, and policy. And they bring their worldview with them.
This is not higher learning. It's ideological grooming--funded by taxpayers, protected by tenure, and hidden under the banner of academic freedom. While families invest tens of thousands of dollars hoping their children will emerge educated and empowered, far too many are instead indoctrinated and enraged.
If this were happening in a church, we'd call it radicalization. If it were happening overseas, we'd call it extremism. But because it's happening under ivy-covered buildings with rainbow flags and diversity posters, we call it "progress."
It's time we stop pretending. These programs aren't educating--they're agitating. And if universities won't course-correct, taxpayers and lawmakers must. That means defunding departments that glorify violence, requiring ideological transparency, and demanding that academic freedom not be weaponized to destroy the very freedoms it depends on.
This isn't just about a few angry students in New York. It's about whether America's institutions of learning will continue producing citizens--or foot soldiers for cultural revolution.