In this excellent speech, Peter Thiel ( co-founder of PayPal) discusses what multiculturalism and diversity on college campuses are really about:
In short, Peter Thiel says that:
- Multiculturalism has next to nothing to do with the study of other cultures;
- Diversity has nothing to do with a diversity of ideas;
- You don't have real diversity on a college campus when you have college people who look different, but think alike;
- Multiculturalism is still focused on western society, but is mainly a vehicle of denouncing it;
- The debate of multiculturalism in the late '80s started with an anti-western protest;
- They believe that the west is bad, because it's racist and it's sexist in a variety of ways;
- Multiculturalism has nothing do with biology, it has to do with ideology. It's a far-left ideology;
- Multiculturalism and political correctness must be seen as different sides of the same coin. In multiculturalism, people look for the victims. In political correctness, people are going after the victimizers;
- The debate of how we look at racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression is something that only could take place in the context of western civilization or when individual rights became possible;
- Most college students are not bigots and racism on college campuses is basically a non-issue.
An example of the stifling of intellectual inquiry in name of multiculturalism and diversity.
Conclusion
I find it interesting that Thiel could already see in 1996, let's call it the pre-Social Justice Warrior times, that intellectual life is stifled in name of diversity and multiculturalism. Its consequence is the decline of higher education due to dumbed down admission standards, campus witch hunts, and anti-Western zealotry that is often masqueraded as scholarly inquiry.
Like Thiel, I do see a connection between political correctness, gender wars, culture wars, and that multiculturalism on University campuses has nothing to do with learning more. It's rather about the creation of safe spaces where no one will be hurt by offensive ideas and learning less.
