The Fascism! It Burns!

Be forewarned: you totally won't be surprised

Sometimes irony is clearly lost on the loonies of Canada's hateful left.

Take, for example, the most recent debacle circling around the spiritual leader of Canada's hateful left, Canadian Cynic.

The matter revolves entirely around a recent incident in the United States wherein Troy Scheffler, a student at Minnesota's Hamline University, was recently suspended from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after writing a politically-charged letter to university president Linda Hanson.

Hanson would claim that the letter itself was threatening. Yet, in the letter itself, no trace of a threat can be identified:

"I was wondering why a swastika painted by some frustrated ladies in their bathroom turned somehow into red flags of a hate crime but you dont consider an asian guy admittedly killing people because he hated them not hate motivated... Anyhow, in response to your most recent email concerning a vigil for people most likely nobody in the school knows; I would like to comment on your claims of upped “security”. I attend a MPLS cohort so I dont see any security in the area ever. Infact it seems the dirty bums on the street are the only ones patrolling anything. I would suggest if you are truley concerned about student security, you lift a ridiculous conceal carry campus ban and let the students worry about their own “security”. VA Tech just recently passed their conceal carry permit ban; we can all see how well that worked for criminal minds. Ironically, many students from VA Tech are in online forums which I can direct you to complaining that 32 people wouldnt have died in the students rights were not infringed by banning their legal right to carry their arms on their person. They take the argument that they would have shot the guy before he was able to massacre that many people; I on the other hand would argue that the guy wouldnt have even attempted this atrocity not only if we didnt pay for everybody and their mother to come here for free to soak up tuition funds but also that by knowing law abiding citizens carried weapons to defend themselves that criminals wouldnt be so bold to commit crimes against them...

As usual, Im sure this plea of common sense will fall on deaf ears as I recently responded to a general email notifying students of the conceal carry ban...

On a lighter note... For a “Christian” university, I am very disappointed in Hamline. With the motif of the curriculum, the atheist professors, jewish and other non-Christian staff, I would charge the school with wanton misrepresentation.

Yes, I obviously feel that Hamline has been a serious let down, so far I am almost finished with half of my MAPA degree and havent even cracked a book. All the books that came in plastic wrap are still in plastic wrap despite the ridiculous amounts students are charged. I have yet to hear a student in my cohort that is happy with the curriculum or quality of professors. Why does this school charge so much for such a substandard education?

Furthermore, why are you diversity initiatives anti-Euro American (ie white folks)? All over the university grounds I see loads of leftist propaganda, why not warn a student before they enroll at Hamline? It took me complaining to a few different people before even the hamline website finally included white people in the random pictures on the main page. If I remember corrextly it was like 1 white in a picture out of like 12... Now it is obviously better but just goes to show how biased this university is and the painstaking efforts of diversity pandering it does at the expense of people that are actually planning on contributing back to the TAXPAYERS that are footing the bill for your iversity initiatives. In fact, 3 out of 3 students just in my class that are “minorities” are planning on returning to Africa and all 3 are getting a free education ON MY DOLLAR. I bet the staff here is wondering how a swastika ended up in a bathroom... More people than you can imagine are tired of this all. It’s just sad that they resort to petty vandalism rather than speak their mind like I am.

Please stop alienating the students that are working hard every day to pay for their tuition. Maybe you can instruct your staff on sensitivity training towards us “privilaged white folk”. If your staff is going to continually berate the evil white male for this privilage and his racist tendencies, at least have them explain where to find the privilages and point out the evil people that are ruining the world. Strange for how horribly racist Europeans and other white people are that everyone seems to want to exploit our generosity. Maybe someday the favor will be returned but I doubt it seeing what I have so far...

Thanks for your time...

Respectfully,

Troy Scheffler"

Admittedly, there are numerous political statements in this letter that Hanson clearly wouldn't agree with -- in fact, that most people likely wouldn't agree with. Yet, the last time anyone checked, the United States is a Democracy, wherein people are not only allowed, but actually encouraged, to hold differing political beliefs.

Among the various sock puppet's dancing to Cynic's tune is Pharyngula, who argues that Scheffler should be required to get psychological help because his letter is "disjointed and rambling".

Clearly, Pharyngula (aka PZ Meyers, writing via Science Blogs) has never bothered to acquaint himself with psychological science. While there is a detectable undercurrent of distress in Scheffler's letter (to which the "disjointed and rambling" nature -- which one can read into the letter if they overlook the various common transition phrases such as "furthermore" and "on a lighter note" that denote a change in topic, but don't let that get in the way of a good white washing -- can be attributed), distress alone does not denote a conclusive symptom of any kind of mental illness under the DSM-IV.

Anyone who performs more than a cursory reading of Scheffler's letter is also led to suspect that Scheffler may have led something of a sheltered life before coming to Hamline. This would actually explain his distress -- leaving a sheltered, white bread home life to enter into the typically-diverse community of any modern University would present something of a culture shock. Once again, there are many remedies for this particular affliction -- suspension from school pending a psychological evaluation is not one of them.

Cynic himself takes the specious comedy one step further when he performs some "research" and determined that Hamline University is affiliated with the Methodist Church, and basically concludes that it can't be that liberal if it's affiliated with a church (liberalism and religion allegedly being diametrically opposed).

Yet, if Cynic had really done some research, he would have discovered the Methodist church has been espousing liberal social action for the past 50 years.

Furthermore, he probably would have learned that not all Methodists are happy about that, as the church has developed a significant conservative-liberal split.

Now, information on Troy Scheffler's own religious affiliation has proven to be hard to come by. But if Scheffler does indeed to turn out to be a Methodist himself, his treatment could almost certainly be directly attributed to the political division within the Methodist Church.

Cynic is right about one thing: Hamline University clearly can't be all that liberal. But it isn't because of the "religious bent" of the University. It's because they suspended a student for having differing political views. That's as anti-liberal as it gets.

Of course, it's unsurprising that the individual who thought it was OK to tazer a student for asking John Kerry a question, and thought it was hunky-dory to tell the mother of a dead soldier to "fuck off" for political reasons would completely fail to understand the very concept of liberalism.

It could be considered very ironic that Cynic and his merry band of so-called "progressives" more often espouse beliefs that are akin to fascism.

But this irony is truly lost on Cynic and his hateful little pack of creeps, despite the fact that it's entirely of their own creation.