Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth Paperback – June 14, 2010

This book is brilliant - loaded with facts parents need to know before sending their children off to college. It's loaded with information students need to know before they enter an institution that will control and limit their ability to think critically and independently about the future of this country as well as their own.The scary thing is how many college age young people even realize what is happening to them. By the time they get to college they are already programmed to accept what their professors teach as gospel.If you have an inquiring mind and are not willing to accept what is gong on in America today, especially with our young people - this is a must read.

As a university student, I have experience everything this book had to offer first hand. Dealing with everything from forced gender studies to extreme liberalism in professors, Ben Shapiro details the day in the life of anyone who goes against any liberal. There are literally professors who will dock your grade just for disagreeing with them and in the book is a very disturbing example of how a liberal professor engaged in sexual activities with his students in the name of "sex education" 15/10 recommendation

I went to college for ten years, hoped to teach, and did for six years, but quit because I just couldn't indoctrinate more college students. Even now, years after the fact, I mourn that lost career. But the university was very definitely not a place for self-development or free thought. After my experience, I have never respected teachers of any stripe again, nor anyone affiliated with college environments. Previously, I had really revered "scholars." I'm very sorry I was born in America when I was. Just ten years before, I feel like I would have had a great life, in a school system where I would not have to lie about my life experiences and from the real viewpoints that stemmed directly from my real-life experiences. For anyone who reads this: such educations can just destroy people who aren't in synch with them. No wonder kids "act out." Anyway, I can' t wait to read this one. Finally, people are giving voice to what I experienced and to what has long been silenced. While it's a difficult decision, and one wants to give "kids the best leg up," I would never send my child to college. They're better off just getting more regular jobs, where they have more genuine freedom of thought. Recently, I read a study showing that working class people have more conversations involving diverse views that any other group. That why I chose that life. Sad, in the sense that I was "headed for more." But in the lives of most academics, more is less. You could not pay me to do that work.

"Brainwashed" is Ben Shapiro's first book, and while rough around the edges, it is successful in making its points. Despite the claims from the left that contemporary American universities are bastions of free thought, the overwhelming majority of professors are registered Democrats, and many if not most are in the far-left end of the political spectrum. As the son of an English professor at a public university, I have seen firsthand the self-perpetuation of liberal indoctrination in universities, first and foremost in faculty selection. If the committee to select a candidate is overwhelmingly liberal, it's a virtual certainty that the successful candidate will be too.Some argue that Shapiro's work must be discounted due to his age (he had just finished college when he wrote this;) ironically many of the people making this claim are in his peer group. If we aren't to trust Shapiro's judgement due to his youth, why should we trust the judgment of an equally youthful liberal? There are some more legitimate criticisms of the book though, the first being lack of statistically valid arguments. In essence it is argued that Shapiro has no mathematical proof that because these were his experiences at college, that they apply when extrapolated to all other collegiate experiences. I would love to see statistical rigor in the book, but, unfortunately, I don't know how the study would be constructed to obtain this data. What the people who hide behind this argument ignore is that with the personal observations made, and the numerous other citations Shapiro has presented, his arguments are still very compelling, and raise legitimate questions about what is going on in American universities, particularly publicly-funded schools, which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers.Some of the issues Shapiro confronts in the book are (hopefully) not representative of most schools' teachings, but the fact that they exist anywhere is reprehensible. The worst offense in the book, in my opinion, is the discussion of professors (at least seemingly) endorsing pedophilia beginning on p. 62. Several professors are cited, but typical is Professor Harris Mirkin of the University of Missouri, who calls pedophilia "intergenerational sex," and claims that "children are the last bastion of the old sexual morality...there needs to be a more real, open discussion of pedophilia and adult-child sex, not just emotional reactions that call all such relationships 'evil.'" While assuredly outside the mainstream, the fact that this man (and his sympathizers) is on a university payroll is a travesty.Chapter 11, "Burning the Flag," is a must-read, and is probably the best chapter in the book. Disagreement with government policies is fundamental to democracy, but the traitorous venom spewed at many schools makes me question why they receive tax dollars. The chapter is replete with examples, but take as typical the quote on p. 101, from Professor Richard Berthold of the University of New Mexico, who, in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks said "Anyone who bombs the Pentagon has my vote," while University of Texas Professor Robert Johnson said that September 11th "was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism...that the US government has committed during [his] lifetime....My anger on this day is directed...at those who have held power in the United States and have engineered attacks on civilians every bit as tragic." I am fairly certain that Johnson never served in the armed forces, but speaking as a former US Air Force officer and pilot, the public has no idea how hard the US armed forces plan to mitigate civilian causalities, nor how much additional risk we ourselves take toward that end.The best illustration of the anti-US streak among "scholars" came on p. 102 from Professor Dana Cloud also of the University of Texas, who was quoted in the "Daily Texan" on July 11, 2001 as saying "It seems very strange to pledge loyalty to a scrap of cloth representing a corrupt nation that imposes its will, both economic and military around the world by force....I pledge allegiance to the people of Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan, and to their struggles to survive and resist." Of course the best known radical on campus, Noam Chomsky, who is by education a linguist, weighed in with "The United States claims that it has its reasons [for the War on Terror]...and the Nazis had reasons for gassing the Jews." (How exactly is a linguist qualified to comment on world affairs?) This is a strain that is oft repeated in academic and left-wing circles, that the US (under Bush, of course) is morally equivalent to Nazi Germany under Hitler, and that, evidently, the US deserved the September 11th attacks. Oh wait...did I say "evidently?" Scratch that: make it "explicitly," as Professor Walter Daum of City College of New York helpfully explains on p. 114: "The ultimate responsibility [for the attacks] lies with the rulers of this country, the capitalist ruling class of this country." At Columbia University Assistant Professor Nicholas De Genova told a crowd of students at a "teach-in" that "The only true heroes are those who find ways to help defeat the US military," and that he "personally would like to see a million Mogadishus (p. 130.)" Not only are some professors blaming the US, still others are openly requiring students to support their viewpoints. At Citrus College, for instance, Professor Rosalyn Kahn told her students to write anti-war letters to President Bush, specifically telling students that pro-war letters would not be accepted.Shapiro goes on to cite examples of professors who gave students assignments telling them to think about assassinating President Bush (Professor Michael Ballou of Santa Rosa Junior College was foolish enough to commit the assignment to writing in an e-mail to his students, which included the verbiage "kill the president," p. 129.) The FBI and Secret Service investigated and Ballou sanctimoniously hid behind the right to free speech. The school not only refused to fire him, the college President, Janet McCulloch, defended him saying that Ballou "has the right to say what he wants in the classroom," while Ballou himself explained that "I'm not going to take any flak from the 60 percent of American people who don't vote anyway. For them the President and the Presidency are already dead." This is something Shapiro excels at: exposing unacceptable behavior and ensuring that the self-righteous and smug professors are exposed for their true beliefs.While the book has some flaws, I have tried to cite representative cases of Shapiro's reporting, which collectively has enormous insight into the leftist groupthink that is passing for collegiate instruction in many classrooms throughout the country, particularly in the social "sciences." Shapiro details many more issues than I have raised here (all equally scandalous,) and I salute his fortitude at persevering as an openly conservative student at UCLA and in writing this book. It's a staple that when caught saying something outlandish liberals hide behind their right to free speech (like Michael Ballou,) while attempting to paint anyone who does not follow their doctrine as an uneducated, ignorant, bigot. It's a red herring, and I'm glad that Ben Shapiro called them on it.

Mr. Shapiro has written one of the most inciteful book's on the subject of the Amercan education system.As I write this review, the Philadelphia eagles just won the Superbowl. As an example of their joy, they celebrated by trashing their city.This is a living example of the lack of respect,as well as the lack of true knowledge our youth is expected to be taught by our most prestigious universities, and their professors. The truth about loving your neighbor as yourself.Mr. Shapiro's book highlights the changes beginning with higher education that effect the mindset of modern day American youth.I highly recommend this book. I will be discussing it with my grand daughter, who will be entering college in about a year from now.

This book is a wake up call to all of us.How the establishment is working to control and miss lead all off us.

Reading this book was very informative and helped me understand both sides of the story of America’s politics, the information in it will be very useful for anyone who entering university. It’s made me realize that a lot of what my teacher’s told me isn’t all that good.By the way , I am 13 old .

Required reading for everyone who cares about their children - so that should be everyone.

Ben Shapiro speaks to the total corruption and decline of academia and its determination and indeed Marxist mission to destroy America.Shapiro's just-released masterpiece "How To Destroy America" is the sequel which makes clear that America is at the crossroads between preserving the Republic and all it stands for or its demise.The stakes are that great and that absolute.Read both.

Scary and true