Commonsense & Wonder: The pipeline from university radical to would-be assassin

Those wondering where the seemingly endless supply of violent leftists comes from need look no farther than our public universities.

Last weekend delivered yet another grim headline: political violence, an attempted presidential assassination, once again treated as a mystery by the left.

The alleged perpetrator, we are told, was not some fringe drifter living off the grid, but an award-winning teacher. This is a detail that would have seemed ironic a generation ago, but now seems almost predictable.

Reports indicate that the individual had a record of professional accolades and community involvement, the sort of résumé typically invoked to prove the impact of leftist ideologies.

If one wishes to understand what is happening to our country, there is no need to search for obscure explanations.

Alongside that résumé, there are early indications of ideological commitments and public expressions that fit comfortably within the increasingly militant strain of contemporary progressive activism and most university classrooms.

After such events, the public conversation follows a well-worn script. We are told this is an isolated incident. We are urged not to “politicize.” And yet, the same voices that warn against generalization in this context have no hesitation attributing sweeping moral guilt to entire categories when it suits the prevailing orthodoxy.

One is tempted to ask: How often must this pattern repeat before we permit ourselves the unfashionable act of noticing it?

It’s as if there are some mysterious places we send young adults to be indoctrinated to hate their country, hate their bodies, and hate God. The only thing worse is if we are footing the bill for tuition.

So let us ask, with due sobriety: Are there institutions in our country where young minds are being shaped, not merely to critique, but to despise?

Now that you mention it, yes, there are.

The university as moral re-education center

As a Christian and conservative professor, I have spent years calling attention to what occurs inside our universities.

Earlier this month, my college at Arizona State University formally adopted a Native American land acknowledgment as official policy.

These statements are often presented as benign gestures of historical awareness, but their actual function is quite different: They are meant to problematize the legitimacy of American land ownership and to “expose” what are called “structures of oppression.”

In practice, this language is not descriptive but rather accusatory. It does not invite inquiry; it prescribes judgment.

At the same time, faculty are encouraged to “decolonize” their curricula. That term, which sounds like a meaningless academic exercise, carries a very specific ideological payload. It teaches that Western civilization, particularly the United States, is not merely flawed but fundamentally illegitimate, built upon “white supremacy” and sustained by “structural violence.”

And if a system is fundamentally illegitimate, what follows?

Historically speaking, one does not reform such systems. One dismantles them. And so you find ASU professors calling for armed resistance to the United States.

From theory to rhetoric to action

This is not some abstract speculation. It is a demonstrable reality.

Across the country, we have seen:

Professors at American institutions openly defending or rationalizing political violence as a form of “resistance.” If intersectionality calls you “oppressed,” it’s fine to be violent.
University departments issuing statements framing America as inherently oppressive while praising movements aimed at its transformation.
K-12 educators using classroom time to advance ideological positions that portray students’ own nation, heritage, and even biological identity as sources of moral guilt.

Consider the broader pattern:

At Harvard and Columbia, student groups and faculty responses to recent global conflicts have included rhetoric that many Americans would recognize as moral inversion, where acts of violence are reframed as justified expressions of resistance.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across major universities and corporations routinely instruct participants to view American history through a lens of oppression, often discouraging dissent as a form of harm.
“Decolonization” and the anti-settler, anti-whiteness initiatives increasingly reject the very idea of objective truth, reason, and even science, casting them as instruments of power and white supremacy.

One begins to see the progression:

Step 1: Teach the youth that America and Christianity are evil.
Step 2: Teach that dismantling them is justice.
Step 3: Act surprised when someone takes the final step.
Step 4: Cash your state employee checks.

What of oversight?

All of this brings us to a question that is at once practical and unavoidable: Where are the Arizona Board of Regents and similar institutions in other states?

Is it merely a ceremonial body, an occasion for polite applause and catered wine and cheese receptions, or does it exist to provide actual oversight of the institutions entrusted to it?

Public universities are not private salons for ideological experimentation. They are taxpayer-supported institutions with a mandate to educate, not indoctrinate; to pursue truth, not enforce orthodoxy.

In Arizona, professors sign an employee contract agreeing not to undermine the Constitution. And yet, when faculty openly promote ideas that undermine the constitutional order they are employed under, the response is silence or, worse, complicity.

Meanwhile, those who raise concerns find themselves subject to scrutiny, marginalization, and, in some cases, professional penalty.

What are we paying for?

American families send their children to universities like ASU at considerable cost. It is easily tens of thousands of dollars per year and sometimes far more when all expenses are counted and taxes are factored in.

What do they expect in return? An education in truth. Training in reason. Preparation for responsible citizenship. Maybe even a little wisdom and fear of God.

But that is not what they get. Instead, their kids receive instruction in grievance. Classes about envy and training to hate your neighbor. Formation in ideological hostility. Encouragement to view their own country, their own traditions, even their own families as objects of suspicion or contempt.

And occasionally, as we are now forced to confront, something worse: calls for violent resistance by professors on the state tax dime.

A modest proposal

If one wishes to understand what is happening to our country, there is no need to search for obscure explanations.

It is happening, in large measure, in our universities. And it is paid for by taxes in the very country these professors hate so much. Parents don’t know how bad it is and continue to send their children, paying tuition, into these ideological training camps.

And — this is the uncomfortable part — we don’t stop paying for it. It’s much worse than you think, and it is time to say enough is enough. No more state checks for those who hate America. They are free to start their own private university and teach their hatred there.

I have documented these trends extensively. I will continue to do so. If you would like to keep updated on what goes on within our universities, you can subscribe to my Substackas I report from within the belly of what some call the Devil’s University.

If you find yourself in conversation with someone who asks, in genuine bewilderment, “What is happening to America?” you might offer a simple reply: “Look at the institutions shaping the next generation.”

Friday, May 1, 2026

The pipeline from university radical to would-be assassin