Back in April, Heather Mac Donald went to Claremont McKenna College to give a talk. Some 170 students blocked the entrance to the hall, preventing people from hearing Mac Donald. Now, seven students have been disciplined in the case.
Heather is my guest on Q&A, here. We talk about the incident at Claremont and about higher ed in general — in particular the victim mentality that is ruining so many young people. Who teaches privileged people that they are, in fact, victims? That is a terrible misteaching.
We also discuss the question, “What are parents of kids going to college to do? How to educate them? How to keep them from marinating in nonsense?” This is the sort of thing that concerns many parents, I know from experience.
Heather Mac Donald has many areas of expertise, one of which is policing. In fact, her latest book is The War on Cops. I talk about policing with her, including President Trump’s recent remarks about how to treat arrestees. “Shocking,” says Heather. “He’s really done an incredible disservice to policing,” and has handed “more ammunition to the Black Lives Matter movement.” Policing, says Heather, has become highly professionalized over the years.
Another of her areas of expertise is the homeless. Is that the word? What is the right word? This is a subject that is multifaceted and important. Heather has done deep thinking on it, and diligent research.
That is one of her outstanding traits as a scholar and writer: fact-finding, a respect for facts before opinion. Another outstanding trait is fearlessness: the willingness to say what one thinks is true, regardless of whether others will like it.
To listen to her, that Q&A is, again, here.