Despite all the words written about the problems in the academy, despite all the stories of abuse and censorship, the mainstream conservative public still just doesn’t have a grasp on the issue. As one of the few PBC bloggers who lives both outside the academy (I don’t work in a university) and in the middle of “flyover country” (near Nashville, Tennessee), I can tell you that even politically active and motivated conservatives are simply not aware of the realities of modern higher education. Here — where the vast bulk of conservatives live and work — activists tend to be older and further removed from their own college experiences. (Tennessee isn’t like D.C., where staffers and activists tend to be far younger than the public expects.) In their own college lives, they may have seen leftist political activism, but the institutions themselves — while liberal — were not far removed from the American mainstream. Professors were only beginning to politicize their classes, and administrations had not yet created the vast “diversity” bureaucracies that now dominate campus discourse. You can write all you want about the way things have changed (and many others do it much better than I do), but it is another thing entirely to actually see censorship (and its effects) with your own eyes. I showed a rough cut of Evan Coyne Maloney’s new film, Indoctrinate U, to a small group of friends here in Tennessee, and they were absolutely transfixed. These individuals finally “got it” when they saw this film. Watch the trailer, then watch the film. Conservative college students will see that it tells their story. The older conservative public will see what their kids experience, and maybe — finally — be moved to take action.