2015 was a big year politically and culturally. But not all the news, even big news, was good news. In fact, some of it was just outrageous.
Safe Spaces and Stupid Places
Sadly, this was the year college students and millennials alike embraced their own alternate reality and became the ultimate toddler, declaring a need for “space spaces” nationwide. Around Halloween, a controversy erupted when a professor at Yale sent out an e-mail that both defended free speech and criticized the school’s decision to censor Halloween costumes. During a confrontation about this e-mail, one of the privileged, clueless students screamed at the professor, “It is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students … It is not about creating an intellectual space!”
There was another similarly cringe-inducing stunt at the Missouri School of Journalism — aka Mizzou — in November. A student was filming an encampment of Concerned Student 1950 protestors and Melissa Click, an assistant professor within Mizzou’s communications department (technically she did not teach, she had a “courtesy appointment”). Click threatened the student and was caught on video calling for “muscle” to remove him. The “professor” resigned her appointment and the President of Mizzou ultimately resigned as a result of the circus.
Finally, a couple weeks ago, political satirist Ami Horowitz released a video he filmed asking students at Yale to sign a mock petition to abolish their right to free speech. Using phrases such as “We need our colleges to be safe spaces,” or “Making fun of people is just not cool,” he collected over fifty signatures in an hour. As one student commented on FOX News, it’s disconcerting and embarrassing students were “signing away their right to petition.” Sadly, and probably most ironically, Puritans founded Yale in 1701 to protect — and practically demonstrate — the First Amendment
Gun Control
There were multiple shootings, both here and abroad, that made national headlines this year. After every single shooting, the Obama administration and media trotted out their talking points on gun control as predictable as Hillary Clinton wearing an ugly pantsuit to a debate. After the Oregon shooting, Obama said mass shootings “are something we should politicize.”
Over at Slate, Chris Kirk claimed that “States with Tighter Gun Control Laws Have Fewer Deaths” despite that being completely false. And in the Senate, Democrats unveiled a sweeping gun control proposal in October which advocated tighter reforms (despite contradictory evidence claiming the opposite) — thankfully that measure ultimately failed. Reams of research and statistics show the fewer the gun control laws, the lower the crime statistics. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 and also boasts some of our country’s strictest gun-control laws. Yet Texas has fewer gun control laws and nearly half the number of gun murders as California. For a roundup of gun control myths that just won’t die, read The Federalist’s Sean Davis’ column on the subject.
Benghazi
The lengthy Benghazi hearing that took place in October — an attempt to discover the truth and bring to justice the men who died there — was no satirical matter. But there was such a myriad of accusations, claims, and outright lies that it’s earned a spot on this list. When the attack originally happened, Clinton and Mr. Obama stated they had no reason to believe it was a “planned attack.” In fact, they said it seemed to be a result of a mob upset over an Internet video bashing Mohammad.
But while then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the country one thing, she e-mailed a different story at least twice, to two different people. She also made a phone call — all stating the attack wasn’t the result of a video but was a planned attack by an “Al-Qaeda-like group.” (These are the e-mails Clinton also repeatedly acclaimed her work “was not done on.” Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) of the House Select committee deserves major kudos for repeatedly putting her feet to the fire over this issue:
“You can’t be square with the American people. You tell your family it’s a terrorist attack, but not the American people. You can tell the president of Libya it’s a terrorist attack, but not the American people. And you can tell the Egyptian prime minister it’s a terrorist attack, but you can’t tell your own people the truth.”
Clinton also spent half of the day’s hearing claiming the now-deceased Ambassador Chris Stevens knew, accepted, and died knowing the risks of his job. Clinton went so far as to say he “felt comfortable” on the ground, despite evidence that the State Department team in Libya asked for more security over 600 times. Clinton claimed she did not receive those requests, blaming her security team for that failed oversight.
Clinton’s Benghazi testimony was a nauseating display of both gratification and indolence for the world to see. With ease, humor, and an air of snide superiority, Clinton repeatedly lied while evidence proving each lie was blatantly displayed. A truly sickening act of a scummy bureaucracy and a sad day for the families who lost loved ones that day.
Feminist Nazis
This year, modern feminists upped the ante. Instead of advocating what previous generations previous have fought for — fair treatment and opportunities — today’s feminist nazi’s assume superiority, male-bashing and victimhood with a curious and scary ease. Christina Hoff Sommers, author and philosophy professor, described this new way of thinking in an interview with PBS:
“Many young women on campuses combine two very dangerous things: moral fervor and misinformation. On the campuses they’re fed a kind of catechism of oppression. They’re taught ‘one in four of you have been victims of rape or attempted rape; you’re learning 59 cents on the dollar; you’re suffering a massive loss of self-esteem; that you’re battered especially on Super Bowl Sunday.’ All of these things are myths, grotesque exaggeration.”
One of the unfortunate, and by now prosaic hallmarks of this new feminism, is the twisted equation: Ideology coupled with misinformation equals more whining, typically about the “patriarchal” system feminists have found themselves suffering within. Today’s feminists need to eschew the myths they’ve so readily embraced — the so-called wage gap, campus rape statistics, gender as a social construct — and arm themselves with accurate information so they may actually continue the work their grandmothers and great-grandmothers set out to do before them. Sommers describes more myths — and how to debunk them — in this Time column.
Progressive Media Coverage
Can the media be it’s own worst news story? Absolutely. This year the progressive left made huge strides in either ignoring legitimate news that might have painted a pet cause poorly, or broadcast news that was fact less, bias or otherwise poor form. When the Center for Medical Progress released its 7th video of Planned Parenthood selling parts of aborted babies, Buzzfeed failed to report it for several days, and in fact hadn’t done a full story on the videos in a month. Mother Jones completely dismissed the videos, while proclaiming the legitimacy of and outrage over an undercover animal abuse tape. CNN and other mainstream outlets claimed repeatedly the videos had been “edited,” though it was proven — by two different sources — that the videos were only edited for length.
The spin around the bias-wheel of liberal rags continues: When Speaker Ryan grew a beard, Slate hinted he might be converting to Islam. There are too many Vox errors to count, although Matt Yglesias once Tweeted that England had provinces and after the San Bernardino shooting Tweeted this gem:
One can only imagine what 2016 holds for this kind of fantastic journalism. (For more from the author of “The 5 Most Outrageous Stories of 2015” please click HERE)
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