Daniel Flynn says leftist views dominate campuses

Daniel J. Flynn’s book has been burned, and he has been protested against and banned from all… Daniel J. Flynn’s book has been burned, and he has been protested against and banned from all Black Panther reunions for life. But he spoke at Pitt Thursday night to a group of about 60 people about the ideas he had written about in his book “Why the Left Hates America.”

Flynn said the left does not consist of all liberals or Democrats.

“It’s a different breed of folk we’re talking about,” he said.

According to Flynn, the left is defined as the 10 percent of people who lie on the extreme left of the political spectrum. Although the population of the left is small, “they have a dominant role,” he said.

Flynn said the left have jobs on college campuses and in Hollywood so it can influence a large population of people.

“You’ve been exposed to a very narrow point of view,” Flynn said to the mostly college student audience.

Flynn has been to college campuses all over the nation to talk about his ideas. When he went to the University of California-Berkeley, students tried to stop him from speaking by unplugging the microphone and then burned his book, Flynn said.

According to Flynn, America is one of the best countries in the world, yet its own citizens speak out against American values and defend other cultures. Those who tell others not to judge other cultures are the most judgmental toward Western values, Flynn said.

Multiculturalism, he said, is about “mindlessly celebrating other cultures and denouncing our own.” Flynn referred to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent verbal attacks against America by its own citizens as an example of this.

He quoted a University of New Mexico professor as saying, “Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon would get my vote.” He also said that some college campuses refused to allow American flags to be flown on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, because it was offensive to other cultures.

“If you hate America, [college] campuses are indeed a very tolerant place,” Flynn said. “The finger was pointed at America” after Sept. 11, 2001, but “we were attacked.”

The left, Flynn said, compares America to an ideological view of other cultures.

“We should compare America to what actually exists in the world,” he said. “If you compare anything to an ideal, it’s going to fall short.”

Flynn said that Chinese culture forces women to abort female babies because males are viewed as superior and some African cultures endorse female genital mutilation.

“It’s a bad world out there,” not the “Disneyland version” that the left claims it to be, Flynn said.

Flynn added that America looks “exemplary” if compared to other cultures, citing the opportunities open to women.

The left also overlooks some of America’s great achievements, Flynn said. For example, America has invented the cure for polio, the MRI, the CAT scan, air conditioning and the light bulb.

“The people that hate this country the most tacitly endorse it” by using American inventions, Flynn said.

The left says America is racist, but “why would [immigrants] want to rush into the arms of their persecutor?” Flynn asked.

Immigrants come here “because there’s a better life in this culture,” Flynn said. When suppressed populations demand things from their government, they cite the U.S. constitution, he said.

According to Flynn, America accepts so many immigrants, that if people believe America is xenophobic, or hateful of foreigners, they are fools.

“We give more money in [foreign] aid than any other country in the world,” he said.

Although America has its faults, “people want to nitpick at some of the deficiencies,” he said. The left focuses on the individual cases such as Matthew Shepherd, a homosexual man who was beaten and killed for his sexual orientation, instead of the overall greatness of America, he said.

“You need to know the good, the bad and the ugly,” Flynn said, but “there’s a lot more good than the bad and the ugly.”

According to Flynn, the left also says that America fights imperialistic wars.

“Show me the wars of conquest,” Flynn challenged. America does not gain land from the wars they fight, he said. “We use [our power] to liberate.”

Flynn said he realizes America stands for freedom of speech, and the left has the right to speak out against America. But “if you hate America and you’re on the left, you’re embraced. If you hate America and you’re on the right, you’re repudiated. That’s the difference,” he said.

People can praise Stalin’s socialist ideals, Flynn said, but if they praise Hitler and his rightist ideals, they will be hated.

“Americans need to face the truth about themselves,” Flynn quoted Jeane Kirkpatrick as saying, “no matter how pleasant [the truth] is.”