Customer Reviews

Indoctrinate U (Explicit Version)

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I was fortunate to get seats to a free screening of Indoctrinate U, a film both funny and shocking. Before watching the film I was aware of speech codes on college campuses and the intimidation of students and professors who express certain view points, but I wasn't quite prepared for some of the things I saw in Evan Maloney's film.

For instance, take two incidents from University of Tennessee. In one, five white fraternity boys dressed up as the Jackson Five for an off-campus Halloween party; when they returned to campus another student spotted them, took offense at their costumes, and reported them to administration. They, along with their entire fraternity, were punished with suspension. In another incident at the same school, a Sikh student wrote an opinion piece on increasing intellectual diversity in a committee that invites campus speakers; the committee would invite only people from the left of the political spectrum, and the student wanted to see more viewpoints expressed. A member of this committee wrote an email referring to the Sikh student as a "raghead", a terrorist, and saying that he should be shot in the face. Now... what do you think happened to the person who wrote this hateful, bigoted email that actually incites violence against another student? He was given a slap on the wrist, not allowed to attend a couple of campus events, but that was about it. So basically, white students dressing up as the Jackson five are suspended; a guy writing a racist, threatening email against a conservative Sikh student suffers no serious disciplinary reprisals.

Speech codes and codes of expression and conduct implemented to protect people against getting hurt, offended or suffering from low self-esteem not only go against the first amendment, they are often selectively applied (as seen in above example). And because these codes are so often poorly defined (so many things can fall under the category of offensive or hurtful), they can be used to silence people with undesirable viewpoints. Instead of a climate of healthy debate and free expression, you have a climate of intellectual and ideological repression on many campuses across the U.S. And this of course is ultimately terrible for the students, who aren't allowed opportunities to develop critical thinking skills. For example, students and professors who support the left-wing views that prevail on campuses will never have their opinions challenged, will never test their ideas in arguments and debates - as such, their thinking will only become closed off and lazy (as seen by their tendency to call anyone who disagrees with them a racist, fascist, bigot...). And students who want to challenge the dominant campus views will find it easier to remain silent and play along because of a fear of causing "offense" and facing disciplinary repercussions; they too miss out on chances to develop intellectually.

There are many examples in the film of this sort of bullying and intimidation of students and also professors. Maloney interviews black professors who, because they question or oppose affirmative action, are often shunned by peers and considered "not really black" (a sentiment that's blatantly racist). Then there's a psychology professor, well-liked by her students and having an excellent academic record, whose colleagues found out she was a Republican (not because she brought her politics into the classroom - in fact, she was one of the few professors who didn't - but because her colleagues learned that her husband, a local businessman, belonged to some Republican commerce committee). Her department began to harass her by having her office constantly moved around and by messing up her schedule, and they informed her that she would not have been hired had they known she was a Republican. She was removed as department chair, her family received threats, and a swastika was burned on her lawn.

In US campuses today you can face serious repercussions for perceived "thought crimes". There's Steve Hinkle, a Cal Poly student who posted flyers announcing an upcoming talk by a black conservative author, Mason Weaver; the flyer had the author's name, picture, and title of the book, 'It's OK to Leave the Plantation'. When Hinkle posted this in the school's multicultural center, some students found it offensive (because of the word 'plantation'), and this led to a series of disciplinary hearings for Hinkle, where he was asked to apologize, to see a psychologist, and was threatened with expulsion. Hinkle wisely refused to back down and instead took Cal Poly to court, where the school's case unsurprisingly collapsed. The school never apologized to Hinkle for jeopardizing his future and persecuting him.

I recommend this film to people of all political stripes (and race, and gender, and ethnic group, etc.) Whether you're a staunch Democrat or Republican, left or right-wing, the issues raised in Indoctrinate U are of great concern to anyone who wants universities to be places where ideas are freely exchanged, where debate is possible and students can develop and refine their viewpoints and hone their critical thinking skills. Everyone is hurt by this sort of ideological and intellectual conformity, even the students and the large numbers of professors who adhere to the dominant viewpoints on campuses. Parents and prospective or currently enrolled students should definitely take the time to watch, because even though the film's angle is to expose what's going on rather than provide examples on how to tackle and solve these issues, you see students and professors who do speak out and how they go about fighting intellectual repression.

In addition to the surprising and shocking content of the film, I have to say it's also a funny film too. Maloney is able to mix serious issues with humor, and it's no wonder that the film has been such a hit among audiences who've seen it so far, including university students; the film's tone never gets preachy. He interviews a number of students and professors from across the political spectrum and from campuses all around the US, and he also presents some visits he made to campus administrative offices. His questions about diversity and school policies are often met by agitation and calls to campus security, which is particularly funny as Maloney is unfailingly polite, soft-spoken and non-threatening (at one point a security guard shows up at the diversity office to find him reading a magazine in the waiting area). When administrators do speak to him, their replies are often circuitous and nonsensical, as with one man trying to avoid explaining how his office approved a flyer that compared a Kuwaiti student who wrote a pro-American essay to Hitler and a suicide bomber.

Maloney's film is important and necessary. I hope it raises awareness of what goes on across the US on college campuses and starts a discussion of how to fight for freedom of expression and healthy debate.

I'll save the electrons and compose something shorter. I would have made this film differently. For me, the most powerful pieces are the true stories with a traditional narrative. Some small person unthinkingly does something to offend the powers-that-be, followed by Soviet style interrogation, threats and punishments. The Hinkle story, described in length above, moves from stupid to absurd so fast it is dizzying. It could make a film by itself. The Jackson 5 Halloween costumes also make you laugh and cry simultaneously. How could any school administration believe it has the authority to enforce "right thinking" among students in their free time? Once upon a time they hoped to control such things, but the absurdity and futility of it became evident over time. But now the busybodies who once enforced dress codes and chaperones now supervise attitudes about race, gender, and class. Terrifying. This is thought control indeed, exercised in precisely the place where today's teachers once rebelled violently against any such tendencies.

However, the editing annoyed me. The cuts from one person speaking one sentence to the next were frazzling. Let the guy speak! Instead I see student for one sentence, parent for one sentence, other parent, other sibling, student again, wham, wham, wham. Hard to develop an argument when you get one or two sentences max. And why all the students who had no particular story to tell, other than the generic "You have to be on the left, or else!" There were so many fascinating tales in here, briefly touched and then abandoned, that I was disappointed they were not developed further.

But yes, this is vital information that too many want to ignore. Sending your kid to college? Find out what they will be taught and how they cannot question orthodoxy without imperiling their career. Griping about another open-handed begging spree by your state university system? Check out what they are doing with your money! The scenes where Evan looks for the Men's Studies building are hysterical. Much as we see in another current film, Expelled, the powers-that-be have labored mightily to exclude all alternative opinions, making their view the only one worthy of discussion. What was once discourse is now indoctrination.

DVD contains 2 deleted scenes that are both excellent and informative. I bet he had lots more stuff he could have included. Wish he had.

Evan Coyne Maloney directed this documentary to explain in a humorous and sometimes shocking manner why many conservatives are calling for "intellectual diversity" on college campuses where liberals professors vastly outnumber conservative professors. Currently on college campuses, conservative professors are often harrassed until they resign. Meanwhile, conservative professors applying for teaching jobs are painfully aware that they must hide their views if they expect a job offer. The result is a dearth of conservative professors in the liberal arts and an explosion of conservative professors in think-tanks and private enterprise.

As practiced by many universities, diversity is used to stanch the free expression of ideas and speech. This documentary provides ample examples of innocuous statements by conservatives, which led to harrassment and intimidation by college administrators in contrast to the hate speech of some liberals, which were ignored by college administrators.

The movement to add "intellectual diversity" to the primitive tribal classifications of diversity as practiced by many colleges is the stated goal of the film's director and he does an admirable job proving his thesis. Unsurprisingly, he provides plenty of air time for professors who are radical liberals, mainstream Democrats, libertarians, and conservatives with the expectation that the viewer will draw a conclusion from seeing this profusion of intellectual viewpoints. I give the documentary 4.5 stars.

Positives: A chilling insight into the stalinist-like beauracracy on University Campii today. The unversity system is filled with banal little people who have no moral compunction with running roughshod over freedom of speech, as long as it serves their socialist agenda. Ironic that it is these same types who were seizing University buildings in the 1960's who now call down campus police authority against anyone whom they don't agree with politically. A pity that campus administrators weren't equally as quick to call in police against the '60's radicals who now run our universities. One comes away from this documentary with two thoughts: 1) Do I really want to pay tens of thousands of dollars to subject my children to such an environment; and 2) What is going on in these universities that their administrators are so desperate to keep from public view?

Negatives: Amatuerish production values, and the documentary length is fairly short. This is regretable, but understandable, given the thug tactics that university administrators used against the producers.

I'm amazed at the censorship that our tax dollars are buying our children at universities today. Once a bastion of free speech, now colleges are determined to become a place of intolerance of any non-liberal perspective. The Hinkle story is unbelievable! I can't even fathom what he must have went through for simply posting a flyer inviting a conservative author to speak on campus. This film is for any college bound student or parent considering sending thier children to a university. Speech codes are ruining our children's ability to be creative and outpsoken in intellectual pursuits. We will be worse off as a nation because of these speech codes and other Stalinesque programs designed to get every student to conform to extreme leftist, marxist views shared by most professors. What a sad day in American education. On the other hand I am encouraged that Maloney had the fortitude to make this film and that several liberal professors weren't afraid to comment on camera and admit that intellectual honesty is becoming scarce even in thier own classrooms. This is a must see. Buy extra copies and pass them out to students and parents alike. My friend bought one for me and I will surely pass a copy on to someone else.

"Indoctrinate U" is a startling diatribe of American Fascism in the collegiate setting. Every parent should view this video before "investing" in a college education for their child. For $50,000 a year you too can help enlighten your little proletariat.

Leftist euphemisms such as "Women's studies" are exposed for their true foundations as institutionalized bias. Students are harassed for voicing opposing views and free speech is only free if you voice the opinion of the collectivist left.

This video will make reasonably minded individuals' blood boil.

I recently graduated from grad school. I am fairly liberal in my political viewpoints. But whether one is liberal or conservative, students across the nation have been frustrated by the new emerging beauracratic ethos of political correctness and the use of the college classroom for indoctrination of students to a very narrow radical "liberal" perspective. Maloney accurately points out that this new liberalism is actually not liberal at all but a new form of biggotry. This trend in Universities and Colleges has been unchallenged far too long for it's ignorance and hypocricy. The film reveals the insidious nature of this new biggotry of thought that haunts the campus of today. Maloney touches on an issue that has negatively effected conservatives, liberals, blacks, whites, queers you name it. The monopolizing of contemporary education toward an ironically intolerant form of post-modernism which arrogantly perceives only itself as "right" has contributed to one-sided class discussions and the dumbing down of the nation as a whole. I probably differ on many of
Maloney's political views. Opinions he did not highlight in the film so overtly, but this issue, the issue of the new one sided classroom is one students all across the country from very diverse backgrounds and viewpoints are frustrated with. Thanks for speaking your truth.

I was fortunate enough to go to graduate school at a University that did not seem to have an ideology. Even in the political science department, where I studied, professors seemed to make an effort of keeping their biases (we all have them) out of the classroom, and studenst always felt free to write or speak from any angle without impugnity.

Many, however, are not so lucky. Professors often do not see themselves as teachers, but ones who profess certain viewpoints to captive audiences. Students are often intimidated to express any viewpoint deviating from the "obviously correct" liberal one, and "diversity" refers to "diversity of anything BUT ideas."

This is the unfortunate trend that Inductrinate U aptly chronicles. We see the faces and hear the voices of those affected by their universities' attempts to silence any viewpoint but the "right" one. We meet students threatened with expulsion for suggesting that affirmative action is wrong, that America has been a force for good once in a while, or even flying the American flag outside of their dorm room or office. We also meet professors who have experienced censure and reprobation from colleagues for the intellectual crime of being republicans (or even the suspicion of being a republican).

The film focuses much of its scorn on the concept, anathema to "freedom of thought," of university "speech codes." That universities ban and censor everything from "speech that might offend," to "speech that might hurt self-esteem," would be hard to believe but for the fact that this film provides so many actual examples of the trend.

Part of Indoctrinate U's timeliness, in fact, comes from the fact that if the film did not chronicle this stuff so well, it would be almost impossible to believe that uniniversities and their faculty can be so childish! We watch faculty and students shout down guest speakers (it is easier to shout than debate), argue for the correctness of banning any speech that offends (never applying this rule to their own ideas, of course), and create an atmosphere of ideological uniformity that is hard to fathom of the university campus.

Indoctrinate U also avoids a common pitfall of many documentaries made from a particular political "angle:" it never agitates towards a particular political view. While all of the examples from the film are of liberal censoring non-liberals, the viewer never gets the sense that the film is bringing up a "conservative" issue or is engaging in "liberal bashing." Instead, the filmmaker suggests over and over that the issue is not a liberal or conservative one, but is simply an issue that should concern anyone who desires freedom of thought at the university level.

For anyone interested in reaidng more on this issue, I reccomend Stanley Fish's recent book, "Save the World on Your Own Time," which advocates that professors stick to their job of teaching and introducing concepts to students, rather than advocating certain ideas. Teachers, in other words, should be liberals (or conservatives) only in their personal lives. Excellent read (and Fish cites this film several times.)

Good film about a pressing and relevant issue.

I thank Evan Coyne Maloney for making this documentary. I heard about it several months ago but just got around to viewing it today. I am incredibly impressed with his efforts. It's about 100 times better than I thought it would be. A lot of it is unintentionally hilarious but tragic as well. What a sad state our universities are in. The segment on speech codes was magnificent as was the one concerning the Cal Poly student who got put on trial for posting a flier for a black conservative speaker. The treatment Ward Connerly received was horrific but all too typical. Without them our institutions would be an utter gulag. The reaction of the people at Stanford to the director's attempt to interview someone in the Diversity Office--they called the cops--showcases the totalitarian nature of those leftists who inhabit the opulent halls of higher ed. The same thing occurred at another university. They can't answer his questions so they call the police. Command and control statists to the core! Thank God that FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) exists. Give this one a look. You'll be entertained, infuriated, and inspired.

Censorship and bias by the left in academia is a subject,and a common reality,that is seldom given serious consideration by the media. Wonder why? "Indoctrinate-U",is much more than a clever title, a reality on many campuses for decades,the program's point is forcefully and graphically illustrated by way of student interviews: i.e. students who have experienced various forms of indoctrination and intimidation, direct and indirect, subtle and blatant, by other students, faculty,and administrators. I have experienced campus life prior to the 60's Counter Culture Revolution, and as a student and employee for over 40 years after the movement. Prior to the 60's movement,teacher-student dialogue was much more open with viewpoints that covered the entire ideological spectrum with total emphasis on course subject material. After the 60's,generally speaking,left of center views were increasingly introduced as people caring,"insightful","liberating" and representative of "progressive" thought. Opposing views,were often thought to be medieval, bigoted and oppresive to human freedom. If the Campus is the training ground for tomorrows leaders - this reality should be considered tragic and totally unexceptable as it applies to educational standards and our nations future. I give "Indoctrinate-U" Five Stars for two reasons. One, because of the extremely serious nature of the subject matter and two, because this documentary is exceptionally well done.