By Doug Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com - September 14, 2023

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. – C. S. Lewis (1942), “The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil”, p.8, HarperCollins UK, 2009

While having breakfast with a friend the other day, they commented on an article they had recently read online. The article was about the discouragement of free speech at Ivy League colleges, and Harvard in particular. I told them I saw the headline but never read the actual findings. In any event, I said I wasn’t surprised… but what did surprise me was that the article showed up on their particular newsfeed; and, for them, I would have expected the online algorithmic process to have distilled the findings into another headline such as: “Harvard Leads Ivy League in Prohibiting Hate Speech”.

The person with whom I was speaking was non-political. They are mainstream America. So, given my understanding of the Orwellian Media, I was surprised to learn that an article about free speech, and critical of Harvard University, would show up on their Smartphone. Unless, of course, something else was at play politically regarding the widely disseminated “information”?

After my conversation with that person, I found myself recalling another discussion I had with a more politically liberal acquaintance the week prior. I worked with this person years ago and, upon seeing them again, we conversed in the parking lot of a local business. She is in her mid-sixties and she sheds a sort of hippie-commune vibe. On that day we ran into each other she was wearing denim overalls, her hair was tied in a ponytail, and she asked if a mutual friend of ours still wore his red MAGA hat now that Trump is in so much legal trouble.

When I asked her about Hunter Biden’s laptop she said that his dealings had nothing to do with Joe Biden. When I mentioned Hunter’s peddling of foreign influence that financially benefited the “Big Guy” and others in the Biden family, she said she knew nothing about that. So I inquired as to her news sources and she told me PBS (Public Broadcasting System) and NPR (National Public Radio).

From that point, our exchange proceeded exactly as follows:

She: “Don’t you like Biden?”

Me (not wanting to go deep): “He’s a buffoon.”

She: “Oh, really? I don’t think so at all. Have you heard about the progress he’s made with the relations between Japan and South Korea…..?”

Me (interrupting her while still not wanting to go deep): “The exit from Afghanistan was embarrassingly pathetic.”

She: “That was Trump’s fault!”

Me (still not wanting to go deep): “Trump wasn’t president when that happened! And now we’re sending billions to Ukraine.”

She: “For a good cause! I would rather we spend that money and stand up to a dictator!”

Me (still not wanting to go deep while being overly simplistic and inaccurate on purpose): “Biden bared his ass and showed weakness by abandoning Americans in Afghanistan which encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine.”

She looked at me blankly and had no more words. After a short pause, I said with a smile: “Hey, have you ever known anyone to change their mind?” Then, as her eyebrows rose above her eyeglasses and she started to nod her head and respond in the affirmative, I told her I really had to get going and lied that it was good to see her.

Ironically, sometimes the best way to deflect someone’s ignorance is by emphasizing another angle of their same ignorance.

Even so, deflecting isn’t winning, per se, and I wondered if PBS and NPR covered the prohibition of free speech at Harvard.

And Speaking Of Harvard…

Earlier this year, pursuant to one of my offspring’s series of amazing accomplishments, I was invited to attend an international ceremony of recognition to be held in a metropolis located on the U.S. eastern coast. Although the banquet and ceremony were not taking place at Harvard University, our trip included a visit to that campus. It was my first time there and, in spite of its formidable history and tradition, Harvard just seemed like another urban college to me.

While there, on an outdoor kiosk ironically positioned to the left of . . .

[SNIP]