She is a very impressive young lady, a true prodigy. I notice that she was homeschooled for many years. She seems to be happy and well-rounded. She will make a positive contribution, unless she is radicalized.
I took a college course, “Radical, Political Economics.” It included historical and current writings on socialism, and lectures by a true believer (who also had the power to grade me). I had to decide whether or not to go down that path.
Studying for the final, I went through the lecture notes for the entire course. In the notes for the first third of the semester, I read that America “did not really have a progressive tax system.” Subtext, America is bad.
In the notes to the final third of the semester I read that, due to America’s progressive tax system, it was hard for a striver to join the ranks of the very rich. Subtext, America is bad.
America was bad for not having a progressive tax system and America was bad for having a progressive tax system. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. That’s not logical or fair. This realization helped open my mind to reject academic authority from the left.
Leftist theory does not stand up to scrutiny.
The problem is that leftism is more emotional than intellectual. As someone said, you can’t reason someone out of a position that they were not reasoned into in the first place.
“Women’s rights,” “saving the environment,” “anti-racism,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-fascism,” etc. create righteous indication. People become addicted to their hate. It’s hard to think when feeling a strong emotion. People become committed to a phony cause, which they are unwilling to examine critically.
Spelling correction:
righteous indignation