“DePaul University Has Been Ruined By Cultural Marxism” was the title of a blog post that made the rounds on social media last week. Featured on the Return of Kings website, a “blog for heterosexual, masculine men,” it was written by a DePaul student who was apparently upset that groups other than straight white men have a say on campus.
Of course, this student, working under the alias Hannibal Menwell Creed, has every right to make his opinions known. A university, after all, is a place where thoughts and opinions are to be challenged. It just adds to the wonderful diversity of our campus.
Yet therein rests the problem of this essay; the writer believes that diversity at DePaul should not be welcome. Let’s break it down section by section, as this writer did in his essay.
Section One: Witch Hunts
“Just like many other college campuses, we see numerous witch-hunts against anything that is deemed improper by our ever-so-snide feminist and Marxist culture,” Creed said.
He uses the example of a DPU Alert that was sent out early in September after a man got out of a vehicle to flirt with a female student. The man ended up giving the woman an unwanted hug. As the DePaulia wrote at the time, this was not the first time something of that sort had happened.
According to Creed, “the worst thing this individual did was commit bad night game, misread a situation, and gave an uncomfortable hug.” He also said that feminists could not tell the difference between ‘real’ abuse and something as supposedly harmless as a hug.
First of all, the writer was not present when this took place and therefore cannot say with any certainty that the claims he made are true.
Second, the insinuation that the feminist worldview is so distorted that they cannot tell the difference between abuse and a hug is quite frankly offensive. Society has moved to a point where we know that abuse takes many different appearances.
According to the Chicago Police Department’s website, a simple battery, which the crime was classified as, is when one “intentionally or knowingly without legal justification and by any means, (1) causes bodily harm to an individual or (2) makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an individual.”
A hug by a random stranger who gets out of his vehicle in the middle of the night to approach a young woman seems provocative in nature, and very likely unwanted by the victim.
Section Two: Absolute Control
Apparently, “feminist ideology has taken over to such an extent that it demands absolute control of all male behavior.”
For his example, Creed cited an article in the DePaulia regarding ‘manspreading’ on the CTA. While he believed that such behavior was ill mannered, he questioned why people would care about such a thing with all the problems the world is facing, and he questioned why the DePaulia would report “petty garbage.”
Obviously, he has an axe to grind with the DePaulia. Apparently, it is a soapbox that “has been 100 percent controlled by feminists and liberals for the longest of times, without any thought to finding an individual who disagrees with their opinions.”
His argument gets weak here. Why do we report manspreading? Because it is something that people deal with on a daily basis on the CTA, and given DePaul’s utilization of public transportation to get from place to place, it was a nice topic to bring up since it is a common thing that DePaul students experience.
Suggesting that it is part of some feminist conspiracy to control men is nothing short of overanalyzing a harmless article. Plus, if feminist ideology had absolute control of all male behavior, problems such as sexual assault would not be as prevalent. But tragically, it is something we still deal with.
Section Three: The LGBTQA Community
The author insisted that he had nothing against gay people. However, when one starts off like that, it usually implies that you do. And he does.
According to the article, “the power of groups at a private catholic university has gotten completely out of control.”
Apparently, this power is exerted through the drag shows that the community puts on at the Lincoln Park Student Center every year.
“At these drag shows, to my knowledge, transvestites conduct crude skits on stage in front of an audience in the main center of our Lincoln Park campus,” Creed said.
The key word: to my knowledge. Again, the writer insisted upon judging people and their actions without being there to see them with his own eyes.
And according to the author, “if the LGBTQA communities needed to do this event, it could have been done in a private place where young children and normal human beings did not have to be exposed to this smut.”
So I guess those who happen to be a part of the LGBTQA community are not normal and must be hidden from young children. This is a disgusting suggestion that borders on discrimination.
He buttressed his argument by saying that while DePaul supports this community, it has repeatedly attacked Republican groups on campus. The embedded link leads to a right wing website that described how the university shut down an event on campus in 2006 because the Republicans did not disclose the political nature of the event (it was an affirmative action bake sale).
To suggest that Republicans are oppressed by the university based on one event that occurred almost a decade ago is ridiculous. Today, the College Republicans, Turning Point USA and Young Americans for Freedom are all doing just fine.
Last year, the College Republicans hosted Herman Cain. This year, they hosted John Bolton. Both on university property. So just as the Republicans have the right to bring in speakers on campus that do not necessarily align with certain student’s ideologies, the LGBTQA community has the right to hold their events like any student organization can.
Section Four: Irrational Consequences
Creed went after feminists yet again for making their feelings known about the Consent the D movement. And he, of course, took another shot at the DePaulia in the process for covering the controversy it caused.
But, what Creed failed to mention was that the controversy exploded after the DePaulia first reported on the movement.
Reporters for the DePaulia report the news, whether it is a movement that is trying to raise awareness about sexual assault, or whether it is about the concerns that many people have about that movement. Sure, it was donating the money raised to Rape Victims Advocates – but only half of the proceeds. That is news. And it was not the feminists who shut down the movement, but the university itself because of the unlawful use of the DePaul logo. That is news as well.
Conclusion
Creed concluded with this, “DePaul has backed down to the subcultures of feminism, liberalism, the LGBTQ community and extreme Islamism, and as a result they have taken over. Therefore, the rest of us normal human beings suffer. I am personally ashamed of my school and have been persecuted for my beliefs. St. Vincent is rolling in his grave from the events that go on at DePaul University on a daily basis.”
Again, Creed can believe what he wants to believe. But the suggestion that feminism, liberalism, the LGBTQ community and extreme Islamism have taken over is as irrational as it is offensive.
A university is a melting pot of ideas, people and groups. It is something that everyone should be proud of whether one is a Republican, a feminist or both. They’re not mutually exclusive.
There is no normal. And that is a beautiful thing.
One more piece of advice for Creed: you had no problem calling people out by name in your article, yet you do not have the resolve to reveal your own. Words are less powerful when the writer is hiding behind an alias. I implore you to put your name by your expressions.