Critical Mass

On the political forums of my school network reside some of the most idiotic, unthinking people that academia has likely ever had the pleasure to educate. Take the following example: One student (we'll call him Joe) asserted that "North Korea is a horrible place"--not something anyone but Kim Jong-ill would disagree with, right? Not quite. Another student looked up the domestic violence stats of Joe's hometown and observed that there were 35 complaints of domestic violence this week. His conclusion:

be careful with your blanket statements. Korea has far less domestic violence than America. As an ICS [Inter-Cultural Studies] major you should realize that I am at college to learn how to educate the racially naieve [sic] and work on eliminating problems related to statements like that.

Later on he wonders whether Joe's "value for others and their cultural heritage is close to nonexistent." Um, there are about a million reasons why North Korea is a decidedly worse place than the U.S. Fortunately there were some other people on the forums that day who could form a coherent, rational argument, and they set the guy straight.

To quote C.S. Lewis' Digory Kirke: "What are they teaching in these schools?"