In a way, Nick Sandmann is the poster boy for cancel-culture victimization — or, at least, he would be if he didn’t manage to extract millions from leftist entities that defamed him. And because he wasn’t destroyed during leftists’ first attempt, inspired by the January 2019 Lincoln Memorial incident, they’re now attacking him again. This time an ACLU figure has suggested that a university that recently accepted the now-18-year-old “should have barred the admission of Sandmann due to his views,” as liberal legal scholar Jonathan Turley relates, reading between the lines.
Moreover, a professor at the institution — Kentucky’s Transylvania University — joined in to tag-team the teen, saying that she’d be monitoring him on campus.
At issue is a recent Facebook post by the ACLU in Kentucky’s Samuel Crankshaw, in which he stated that “Transy’s” acceptance of the teen is a “stain” on the institution. As Crankshaw writes:
Does anyone else think it’s a bit of a stain on Transylvania University for accepting Nick Sandman? I’m sure it’s a “both sides” defense, but it’s pretty counter to their mission and another instance of there not actually being equal sides to an issue. I think TU should accept anyone willing to have an open mind and engage in debate, regardless of their views. That’s how we all learn. That’s Transy’s mission.
But this kid clearly is a provocateur in training with no intention of learning. He exists only to troll, intimidate and play victim. He and his attorney proudly use their national platforms to promote QAnon, which has *literally* been the direct cause of multiple instances of violence (not to mention all of the other bat[***]t stuff). He is proudly defending Kyle Rittenhouse, who murdered two people for exercising political speech. Ironically, this silenced victim is running with Don Jr., spoke at the GOP convention, has a bill in his honor at the General Assembly, has attended private schools, has a national law firm representing him, etc. So silenced. He’s no different from the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos, but he is more dangerous.
Having experienced the incredibly high standards Transy requires for admission and then holds its students to, this seems like a slap in the face. I hope some time in a real classroom changes him, but his twitter and public persona suggest otherwise.
Now, I’m not sure how many “real” classrooms still exist, but, my, the prejudice is strong with this one. As Turley asks, how “would Crankshaw know that Sandmann has ‘no intention of learning’?” In reality, Crankshaw really means that the young man has no intention of accepting leftist indoctrination.
Joining in this crankery was Professor Avery Tompkins, a “diversity scholar” at Transy. (Pro tip for Nick: Don’t attend institutions employing “diversity scholars,” an oxymoronic term if there ever were one.) Aside from labeling Sandmann as part of an “anti-intellectualist” movement, ironic coming from a “diversity scholar,” Tompkins also vowed to watch the teen closely.
“If he were to cause problems by being disruptive, trolling, or engaging in unethical behavior of any kind, I would immediately document it (just like I would for any student doing the same thing),” she wrote — “and he would just be putting himself in a position for me to file a conduct report.”
Tompkins later apologized for “singling out a student,” though it’s likely she’s only sorry her attack made her appear unprofessional.
As for Crankshaw, he explained to National Review that the “views I expressed on my Facebook page are my personal views that I shared on my personal time. I have a First Amendment right to express them just as Nick Sandmann has a First Amendment right to express his.”
We may ask, though: Why should we consider Crankshaw’s “personal views on personal time” rationale a defense when he wants Sandmann persecuted for expressing his personal views on his personal time? After all, “Crankshaw apparently does not even want to see people like Sandmann allowed into college,” to quote Turley again — so maybe we should say it’s a “stain” on the ACLU that the Crank man is in their employ (though I’m not sure another stain on today’s ACLU would even be noticeable).
Interesting here is that Crankshaw has “protected” his Twitter feed so that only “approved” people can see it. (As with the teachers who recently complained that distance learning has allowed parents to witness their instruction, we should wonder what he’s hiding.) So it’s ironic: The kind of people who want to “monitor” a Nick Sandmann don’t want themselves monitored at all.
But what’s truly disgusting is that, as liberal Turley himself puts it, Sandmann is a “wrongly accused conservative teenager … whose chief offense appears to be that he is publicly (and unapologetically) conservative and pro-life.”
For sure. Then-16-year-old Sandmann and other Covington Catholic students were absolutely and without question victims when confronted in 2019 by thuggish Black Hebrew Israelites — two of whose members murdered three people in a Jersey City kosher market last December — and American Indian activists. Nonetheless, numb-to-Truth, shameless mainstream media defamed these students, these kids, so viciously that CNN and the Washington Post had to settle multi-million dollar lawsuits with Sandmann out of court.
That’s part of the reason they can’t let go, too. Studies have shown what I long ago learned independently about leftists: They too often are greedy, materialistic, money-obsessed people — and rest assured that many of them are overcome with burning jealousy. They’re eating their hearts out that someone they despise has turned their “cancel” attempts into cash, and it can’t help that Sandmann has accomplished this by extracting that wealth from leftist entities. It kills them.
But the Left created Sandmann. If not for its propaganda and efforts to defame a kid, the Lincoln Memorial incident would have been quickly forgotten. Instead, the Left’s jackbooted media storm troopers gave Sandmann the jackpot. And now the young man can tell us, firsthand, if living well really is the best revenge.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The New American for more than a decade. He has also written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, American Thinker, and many other print and online publications. In addition, he has contributed to college textbooks published by Gale-Cengage Learning, has appeared on television, and is a frequent guest on radio.
