Universities Are Turning Students Against America. Here's the Proof.

Left-wing brainwashing in academia has clearly had an impact on the younger generation, and a new poll of college students shows just how deep the rot goes.

The Buckley Institute's latest national survey of 803 undergraduates, conducted by Inquire LLC, paints a disturbing picture. Each finding is worse than the last.

Start with economics.

Asked which system they'd rather live under, 42% of students chose socialism, while only 28% picked capitalism and 30% had no opinion. That 14-point edge for socialism is the widest gap in the five years the institute has asked the question. These students have spent their entire lives enjoying the prosperity capitalism built, and they're itching to tear it down.

It gets uglier.

Nearly half, 47%, agreed that socialist countries like Cuba and the Soviet Union, flaws and all, offer a better economic model than the United States. Only 33% sided with American capitalism. The Soviet Union starved millions of its own people, and Cubans still risk their lives on rickety rafts to escape the Castro regime. Somebody taught these kids that tyranny is a reasonable alternative to freedom.

Then there's foreign policy.

Asked which is the better U.S. ally, 38% of students chose Palestine and just 25% chose Israel. That's a 9-point slide away from Israel since last year. America's most reliable democratic ally in the Middle East is losing ground on campus to a cause Hamas has spent years weaponizing.

As for race issues, 50% of students said America is inextricably tied to white supremacy and that most minorities remain locked out of the country's promise of equality. Only 39% said the nation keeps extending that promise to more people. That's the critical race theory script, recited back word for word by the students who absorbed it.

ICYMI: It Sounds Like Joe Biden's Health Is Declining

Of course, there's one sliver of sanity.

A 53% majority said transgender athletes shouldn't compete in women's sports because biological differences put female athletes at a disadvantage.

At least it’s a majority, albeit a small one.

The free speech numbers, however, are chilling. Forty percent of students said "offensive speech" should be criminally prosecuted, with 52% opposed. That's a staggering share of future voters ready to throw their fellow citizens in jail for saying the wrong thing.

"This year's survey demonstrates that censorious attitudes remain stubbornly high on America's college campuses," said Lauren Noble, the Buckley Institute's founder and executive director.

Noble pointed to the timing of the findings in a milestone year for the country.

"During the 250th anniversary of America's founding, America's college students have swung heavily in favor of socialism," Noble said. "Alarmingly, those same students are more likely to support shout downs, violence to stop hate speech, and other tools of censorship."

All of that pales next to the finding that should make every American's blood boil: Twenty-two percent of students agreed that "America deserved Sept. 11." Just 72% disagreed, and 6% weren't sure.

None of these students were even born when al Qaeda terrorists brought down the Twin Towers 25 years ago and murdered nearly 3,000 innocent people. I was a senior in college when 9/11 happened. I never imagined that 25 years later, more than a fifth of college students would blame America for its own slaughter.

The Left spent years taking over the classroom, and now it's getting precisely what it wanted: a generation of young Americans who hate the country that gave them everything and who are in sympathy with the people who want it destroyed.

Every tuition dollar that goes into those institutions funds that betrayal.

Editor's Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media's conservative reporting that takes on the radical Left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.

Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.