Here is a good article by an academic, Thomas Dalton, describing how universities operate “from the inside.” The usual story of woe, that I report on all the time. But, on a positive note, he gives some advice to students from the Alt Right, about how to cope with life in this enemy territory:
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2019/12/08/the-abcs-of-the-alt-right-a-guide-for-students/
“Here are some key points to keep mind, and some specific suggestions on how to move forward.
• You have more power than you think. In a university, you are the paying customer. Your tuition money pays a large share of your professors’ and administrators’ salaries. Let them know that. You are the future, they are the status quo. You have ethics and high principles; they are just trying to keep their jobs. Even a very small group, intelligently run, can have a huge impact.
• Know your rights. You have the right to speak up and make yourself heard. As long as you stay within the broad rules of the university, they can’t punish you. Don’t let faculty or staff intimidate you. It’s like dealing with a spider or mouse: they are more afraid of you than you should be of them. Be assertive but not obnoxious.
• Organize. Create a student group or club that explicitly advocates for alt-right views. Pick a good name. It can be relatively innocuous, like “Campus Republicans” or “Campus Conservatives,” or it can be more confrontational: “The New Right,” “Dissident Conservatives,” “White and Right,” and so on. Be creative.
• Have concrete goals. Your group should, at a minimum, hold regular meetings. Simply talking through things among yourselves and sharing ideas has value. But you will likely want to do more: bring in speakers; hold debates; organize panel discussions; “table” your group in a visible spot on campus; do fundraisers; write for your student newspaper. Visibility and success breed more success.
• Don’t let egos get in the way. This is not about who is president, or who has key roles. It’s about the ideas and the mission: to develop and communicate alt-right ideas on campus. Leaders need to be self-confident, but if it becomes more about self-glorification, time to get another leader.
• Plan for the future. There is constant turnover in student groups; some people lose interest, some graduate, some have personal issues, others just get too busy. To sustain and build membership, you need to be constantly planning ahead. Get to the younger students and recruit them. They’re not “just freshman”; your group needs them, and every new class presents new opportunities. Also, plan for post-graduation. You need to sustain activity after you move on to your career. This again presents new opportunities for action. Stay in touch with fellow grads—and not just on-line. Meet face-to-face.
• Don’t make it a “guy’s club.” Alt-right groups tend to be heavily male. Acknowledge this, accept it, but be welcoming to female participation. As long as they buy into the main principles cited above, there is no reason not to welcome women. You want members—and they represent half (actually, considerably more than half) of your student population. Be respectful, and allow them full participation. Listen to their ideas; they know better how to reach other women than you do as males. They are smart and motivated. They have as much equity in the future as you do. Women are also good networkers, and may make connections that the guys tend to overlook. And besides, most all of us want partners in life, and this is a great chance for both genders to meet like-minded friends.
• Have high standards. Try to avoid crude polemics, name-calling, dirty tricks. Be mature. You are a role model; try to act like one. Intelligent commentary and well-organized events are much more effective than some graffiti sprayed on a dorm wall.
• Be knowledgeable, be smart. There is much to learn about alt-right and dissident ideas. Take the time to study, like a serious and intelligent person. And not only online blogs, and not just YouTube videos. Get actual books and read them. … And then be a good detective: follow up on interesting leads, hunt for clues. Learn how to sift out the bs and the nonsense. There is a lot of bogus information out there, especially on the Internet; some of it is there to deliberately mislead you. Be skeptical, and do background research.
• Stay agnostic on religion. Conservatives tend to be more religious than average, and so you may well attract religious people. Accept them, but don’t let theology rule the discussion. Keep religious ideas safely to the side. Be particularly wary of fundamentalists, who tend to be too irrational to be much good.
• Get political (1). Yours’ is a movement of major political importance. You need to acknowledge this, and engage in political debates. There are many local, regional, and national policy implications for the dissident right. Engage at every level. Make well-reasoned recommendations, and defend them against critics.
• Get political (2). There are good reasons to think that the situation may be hopeless at the national level; the corruption may simply be too deep to be redeemed. Rather than ‘fixing’ Washington, we may need to abandon it. Consider a strong “states’ rights” position, even to the point of secession. In a practical sense, White nationalism may only be realized in smaller political units than that of the monstrous, multiracial mish-mash of an American nation. Start by reading Kohr.
• Know your opponents. .. Learn how they think, and what their ‘hot button’ issues are. A calculated incitement of your opponent can be very useful.
• Name names (1). In other words, be specific and detailed in your critiques. Use facts, and check your facts.
• Name names (2). Here’s an interesting project: Conduct your own ‘faculty diversity survey,’ …
• Watch out for moles. Any moderately visible or successful group will very quickly attract attention, from both friends and enemies. A well-worn tactic of the other side is to infiltrate successful groups and manipulate them from within—ideally, even take on leadership roles. …
• Watch out for spies. In line with above, successful groups often attract quiet members who are just “taking notes”—and perhaps reporting out. There’s not much you can do about this, but be aware that someone in your group may be looking for dirt. Keep things above-board, and don’t give them anything to report.
• Don’t demonize the masses. In general, it’s not good strategy to refer to your fellow students as idiots, morons, dupes, etc. For the most part, you need them. You are trying to win them over—even if they are idiots or dupes. Educate them. Be patient. Be tolerant. Figure out what is stopping them from accepting the truth, and slowly bring them around.
• Insults are a badge of honor. Don’t take it personally when your enemies start calling you names. In fact, welcome it; it’s a sign that you are succeeding. And have no doubt, they will call you every name in the book: Nazi, racist, bigot, fascist, … Klansman, White supremacist, and so on. Show poise; just let it roll off your back. Point out that they don’t really know what they are talking about; most of them cannot even define ‘Nazi’, or ‘bigot,’ or ‘fascism,’ etc. Be smarter than them, and use your knowledge to upstage them. Show them to be the fools that they are.
• Learn about the real Nazis. Since it’s inevitable that you will be called this, you might as well learn something. …
• Stay healthy in body and mind. Again, be a role model. Be better than the average slacker. Watch your weight, and stay in shape. Work out. Get strong. Cut down on meat, sugar, and junk food. Avoid recreational drugs and heavy drinking—these things can destroy your focus and motivation. Avoid mindless Internet surfing, and stupid TV reruns, and moronic Hollywood trash. Get the airpods out of your ears, shut off the insidious Black rap “music,” cut down on texting and Instagramming. You have a mission in life, and you need all your faculties to succeed. …
• Don’t get sucked into the technology. Along the same line as above, be very cautious about getting sucked into technology day and night. Excessive gaming, Internet addiction, on-line porn, too much social media…these things pose real psychological and physical risks to your wellbeing—seriously. Keep them all to a bare minimum. And then get informed on the many risks of high-tech.
• Be visible. Take some time to get organized, but once you are up and running, get the word out. Put articles or ads in the school newspaper. Post flyers around campus, or leave them loose on desks in random classrooms. Scribble messages on blackboards/Whiteboards. Go on the school radio. Talk to local media.
• Don’t get too stuck on ideological labels. ‘Right’ and ‘left,’ like ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative,’ are vague terms, and arguably are more harmful than helpful. In reality, they don’t allow for much subtlety of definition. Yes, you are alt-right, but don’t hang everything on this one label. Many liberals have some conservative opinions, and many alt-righters hold some traditionally liberal views. This is not a major problem, and don’t be pushing ideological purity tests on anyone. Views shift over time, especially for college students. Any student who thinks he has it all figured out has a lot to learn. It’s not a weakness to change your opinions—it’s a sign of growth.
• Don’t be “woke.” ‘Woke’ is one of those truly stupid labels that you should avoid. It comes from Black slang (appropriately), and refers to a heighted sensitivity to racism, black interests, oppressed minorities—in other words, all those traditional leftist views. It represents political-correctness run amok. What you do want is people to “awake”—wake up to the false and distorted reality they have been living in. But that’s entirely different.
• Be persistent, take notes, follow up. This is just good organizational technique. Write things down, because everyone forgets. Get people to commit to tasks, and hold them accountable. Acknowledge and reward those who follow through and get results. It’s a long war, and nothing of value is won overnight. Pace yourselves. Don’t burn out. Be in it for the long haul.
• Use publicity to your advantage. Universities hate two things: money problems and bad press. Your group is a constant threat for the latter. This is one of your few pieces of leverage over them. Use it appropriately. If you are succeeding, get the word out, not only on campus but among the public at large. If you are under attack, publicize the implicit assault on your rights of free speech and association.
• If they disband your group, go underground. An effective group will get attention, and a really effective group will get a lot of attention. At some point, they—the university bureaucracy—may well concoct some reason to shut you down, even if you’ve broken no rules. If they do this, publicize how unjustified they are. Let your fellow students know that free speech and free expression are not welcome on your campus. Then go underground. Most universities are public institutions, and they cannot forbid your group from meeting—they can only withhold funding and institutional support. If that happens, so be it. Meet in the library, in the student union, or at a local café. They can’t stop you from posting flyers, doing stuff on-line, renting small spaces, organizing events. This can even have its advantages; underground groups have a lot more freedom than ones reliant on university funding. Put this to good use.
• Stay in touch, and network. Work with other student groups and other campuses, where possible. Build alliances where you can.
• Document your work. Write, publish blogs or hardcopy essays. If you’re up to it, publish a small book … Keep track of successes and failures. We all can learn from each other, and we should try to avoid repeating each other’s mistakes. You are working not just for the present, but for the future. Those to come will benefit from your hard work.
• Speak the truth. Sometimes these days, just saying the truth out loud is a revolutionary act, one that calls for real courage. The truth is on your side. Be strong, be confident, and speak the truth.”
I omitted some material from the quote that is not appropriate for us at this site in this climate, but, overall there are some positive suggestions for students worth thinking about. My main concern is that the socialist students resort to violence against anyone they don’t like, so this will have to be dealt with. I like the idea of meeting off campus, where there are greater legal protections. Invading private property opens up many things. The last point is important above all others: speak the truth, for the truth has an uncanny way of setting not only you, but all who hear it, free. God help our students, they are entering a place where evil lives.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2018/12/24/are-universities-ruining-students-these-authors-say-yes/#733a27593128
https://reason.com/2019/08/19/pew-survey-republicans-college-campus-safe-spaces/