Critical Thinking or Critical Theory.....By David Risselada

Any prominent conservative media site will generally run an article from time to time concerning the blatant liberal bias in our universities. It has been increasingly apparent for years that our younger college graduates are lacking real critical thinking skills. Even though the schools claim to be teaching critical thinking they are still producing graduates that have been inundated with liberal opinions that are so “protected” in the college environment they are easily mistaken for the gospel truth by the young and impressionable. It is as if the idea of critical thinking is introduced to our students along with some misinformation about a social or political issue with the intent of persuading the unknowing to see the issue from the perspective of their, often times, extremely liberal professor. A good example, one that as a student I bore witness too, was health care. Most students know nothing of the health care issues of the U.S. so when they are told that millions in the country suffer because of a lack of insurance and greedy insurance companies, they believe it, especially when it is backed up by the “TEXTBOOK.” The textbook then goes on to explain that in Europe they have a system where everyone is given healthcare by the government, so when the students are told to “critically think” about the issue their conclusion is obvious.

This is a sham of huge proportions ladies and gentlemen. What our kids and grandkids are really being taught is a system of thinking based on “Critical Theory” and not critical thinking. If the goal was to develop a critically thinking student than more than one side of an issue would be presented. As demonstrated in the above example the students are being persuaded to only see one side and tricked into coming to a predetermined conclusion. As a former student who personally witnessed this, I can assure you that this is what is occurring.

There is a huge difference between “critical thinking” and “critical theory.” Critical thinking for example can be defined as; “A set of conceptual tools with associated intellectual skills and strategies useful for making reasonable decisions about what to do and what to believe.” (Rudinbow & Barry 2004) Critical theory on the other hand is a little darker in its origins and intent. Developed in the Frankfort School of Social Research in Frankfort Germany, which incidentally was relocated to the U.S. in 1933, critical theory was made precisely for the purpose of creating “Cultural Marxism” if you will. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains it best. “Critical theory provides a specific interpretation of Marxist philosophy and reinterprets some of its central economic and political notions such as, commidification, reification, fetishization and critique of mass culture.” Those last few words, critique of mass culture say a lot. You see what is happening is our students are being lied to about our culture here in the United States and they are being encouraged to look at it “critically” through the lens of the biased liberal professors and they are hiding it under the guise of critical thinking. Is it any wonder our college graduates can’t say anything other than what they hear on the main stream media? Perhaps it’s time we demand a little access to the curriculum we are funding to see what it is our kids are really being taught.