The College Fix

If you subsist on social media, whether by choice or due to something like your job, the last few weeks may have been the most trying since Donald Trump’s election.

Unless you’ve unfollowed or unfriended people on Facebook who constantly post political stuff, a lot of what you’ve seen lately are pro- or anti-Brett Kavanaugh yammerings. If you happen to be on Twitter, it’s a bit more difficult to escape the political material.

Monitoring college newspapers for happenings these past couple of weeks could lead one to conclude that our universities are overwhelmingly anti-Kavanaugh; that is, until you realize the groups behind the protests are led by socialists and/or their like-minded brethren.

Perhaps the most disheartening aspect of the Kavanaugh hoopla is seeing how many law school academics came out against the judge’s nomination, not to mention the ACLU … two groups which should put the concept of due process front and center above anything else.

Like many others, I despise the idea that someone needs to be personally annihilated in order to make a political point. Though some academics may feel our reporting at The Fix is akin “personal destruction,” the reality is I nor anyone else here wants someone attacked or harassed for, say, making a controversial statement in or out of a classroom. In fact, our standards at The Fix appear to be (much) higher than those of many journalists and mainstream media outlets.

This past July, the featured speaker at the annual College Fix dinner in Washington DC was The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway (at left). I admire Mollie particularly for her always-calm demeanor, but most especially for her spot-on criticisms of the media. The most significant point in her speech that night was about turning off social media, the TV, the smartphones … and spending time with your family and friends.

This advice may have been a bit … difficult to fathom for most in attendance since most were college students. For those of us with kids (like myself, Mollie, and a few others), it was compelling. They’re what’s important, not getting the last word against that dude on Twitter, or replying in ALL CAPS to that soon-to-be ex-Facebook friend.

Outside the (social) media realm, people actually engage in calm conversations, listen to one another respectfully, and give politics a fleeting amount of attention. My neighbor still chats with me when I go get the mail or am mowing the lawn; he doesn’t preface conversations with “Do you support Kavanaugh?” or “Are you a Trump backer?”

So, if you’re not (like most us) a member of the International Socialists, or Students United for Reproductive Justice, or something of similar political bent whose modus operandi is perpetual protest, outrage, and in-your-face yelling: Do more of what you always do. Get up, go to work, chat with your colleagues. Come home, have dinner with your family, then talk and read with your kids. Finish it off by cuddling with your spouse in front of a good movie.

MORE: U’s social media policy forbids posts that ‘inflict emotional distress’

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