An "un-American revolution" is reshaping our country, Bari Weiss told summer students at the brand-new, anti-woke the brand-new University of Austin (UATX).
She urged "Forbidden Courses" students to become the "new founders" of a nation dedicated to the "virtues and values that have made America and the West the best, freest, most enlightened, most tolerant of minorities, most open to new ideas, most innovative places in the history of the world."
Get "back to bedrock," said Weiss, a journalist and author.
Weiss listed 10 calls to action. Among them:
Reject the politics of resentment and recognize our privilege.
Defend the rule of law.
Defend free speech.
Break your addiction to prestige: "Worship God more than Yale."
Reject moral relativism: "You can absolutely judge other cultures. Cultures that force women into burqas. Or practice female genital mutilation. Or hang gay people from cranes."
Defend witches. "Good people right now are being scapegoated. They are being burned as witches, judged based on their worst moment and hung out to dry because of a mistake or a bad joke or a bad thought or a lapse in judgment."
Above all, Weiss says, "build new things," such as a new university. "Gratitude does not mean settling for the status quo," she says. "It means fighting for a more perfect union. It means fighting to make the kind of country and culture you want to live in."