CFACT Collegians Make The Grade For Liberty, Mid-Term Grade A+
It’s winter break for many of CFACT’s Collegians activists, and so it is time to take a peek at their “mid-term grade” for the year.
We’re happy to report that CFACT’s student leaders have earned an A+ for their great efforts! Of course, at CFACT, we do not lightly award such grades – our standards are high for activism and making an impact. So, what warranted such stellar marks for our Collegians? Here’s a few examples:
To jump start efforts in the fall, Collegians organized informative speaking events so that students could hear the facts they aren’t hearing in their classrooms.
At the University of Central Florida, CFACT Collegians co-sponsored a talk given by the former press secretary to President Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, to a crowd of several hundred students. She discussed her experiences in the White House and took questions from students regarding Biden’s climate and energy policies. In Minnesota, students at UM-Twin Cities heard from CFACT president Craig Rucker about the genesis of the modern environmental movement and the troubling agendas at work within leftist Green circles today. Meanwhile, University of Texas, San Antonio students brought in Gabriella Hoffman, host of CFACT’s District of Conservation podcast and Conservation Nation YouTube series, to learn how hunting contributes to conservation efforts.
Collegians then followed up these educational forums with unique campus activism.
In November, CFACT activists organized a campus activism campaign called “Build Back Bankrupt” to push back against President Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. As part of the joint effort with other student groups, CFACT students at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, Grand Canyon University in Arizona, the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, and the University of Central Florida distributed fake monopoly money with flyers. The point of this effort was to show students that the dollar will essentially be worth nothing more than fake play money if Biden were to get his expensive Build Back Better agenda enacted.
“As inflation rises from huge government spending it’s like a hidden tax on all of us,” said Ned Sheehan, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University who organized efforts at his school. “Less purchasing power impacts all students, and it is important for them to learn about that.”
“This was an important event to do on campus, because young people need to realize what is happening to the value of the dollar,” said Farrell Sessler, a sophomore at Grand Canyon University. “If government keeps spending money recklessly on all sorts of climate change and expanded welfare programs, inflation will keep getting worse and it will be harder for all of us to succeed both during and after college.”
Yet despite the success of these events, Collegians realized the dire need to deliver facts directly to those deciding public policy. So, in December, four CFACT student leaders from Pennsylvania, Arizona, Texas, and Washington DC, delivered testimony to the Environmental Protection Agency during its virtual public hearing on new methane rules. The CFACT students all objected to the new Biden rules, saying they were unnecessary, would further heighten energy costs, and ignore environmental gains already achieved in the United States.
“Methane that is leaked is just natural gas that isn’t sold by companies. The industry already has a strong incentive then, to limit these leaks to limit profit loss, and has clearly taken steps already. Methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas have dropped 12% since 2005, while oil and gas production increased by 80% and 51%, respectively, according to the Wall Street Journal,” testified Mikel Moore from the University of Houston.
Shakira Jackson from the University of Pittsburgh voiced concern with how the new rule would hurt federalism, saying: “This rule erodes [our] system of federalism by changing the way we regulate existing sources of emissions. That is supposed to be regulated by states under the Clean Air Act, but this regulation takes that authority away from states and forces a one-size-fits-all approach on states. It is saying that the same regulations for California should match those for Pennsylvania – states with different populations, different industries, and different priorities.”
As the semester wrapped up and 2021 came to a close, students from Trenton High School in Michigan and Liberty University in Virginia organized two environmental clean-up and community service events. These efforts were organized to show the public that CFACT Collegians not only work to impact public policy and change minds, but also care deeply about the environment and seek ways to keep our communities clean.
In this spirit Michigan students led an event called “Raking a Difference” that organized lawn clean-up efforts for the elderly and disabled. Liberty University students in Virginia performed a litter clean up around Lynchburg to clear trash from paths and brush.
Through CFACT’s recruiting and organizing efforts this past semester, new CFACT Collegians chapters and networks were established at Indiana University Bloomington, Dartmouth College, the University of Houston, and Grand Canyon University.
These new student networks helped build upon CFACT’s already extensive presence on colleges and universities across America. Expect their new members to make a big splash for liberty and sound science on their campuses in 2022!
For their commitment to the truth, impressive organizing abilities, and tenacious courage in the face of relentless leftist censorship from campus authorities, CFACT Collegians undoubtedly earned their A+ grade.
Look for them to keep up the momentum this spring!
COLUMN BY
Adam Houser
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EDITORS NOTE: This CFACT column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.
Communists can use any kind of mayhem to further their goals. Democratic or constitutional republics are fragile. Making them work is like walking a tightrope. Any deviation to the right or left is to communism’s advantage. To make matters worse, there is a guy (a communist) at one end of the rope moving it back and forth trying to keep us all off balance.
Communism does not intend to take over the neighborhood drug business. These guys are after governments and entire nations. Unlike dictatorships, communism NEEDS enemies and mayhem and will manufacture more if it does not have enough.
How do you know if you are the target audience of a Psychological Operation? Look for these signs:
1. The presence of fear, confusion, anxiety, urgency.
2. Use of division, anger, blame, isolation.
3. The use of ridicule and unfounded accusations.
4. The widespread use of censorship, suppression of contrary viewpoints and information.
5. The use of bribes, coercion, mandates, and threats of violence.
6. The government breaking its own rules in the interest of “national security”, “safety”, etc.
7. Attempts to break up a sense of community.
References (available as free .pdf):
“The Naked Communist” by W. Cleon Skousen, a former FBI special agent); pages 259-262 lists the 45 goals Communists intend to achieve. (and they are almost there!)
and
“U.S. Army Field Manual Psychological Operations, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures” (439 pages)