For the uninitiated, Maher, 67, has never been married. Throughout his career, the comedian has repeatedly ridiculed the idea of long-term, committed relationships, as well as the idea of starting a family. Dr. Phil, a man who has been married for almost 50 years, pushed back, telling Maher that he feels blessed to have met his wife, Robin, to have fathered two children, and to now be a grandfather. After discussing marriage, the two men moved on to the topic of culture. More specifically, college culture. This topic appeared to awaken something inside America’s most prominent clinical psychologist. In short, viewers witnessed a side of Dr. Phil that they had never witnessed before.
Known for remaining neutral on hot-button cultural issues, Dr. Phil, 72, sounded the alarm on the “woke” agenda being pushed on college campuses. Maher, never known for remaining neutral on hot-button cultural issues, was quick to agree, condemning the “insanity” that now consumes the world of higher education.
Descent Into Madness
In 2018, the author David Graeber wrote a rather compelling book that examined the rise of meaningless jobs as well as the psychological and economic harms these jobs were causing. Has there ever been a better time for a book discussing America’s recent obsession with meaningless degrees? After all, the demand for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) degrees continues to rise. The same goes for degrees in critical race theory (CRT) and social justice.Of course, what happens on college campuses, doesn’t stay on college campuses. Students graduate. They enter the workforce, and they take their ideals and proclivities with them. The students of today are the employees, bosses, teachers, professors, and politicians of tomorrow. In many ways, the United States is becoming one big college campus, with fewer and fewer people able to speak openly and honestly. This fact is not lost on Dr. Phil. The author and TV personality finished the interview by comparing modern-day America to George Orwell’s Oceania, one of the three superstates discussed in “1984.” The comparison is eerily accurate.
As many readers will surely recall, Orwell’s Oceania represented the party’s total control over the people. Control over their movements, and control over their minds. In Oceania manipulation of the masses was common, and attempts to resist such manipulation often proved to be futile. Of course, one can’t discuss Oceania without discussing Newspeak, the only language spoken in the superstate. Today, lamented Dr. Phil, America has its own form of Newspeak.
“All of this energy that’s being put into pronouns,” he concluded, and most kids “don’t even know what a pronoun is. ... It’s gotten ridiculous.”
You’re right, Dr. Phil, it has.