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Have you ever heard the old saying that a
conservative is just a liberal who got mugged?

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Well I got mugged -- to the tune of $60,000
a year.

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It’s called tuition.

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Like everyone who cons themselves into attending
a liberal arts college, I was captivated by

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the idea of changing the world.

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I would immerse myself in a diverse pool of
academic thought, theory, and action.

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Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.

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Over the course of four years, I was transformed
from a plucky, free-thinking free spirit into

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a cranky, get-off-my-lawn conservative.

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The process started not long after I arrived
at my elite East Coast school.

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I thought I was there to expand my knowledge
of the world; to debate the great ideas.

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I soon realized, however, that my professors
had something else in mind.

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Invariably each class followed the same monotonous
ritual: identify a problem – say racism

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-- blow it up beyond all proportion, blame
the problem on the white majority culture,

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and then offer an unworkable solution, usually
involving the government.

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Everywhere I turned I saw political correctness.

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At first, I just rolled with it.

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Then, I got annoyed.

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Then, it started to tick me off.

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I was being brainwashed.

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Indoctrinated.

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And I was paying for the privilege with borrowed
money.

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Almost every speaker who came to campus was
a leftist journalist, a leftist activist,

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or a leftist professor from another leftist
school.

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The ones who weren’t leftists were just
weird.

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One time, I attended a film lecture given
by a very skilled paraplegic adult film star

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who showed us some of her “art.”

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Another time I went to a performance given
by a woman who engaged in

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auto-eroticism behind a curtain.

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I couldn’t deal with it – the PC culture,
the mono thinking, the weirdness.

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I needed some way to cope.

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So, I got high – almost every day.

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Parenthetically, most of the worst stoners
I knew are now working in finance or politics.

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In fact, this is what made me first realize
that I was a fan of limited government.

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I do not trust these goofs to make policy.

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Their power must be constrained.

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This brings me to another black hole in the
college experience: useless majors, the only

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thing more pervasive than marijuana and irresponsible
future leaders.

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I'm not being judgmental here: I have a degree
in film and media studies and political science.

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Why did I choose them?

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They’re subjects I like talking
about.

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Practical, right?

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But I wasn't alone.

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Most of my peers also chose to spend their
student loan money on subjects better learned

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on YouTube or Turner Classic Movies.

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By the time graduation approached, none of
us had developed any actual job skills.

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And people want to raise taxes to pay for
free college for everyone?

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Are you kidding me?

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No. Just, no.

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I'd only give a free education to a smart
kid who promised to get a degree in whatever

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the exact opposite of my degree is.

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And that degree didn’t come cheap.

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I took on tens of thousands of dollars of
debt, but never spent a minute learning how

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to manage it.

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No such classes were offered.

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I might have actually learned something useful
if they had been.

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I didn't learn about taxes either, other than
that the rich didn’t pay their “fair share”.

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It was only after college, when I was lucky
enough to get my first job, that I discovered

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the truth: the government takes away a lot
of your money.

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Frankly, it’s shocking.

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And that’s not even counting the mandatory
$400 a month deduction for my student loans.

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I’ll be probably have that albatross around
my neck for the rest of my life.

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Really, I can’t believe my peers and I spent
so much time shaming conservatives for wanting

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to lower taxes.

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A past version of myself would call this desire
to keep what I earn selfish.

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The current, cheerfully realistic version
of me knows this: I can spend my money much

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better than the politically correct stoners
who are running the government can.

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So, I guess, in a roundabout way, I did get
something of value out of my expensive liberal

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arts education after all.

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Common sense.

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I’m Jay Stephens for Prager University