Dan Flynn, author of “Why the Left Hates America,” spoke to University of Wisconsin students Monday night about his views illustrated in his new book “Intellectual Morons.”
According to Flynn there are four widely respected intellectuals he considers morons, including sexuality researcher Alfred Kinsey, environmentalist Paul Earlich, the founder of Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger and popular anti-war activist Noam Chomsky.
Flynn said an intellectual moron is someone “who is blessed with great cognitive abilities, but squanders those gifts on ideology,” and has theories that do not mesh with reality. He added their ideology acts as a “mental straightjacket,” which hinders their intellectual capabilities.
Kinsey, whom Flynn called the “father of sexual revolution and sexual anarchism,” was frequently cited. According to Flynn, his findings serve a certain agenda. Kinsey mainly used prison inmates in his studies of sexuality, and most of those inmates were pedophiles. By distorting his own data and not searching for the truth outside his own ideology, Kinsey is an intellectual moron, Flynn concluded.
Popular environmentalist Earlich is author of the book “The Population Bomb.” Flynn said Earlich claimed in the 1970s that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in an apocalypse-type situation. According to Flynn, when this prediction did not occur, Earlich repeatedly delayed his statement and regardless of the blatant lie Earlich spread, he is still well regarded as an environmentalist.
“In academia, he’s thought of as a god in his field,” Flynn said.
Flynn said Sanger is credited as a “champion of reproductive freedom,” even though she had her name on articles associated with terrorism and was a big proponent of the eugenics movement most closely associated with the Nazi party.
“Quite literally, Sanger was the original femi-Nazi,” Flynn said.
According to Flynn, Sanger advocated the use of concentration camps and forced sterilization to create a “morally superior race,” similar to the Nazi party in Germany, which historians neglect to mention.
“Historians have given her a pass because they sympathize with her cause,” Flynn said.
According to Flynn, Chomsky, a popular intellectual on many college campuses and throughout intellectual circles, is “Michael Moore with his brain on steroids.” He cited a variety of anti-war messages Chomsky supported, which Flynn said proves Chomsky is an intellectual moron.
Flynn also recalled Chomsky’s claim that the genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s was a capitalist-inspired hoax. Flynn said, instead of Pol Pot, the former prime minister of Cambodia is responsible for the genocide.
UW junior Matthew Bertram attended the lecture and said he was not persuaded by Flynn’s argument.
“I am a Democrat, so I didn’t necessarily agree with [Flynn] much,” Bertram said.
Bertram said Flynn was trying to push his own agenda throughout the lecture. He added Flynn didn’t really delve into the stories of each person of whom he spoke.
“He didn’t really explain [his ideas about] Noam Chomsky very well,” Bertram said, “he portrayed a very different agenda.”
At the end of the lecture, Flynn called for students to question what their professors present to them and to experience things on their own. He said college campuses are breeding grounds for ideology, which is dangerous.
“Liars in our time have found an ample amount of people, especially in college campuses, to follow them,” Flynn said, “You need to question your professors leading you on a road to ideology.”
