During an appearance at the conservative Turning Point USA conference, Representative Madison Cawthorn, Republican of North Carolina, encouraged his supporters to drop out of college and get home-schooled.
Cawthorn pointed to his own experience, saying he'd turned out well despite only receiving academic instruction from his parents.
You can hear what he said in the video below
Cawthorn went on to describe himself as a "proud" college dropout and referred to college as a "scam":
"I am proudly a college dropout. Unless you are becoming a doctor or lawyer or engineer, I highly encourage you to drop out. It's a scam!"
He also recommended that to "try and have a great job, you should be as successful as you possibly can," though he did not further elaborate as to what that meant.
Missing from Cawthorn's speech is the fact that on average, those with bachelor's degrees earn a yearly salary of $64,896 and that those who a obtain master's degree and doctorate make $77,844 and $97,916, respectively.
Comparatively, those who only obtain a high school diploma make just $38,792 on average and those without a high school education make just over $30,000.
According to a deposition obtained by The Washington Post, Cawthorn dropped out of Patrick Henry College after attending only a single semester and receiving mostly D's.
Despite this, he has repeatedly claimed that a car accident was responsible for his decision not to attend the Naval Academy, though Post reporters were able to confirm that he was rejected before the accident took place.
While in Congress, Cawthorn has been one of the more public faces of the anti-democratic movement in the United States, and has continued to push baseless allegations of voter fraud, suggesting that the 2020 general election was stolen.
Naturally, Cawthorn's remarks drew heavy criticism, with many pointing out that keeping the masses ignorant is what helps authoritarians gain and maintain power
Cawthorn wasn't the only high-profile Republican to make outlandish claims during the Turning Point USA conference.
During an earlier appearance, Donald Trump Jr.railed against supposed "cancel culture" and urged young conservatives to abandon the peaceful rules of the Christian Bible, saying following them has "gotten us nothing."
The conference was also notable for featuring former Alaska Republican Governor Sarah Palin, who insisted she would get a COVID-19 vaccine "over my dead body," telling the crowd of conservatives she doesn't need to be inoculated because she previously had the virus.
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