Speaking during a memorial service for far-right activist Charlie Kirk at the Kennedy Center, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake—now the Trump administration's Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media—called U.S. colleges “indoctrination camps” and urged parents not to send their children.
Lake ignored the fact that Kirk was killed while speaking at a college, in this case Utah Valley University (UVU), the largest university by enrollment in Utah.
Lake herself graduated from college, receiving a BA in communications and journalism from the University of Iowa, though she conveniently left that part out when she railed against institutions of higher learning.
She said:
"We've got to stop this, folks. We can't let this go on. This violence has got to stop. It's got to stop and I'm not going to say our side is perfect but damn it, this is coming from the other side."
"How does a 22-year-old [Kirk's killer] become so filled with hate? Five years earlier, I was told, he was a Trump supporter and we sent our kids off to college and they brainwashed them."
“I am making a plea to mothers out there. Do not send your children into these indoctrination camps. Don’t do it. Do not do it.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Many have called out Lake over her remarks.
Conservatives have argued for years that college degrees no longer guarantee bright futures, and criticized what they perceive as an emphasis on "social justice" and "indoctrination."
Overall, their opposition to what they've termed "woke colleges" reflects an anti-intellectual stance and an aversion to examining systemic power dynamics.
Moreover, Lake's remarks betrayed a singular unawareness that even conservative-leaning institutions such as Liberty University and Brigham Young University offer programs and courses that may be considered "indoctination camps" by her own standards.
