A Message to 1st Year Students

It’s been a tough enough year for you, hasn’t it? Between the standard chaos caused by the Corona-virus, the absolute farce that was the Leaving Cert, and your terrible, pseudo-cyberpunk, excuse for a first week of college, it seems like you’ve been dealt a pretty bad hand.

This terrible situation you’re in isn’t all down to bad luck though. While the current health crisis was, in essence, unavoidable, it could have been heavily mitigated. Rightist pundits in this country were calling for the international borders to be shut as early as February, a measure that would have drastically reduced the impact of this virus on your life and your future. However, this potential move was shot down because “We live in the European Union. There is free movement.” Free movement between countries, but not between counties.. 

Now, Ireland is stuck under a draconian set of laws, only necessitated by the past mistakes of the establishment powers, which disproportionately affect your generation. While there is no doubt that Covid-19 is a terrible virus, it is one that poses little threat to the overwhelming majority of young people. Meanwhile, with the methods used to curtail this new virus, the government has effectively pawned off your future. Two recessions in a generation is the kind of thing that destroys a country’s future. Two recessions in a decade, combined with a crippling housing shortage and a health crisis, goes far beyond that.

Even if we take these new measures as a necessary evil though, it remains clear that the establishment has seriously betrayed your trust. At the time of writing, it has just been announced that there were two serious errors in the calculated grade system that you relied on to get into (or perhaps not get into) college. These errors will have lost a significant number of people their number one choice of course, and perhaps an opportunity at attending university entirely. What’s more, both of these errors were entirely avoidable.

It’s not like this is the first mistake that has been made with the Leaving Cert this year. Since the beginning of the crisis, the establishment has bounced from serious error to serious error in regards to the State exams, never once making a decision that did not directly result in absolutely dire consequences. 

And throughout all this, what was the establishment goons of the Irish State doing? Well, we know a significant number of them attended at least one golf dinner after introducing a bunch of significant restrictions on the rest of the population. While you were stressing over whether you had to sit an exam or not, or whether your calculated grades would be able to get you into college, a significant portion of the powers that be were getting pissed in a Clifden golf club. It’s good to know they care.

How the Sausage is Made:

Thankfully though, this is all behind you. The Leaving Cert is now (kind of) over and done with, and you can focus on your new, mostly digital, college life. No more having your future being decided by oligarchic narcissists who most certainly do not have your best interests at heart.

If only it were that easy.

Welcome to Irish university life, the place where progressive liberalism is made and manufactured.  The politicians in power today were forged into the wretched creatures they are today by these institutions, and as a result, wannabe progressive technocrats will be part of your life for the years to come. 

College life is filled with proto-politicians, who infest the heights of the more powerful student institutions, desperate for clout. From the debating societies to the student unions, you will find those desperate to learn the ways of the grift, hungry for both power and social status, so much so that they are willing to do anything to get it.

This results in powerful students doing terrible things for the prominent, progressive ideology. Some famous examples from the past few years include Trinity’s largest student publication, the University Times, bugging a student flat because they believed it was being used for hazing, and a number of high-ranking student officials in powerful student societies, university student unions, and the Union of Students of Ireland, or USI, covertly gathering intel on students accused of right-wing sympathies. This covertly gathered material was then willfully passed on to writers from this publication, operating undercover as a self-described violent Antifascist group, stating that their intention was to harass and potentially enact violence against those listed in the passed on materials.

The consequences for both of these scandals were nigh non-existent. University Times suffered no major repercussions for their actions during the bugging scandal, and this publication’s Irish Antifa Project, which uncovered the outright conspiracy against conservative and right-wing students in Ireland only resulted in the resignation of Michelle Byrne, who encouraged our writers to spy on Young Fine Gael. Others who passed on material, including senior Green Party and student officials, have yet to face any consequences.

Right-wing Survival Guide:

Universities in this country serve as a brood pit for the next generation of Ireland’s oligarchs. Here, they get their trial run in exercising the power they gain, from their positions in student societies, government and media, to achieve their goals, both personal and ideological.

For those of you who already hold minority views, this is very bad. We’re sure that many of you already experienced the pressure of progressive activism in secondary schools. We in this publication have seen how psychologically taxing it was for students with even nuanced views on abortion during the campaign to repeal the 8th. During the time, this publication was bombarded with stories from second level students describing how they were intimidated both in and out of the classroom into supporting the repeal movement, and that dissent was met with open vilification.

We reluctantly assure you that the situation was, and remains, far worse in Irish universities. Here, student government, media, and societies enforce the progressive view with militant enthusiasm. As such, people with even the most milquetoast of conservative views find that they have to hide their beliefs in order to get through daily life. Heretics are not treated well in Irish colleges. 

From what we at The Burkean have seen, it is extremely common for those with even a single heterodox view to drift further and further to the right due to the overwhelming hegemony of progressivism within universities. Student life vilifies any dissenter to the point of alienation so that they can only grow to resent their social oppressors. This leads to a spirit of outright rebellion against the totalitarian worldview of progressivism as a whole.

Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you already fit into this category of students perfectly. You have at least one view that puts you at serious odds with progressive powers that be, and while that one view may never be found out, you will be reminded how sinful it is on a daily basis by powerful ideologues. While one can quite easily ignore this alienation for a time, eventually, you will find yourself being ground down by the constant reminder that you are a heretic.

This will, quite naturally, make you angry. Sadly, this anger is unavoidable in your current situation. The question now is how best to harness that anger for good.

The first thing you need to do is to build a good circle of friends. While it may initially be difficult, with the right amount of dogwhistles and careful observation, you will find a number of people who either hold your views, or are at least very sympathetic towards them. These people will make college life fun for you, and though will not rid you of your anger, will help you manage it.

What is likely the best outlet for your anger is getting involved in Rightist efforts. There are a vast number of groups, political parties and underground student societies within colleges across this country that will be happy to have you, this publication included. Many, if not all, of these groups will allow you to work with them anonymously, providing material in whatever way you see fit in order to help undermine progressive hegemony. 

A good bit of advice for getting involved in such efforts though is to always publish anonymously. Nothing scares student oligarchs more than not knowing who is criticizing them, as they are powerless to strike out against a force without a name and a face. Soft power is only good if you know who to use that soft power against.

You could also play the long game. Getting involved in heterodox movements is not for everyone, and so instead perhaps going the more mainstream route is the method for you. It is quite a simple, but mentally taxing method, and involves simply joining one of the mainstream societies, media platforms or unions, and pretending to be a progressive. Then, it’s all about finding a nice position of power which you can use and abuse. Once obtained, you can use this power either gently, implementing incremental changes that undermine progressive hegemony, or wait for the perfect moment for one, massive push. This method of entryism, popular amongst the left, if one is careful, is very low risk with a very high potential yield.

Whatever you chose, however, it must be remembered that there is more to life than politics. Being able to enjoy your college life is rebellious enough considering who you are to these people, so always take pride in doing so. 

However, never forget where you are. Heretics are never treated well when uncovered, so make sure that your views remain obscured to the point they become acceptable, especially when in lectures and at official student events. For a lot of the people around you, free speech and hatespeech are the same sinful behaviour, and so airing even the most basic of Rightist views will get you vilified. Loose lips sink ships. Stay hidden. Stay aware. If you do this, the establishment oligarchs cannot touch you. However, you can most certainly still take action against them.