Recently, I interviewed an 18-year-old New South Wales University student named Tallesha. My goal was to get a first-hand glimpse of what is really going on in the education system.

It was incredibly insightful to speak with Tallesha. While high school is still vivid in her mind, she is now undertaking the transition into the university lifestyle. She recently completed a bridging course consisting of sociology, business, media, and writing; and will now study political science. She has the ambition of becoming a political journalist.

Drawing on her experiences, Tallesha summed up her thoughts by saying, ‘I believe a lot of the political issues we’re facing at the moment stem from the information and behaviours being taught in schools and universities.’

She went on to say, ‘What is currently being assumed about the education system is definitely not an overreaction, a large extent of genuine indoctrination is happening and it’s definitely getting worse.’

Expanding on those comments, Tallesha drew on her own specific experiences. ‘It’s very hard to openly disagree with the lecturers because your marks could suffer,’ she explained. ‘In my bridging course I did sociology and that was obviously very far left. So, in assignments, that would be based on Marxist theory. You had to accept their way as truth. If you debated that, you wouldn’t get the marks, because you would be seen as incorrect.’

She backed up her comments by providing an example.

‘A question on one of my tests was, “Is gender fixed?” And the correct answer was “false”, because it is supposed to be fluid. If you disagreed with that, you would lose that mark.’

Identifying as a Christian conservative, Tallesha obviously had an issue with this answer, but she can see no way of bypassing having to go along with the Marxist ideology that oppose her own beliefs. She appears to be in the tiny minority, however, as according to Tallesha, 95 per cent of her fellow students lean openly left.

This prompted me to ask Tallesha if she feels comfortable expressing her views in her classes. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘You pretty much can’t.’

From the moment her lecturers enter, there is clear ideology expressed. She told me that without fail, every lecturer introduces themselves with their pronouns. Is it little surprise that the students also follow suit, as Tallesha told me, ‘I had my graduation recently, and any speaker that got up, all announced their pronouns.’

With such a dominant lean towards leftist ideology, I asked Tallesha if any of her fellow students ever acknowledge that things should be more balanced. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘A lot of them don’t think they lean that far left. They think, “This is mainstream. Every young person should share our views. If you don’t then there’s something wrong with you.”’

Tallesha was then able to provide more context of how the peer pressure is applied.

‘In sociology, the way the other side was depicted is uneducated and misinformed. So, they make it seem like if you are part of the other side, it would be embarrassing,’ Tallesha recounted. ‘It was almost like bullying. My lecturer would always make jokes about conservative views, constantly.’

With the peer pressure in place, then comes the indoctrination.

Of the subjects she studied in her bridging course, Tallesha found business to be the most centrist, but her writing course contained clear left bias. ‘It was a uni prep course, so it teaches you all the skills you need to succeed in uni,’ she explained. ‘But each skill was taught in a context, and all the context they were taught in were some sort of left subject. Climate change was used. The freedom movement, the anti-vaccine moment was used.’

I find it hard to understand how anyone can paint ‘freedom’ in a negative light, but Tallesha was quick to inform me that ‘white supremacy’ is linked to the freedom movement. ‘They make lots of links that just don’t make sense,’ she said.

This prompted me to ask if any figures of the right are ridiculed. ‘Trump was definitely brought up a few times,’ she replied. ‘Even the Liberal Party, even though they’re not very conservative, the Liberal Party is attacked as well.’

I then asked if there is any politician that her lecturers adore. Her response was interesting. ‘No, I don’t think there are any specific ones.’

It seems if you attack your enemies constantly, then there is no need to defend your side.

Reading off notes from her sociology material, Tallesha informed me about a field called ‘environmental sociology’. As the course material states, ‘It’s a field in which we acknowledge that climate science, policy, and economics do not exist in a social vacuum.’

This sounded like jumble to my non-university qualified brain, but it equally made no sense to Tallesha. ‘I found that they say a lot of things that contradict each other, and they’re teaching you all these concepts that don’t actually have any logical sense behind them. I feel like that confuses you and it’s done purposely. I feel like you’re purposely confused, so then you’re confined to their dominant beliefs.’

After all, 2 + 2 = 5.

Tallesha continued, encapsulating her whole education experience, ‘It’s almost filler stuff. You don’t get anything out of it, besides the main points they make.’

Just like how a drill sergeant breaks down a recruit, only to build them back up again. If you can be reduced to a daze of confusion, then you are more susceptible to their doctrine.

I then asked her about specific topics that I was interested to see how universities were framing the argument.

The first was the Australian flag.

‘I didn’t see an Australian flag,’ she replied, recounting her time during her bridging course. ‘But there are pride flags scattered across the campus and there’s definitely Aboriginal flags as well.’

Naturally, I asked if there is a stated reason why the university she attended did not fly the Australian flag.

‘Nope, I feel like it’s just not questioned. Like you can’t question it. I feel like if I were to question it, they would be like, “Oh, it’s because it’s a symbol of white supremacy!” or something like that.’

I then asked her how capitalistic, Western societies were framed.

‘You’re taught that the Western world is the dominant culture and it’s pretty much blamed for nearly every problem.’

I followed up by asking if there was an emphasis placed on China, assuming there would be a positive one.

‘It’s funny that it’s not really mentioned,’ Tallesha began. ‘You see that’s the thing, they never talk about the countries that are socialist, they are never taught. How China is run is not mentioned.’

It was at this point that I picked up on a vibe. Conservative, right-wing, capitalistic views, movements, institutions, and politicians are openly criticised. But the opposing left-wing, socialist, Marxist, views, movements, and institutions are not focused upon.

Why? Well, if you do not focus on them, then they cannot be criticised.

‘Pretty much,’ Tallesha agreed, ‘because if they did draw attention to them, people would see flaws in them. They attack the other side, so that they don’t have to defend their side.’

The argument could be made that Tallesha is only in her first year of university, and more focus on China could be taught in later years. But the framework is being laid it seems.

Next, I brought up Christianity, whom Tallesha told me was ‘constantly attacked’ while other religions were not attacked.

‘Especially in the gender topic,’ she began. ‘Christianity is attacked, obviously because it doesn’t agree with the whole “gender is a social construct” theory.’

‘Religion is not an excuse if you are Christian,’ she explained, speaking of how a Christian’s beliefs are viewed when they clash with the imposed doctrine. ‘Other religions are; that’s what I don’t understand. They will never say anything if you were Buddhist, or a Muslim; they wouldn’t challenge your views.’

Tallesha then told me that Christianity is linked to white supremacy. It seems like white supremacy is a common accusation.

‘They like to attack white people any way they can, even though most of them are white.’

I asked Tallesha if she is labelled as a white supremacist, even though she is of mixed race. ‘Yes, I still do, even though my mum is an immigrant. I get labelled that by other white people. They like to throw names around a lot.’

Of course, I then asked her about climate change and renewables, in which Tallesha told me is forced into every topic. Again, ‘climate deniers’ are viewed as uneducated and not trusting of the ‘science’.

I asked if there are any weather events that are viewed as ‘naturally occurring’. ‘Pretty much everything now is blamed on climate change. Like the bushfires were pushed as “climate-fires” when they were happening. The floods in the Northern Rivers, were all labelled as climate change.’

Whether it be high school or university, Tallesha told me that students are being bombarded with climate change alarmism.

I then brought up Jordan Peterson and Prof. James Allan, who are within the university system, but speak out against the clear bias to the left. I asked Tallesha if she knew of any lecturers or academics in her university who were not left-leaning.

‘No…’ she replied, before telling me that, ‘One of my teachers openly admitted that he was a Marxist. All my lecturers are far left.’

Next we spoke of the media, in which Tallesha told me that her lecturers draw their evidence from the ABC’s Q&A and Channel 10’s The Project.

‘My media class is the perfect example. Every media clip we would watch would be Q&A or The Project. If it was Sky News Australia, it was definitely seen as, “Oh, this is an example of a far-right media source.” Then they’re like, “The ABC is an example of a mutual media source,” instead of left-wing. They’re not even portraying them as left, they see the ABC and The Project as middle ground.’

My final question to Tallesha was, ‘What needs to happen to reform the education system?’

‘Honestly, I don’t really know. It’s pretty much that far gone. Because everyone in it and within it, is all left. Maybe ten years ago it could be saved, but now it’s all left. It’s too far infiltrated. You can’t get conservatives in there. If you aren’t left and you’re a lecturer, you’re not going to get a job. And if you are a conservative student, you’re very likely to be kicked out if you say the wrong thing.’

‘It’s almost bullying.’ Tallesha added, speaking of the peer pressure that is placed upon students. ‘All of them are so eager to fit in. The conservative side is being portrayed as embarrassing to be a part of and you’ll be made fun of if you’re part of that side. So, everyone is swaying away from that. It sways anyone that is not sure on their political views to the left pretty quickly, because they want to fit in.’

Interviewing Tallesha did not fill me with much hope. After all, this is our youth. This is our future. If Tallesha is correct and 95 per cent of students are left-leaning, then the other side of politics is faced with a big problem.

Surely the balance will sway once these youth grow older, as normally is the case. Coupled with the fact that politics is often cyclical. But the question must be asked, ‘How much of the indoctrination will stick?’

It bears repeating what Tallesha said at the beginning of this article. After all, she is confronted with this during every moment of her studies.

‘I believe a lot of the political issues we’re facing at the moment stem from the information and behaviours being taught in schools and universities.’

‘What is currently being assumed about the education system is definitely not an overreaction, a large extent of genuine indoctrination is happening and it’s definitely getting worse.’

Is the right side of politics paying attention to this issue? Is it too far gone? Or could it be that ignorance is bliss?

Steven Tripp – former One Nation candidate for Warringah

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