Students at Cornell University can sign up for a course on “Deranged Authority” for the fall semester, where they will be taught that a refusal to radically address climate change is a symptom of derangement.
According to the course description, “Deranged Authority: Culture, Power, and Climate Change,” will focus on topics such as climate denial, as well as perceived rise to power by “reactionary, right wing politics” and the embrace of climate denial by certain figures.
“Climate denialism is on the rise, as are reactionary, rightwing politics in the United States, UK, and Germany,” the course description reads. “In this context, what are the cultural dynamics through which widely publicized, scientific evidence of climate catastrophe falls flat, failing to catalyze social and political reform?”
Throughout the semester, students will learn about different types of authority, with emphasis on environmental authority, that exists in the current time of climate “derangement.” Students will ask, “how does climate denialism become something that people embrace, even and especially with the awareness that climate change is real?”
According to the syllabus, several of the questions the course will impress upon students to answer involve pushing them to learn how to become better advocates for climate change and the environment.
“How do environmental advocates come to believe specific actions are necessary to save the world” as well as “How can climate justice efforts better integrate local forms of knowledge and expertise” are among the topics students will seek to address in the course. It even dives into electoral politics, asking, “How does climate denialism become something that people vote for?”
In addition to indoctrinating students about the dangers of climate change, the course will also touch upon several other favorite topics of indoctrination among leftist college professors, including inequality, as well as authority on knowledge in digital public spheres such as Twitter or Facebook.
“All of these questions point to the ongoing importance of authority for legitimating knowledge and moving social change,” the description reads. “As well as the ways in which authority is negotiated amid political fragmentation, widening inequality, and the proliferation of digital public spheres.”
[Related: Appeals court rejects Trump administration push to shut down kids’ climate change lawsuit]
