šŗšøš Why college freshmen are heading south
This shift, it goes without saying, canāt be explained by a single new pool, even one as magical as LSUās lazy river. Even so, the new waterway does speak to a fundamental shift in how young people conceive of what college involves. The diploma, increasingly, is a product, and colleges sell experiences, credentials ā and joy. And if that offers vast opportunities for āfootball schoolsā like LSU, with their sororities and their laidback Southern charm, their more po-faced Northern cousins look set to suffer, especially if they continue to dismiss the white middle classes that used to fill their halls.
Another piece of the puzzle here is comparing how universities on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line have dealt with DEI. Right across the North, students were forced to listen to fatuous lectures on white supremacy and anti-racism. They were told to read Robin DiAngelo and Ta-Nehisi Coates. They were told to ādo betterā and to ādo the workā and to ābe a good allyā. These students were told, in short, that they were the problem, no matter what they had individually done. The privilege they enjoyed was systemic, wicked, total. Talking with several of my former students, they describe ācultural bingoā games designed to raise āawarenessā. As one of my more thick-skinned former students put it: āStarting off the year being among the worst of the worst was pretty hilarious.ā
Generally speaking, the South avoided such manias, even pushing back in law. In 2022, for instance, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning DEI across all public Florida colleges. Itās a cultural fork in the road that endures to this day. While many prestigious Northern schools featured tarp-blue ātent citiesā in support of Palestinians last year, their Southern counterparts were too busy with the college football season. Thatās exactly the kind of āexperienceā many kids dream of, with their circus-like atmosphere and kegs. Having the former, at any rate, codes weird and alienating ā while the latter codes normal.
https://unherd.com/2025/02/why-college-freshmen-are-heading-south/
British man attacked for entering a āno-go zoneā in London.
A horde of Islamists surrounded him and questioned why he was in ātheirā neighborhood.
They threatened him and began chanting āAllahu Akbarā as they kicked him out.
A 65-year-old couple retiring in 2025 with average earnings will receive an estimated $1.34 million in lifetime benefits, while contributing only $720,000 in todayās dollars.
That shortfallāmore than $600,000 per coupleāis being made up by younger workers.
āMost of the growth in spending has gone to retirement and healthcare, while programs that promote upward mobility... have been left behindā
https://www.newsweek.com/social-security-medicare-young-workers-cost-10477619