Legends of Cornell

A brief summary of some of the most frequent deceptions you will hear while at Cornell.

By: Jonathan Bloedow on August 19th, 2005 at 4:50 PM

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Below is a brief summary of some of the most frequent deceptions you will hear while at Cornell. You need to know that there is another side to each of them.

1. 10% of the population is homosexual.

One of the most prevalent myths you will encounter at Cornell University is the “statistic” that ten percent of the general population is homosexual. Homosexual activists (the Cornell Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Coalition), Residence Life (through your RAs), Gannett Health Center and courses like HSS 315 (Human Sexuality, taught by Andrea Parrott) are just the most common sources of this claim. The alleged ten percent figure has served for a long time as the rhetorical vanguard of the movement by homosexual activists to normalize their sexual preferences and activities. It has served them well. The idea that 1 in 10 people are homosexual suddenly makes people think that since it is so common, it must be far more normal than they were led to believe whilst growing up.The philosophical connection between statistical frequency and morality is naturally avoided at all costs.

The origin of the figure is a comprehensive set of studies conducted by “sexologist” Alfred Kinsey on human sexuality in the 1940s.These so-called Kinsey Studies serve as the basis of much of modern liberal sexual theory. (Kinsey actually wrote that about ten percent of the male population of his interviewees reported exclusive homosexual activity for three to ten years, which is not exactly what they claim he said.) A recent book by Judith Reisman and Edward Eichel, entitled Kinsey, Sex and Fraud has completely exposed Kinsey’s “research” as being not just fraudulent, but in some aspects criminal. William Gairdner, in his book War Against the Family, provides a good synopsis of some of their main points:

“Wardell Pomeroy in a later book revealed that ‘possibly a quarter’ of Kinsey’s volunteers were in fact convicted sex criminals, and a Kinsey co-worker told author Eichel that about 44 percent of those prisoners had homosexual experiences in prison. The boys Kinsey interviewed included an unusually high percentage of homosexuals. About 64 percent of Kinsey’s sample were college-educated (vs. 12 percent of the population); of the group aged 30 to 50, 55 percent were widowed or divorced; and fully 80 percent of his sample were ‘inactive’ in their religion. More damaging still, Kinsey apparently directed experimental ‘research’ on several hundred children between the ages of two months and fifteen years. These children “were orally and manually stimulated to orgasms by a group of nine sex offenders. Attempts were actually made to ‘produce’ orgasm in babies of two to four months of age.” (p. 381)

In short, the only basis for the ten percent figure (not to mention the only basis for the concept of the sexual continuum, where everyone is considered to be somewhere on a continuous scale from absolutely heterosexual and absolutely homosexual instead of actually homosexual or heterosexual) is the Kinsey studies, which have now been completely discredited. More recent and more legitimate research (which did not involve the criminal sexual abuse of children or careful pre-selection of interviewees) give a percentage of 1 to 2% for the percentage of homosexuals in the population.

These facts, however, seem to have still not influenced much of the propaganda industry, with the embarrassing result that activists, Residence Life, Gannett “Health” Center and cutting-edge courses in the College of Human Ecology will still tell you that ten percent of the population is homosexual.

Those few who acknowledge the truth will tell you that numbers are irrelevant— it’s only the legitimacy of the cause that is important. That was, of course, the conservative argument all the time.


2. “I would never have an abortion, but I could never tell another woman what to do.”

This statement is probably the most common response you will get if you ask people for their position on abortion. It sounds tolerant and accepting. The worst thing you can do, so you are to believe, is “impose your morality on someone else.” But such a view is inconsistent with almost everything else these people believe.

Consider rape, racism, sexual harassment, environmental destruction, murder, theft. On all these issues, these same people probably believe very strongly that there are absolute ethical norms and that the power of the State ought to be used to force “their” morality onto everyone, regardless of what their personal beliefs are. So they have no problem with telling other people what to do with their bodies and their lives and what moral choices they should make. If that doesn’t make them intolerant and anti-freedom, why does opposing abortion mean being intolerant and anti-freedom?


3. You’re either in favor of gay rights or you’re an intolerant homophobe.

To quote from the textbook for Andrea Parrott’s course on Human Sexuality (Hyde, Understanding Human Sexuality): “Americans are a strange mixture of bigots and supporters on the issue of homosexuality.” You will encounter this false dichotomy approach often, especially with homosexuality. You will be told by people like Professor Parrott that you either accept their point of view on homosexuality or you are an intolerant bigot and are afraid of homosexuals. Of course this is a completely false dichotomy. Many people consider the homosexual lifestyle to be wrong for many scientific and philosophical reasons which have nothing to do with prejudice, fear or bigotry. But of course, when you have a huge political agenda like the homosexual agenda, such tactics are extremely useful, and indeed have proved quite effective.

Most students, staff and faculty are now afraid to deviate from the politically correct position (in support of gay rights) for fear of being labeled bigots. Some of the scientific reasons why people do not view the homosexual lifestyle as being as healthy as the heterosexual lifestyle are shorter lifespans, high rates of fecal ingestion and high promiscuity. For example, the median life-span of a homosexual male who dies from AIDS is 39; the median life-span of a homo-sexual male who dies of other causes is 42; and lesbians have a median age of death of 44. This is a little over half the average lifespan for the nation. Surely one does not become a bigot for suggesting that a lifestyle which cuts your life expectancy in half could be described as a poor lifestyle. Many Christians who derive all moral truth from the Bible believe that the Bible says very clearly that homosexuality is a sin, as is adultery, pre-marital sex, murder and theft. Even if their exegesis is flawed, that obviously does not make their position unprincipled and bigoted.


4. There is no such thing as absolute truth.

Allan Bloom writes in his epic book, The Closing of the American Mind, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.” Bloom’s observation is correct. It seems that almost everyone you encounter will tell you that all moral truth is relative. Your professors will tell you this. Your fellow students will tell you this. Your RA will almost certainly tell you this. Gannett “Health” Center will tell you this. But the problem is two-fold:

1) Moral Relativism is self-contradictory, and
2) Moral Relativists don’t actually believe in Moral Relativism anyway.

Moral Relativism can be summed up as: “All moral truth is relative.” But that statement is a claim of moral truth. Then, by its own declaration, the statement can not be absolutely true. But it is being claimed as an absolute! The position collapses on itself. The Moral Relativist is forced to believe in at least one objective truth: the absolute that there are no absolutes, which makes absolutely no sense.

As we pointed out in the discussion about abortion, even the person who most vociferously denounces attempts to make abortion illegal by claiming that no one should be allowed to impose their morality on someone else almost always believes passionately in absolute morality themselves and that certain aspects or all of that morality ought to be imposed on everyone else. The strident, self-proclaimed Moral Relativists nearly always believe that rape is absolutely wrong and should always be illegal. And of course, they believe that sexual and racial harassment, as well as sexual and racial discrimination, are absolutely immoral. They do not really believe what they claim to believe.


5. The State exists to provide for our security and without the help of government it is impossible to achieve anything.

The biggest selling point of the Clinton Health Care Plan is its provision of guaranteed health care for everyone. Wherever she goes, Hillary Clinton tries to sell her plan by emphasizing the insecurity people face in the present situation and the security that will be provided under socialized medicine. Her strategy is based on one of the most prevalent myths regarding the role of government in America and around the world, a myth which will only be reinforced during your time at Cornell. For many, it is a given that a civil government exists to provide security for the citizens, forgetting that in order for the State to provide security it must erase a measure of liberty. True liberty and State-provided security are eternally at odds.

The Founding Fathers of the United States understood this reality and designed a political system that would maximize liberty, for as Benjamin Franklin warned: “Those who are willing to exchange essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

If the State is to provide security, it must expropriate the means with which to provide that security from the citizenry. The more security it provides, the more wealth and property and freedom it must expropriate from the citizenry.

America used to be a nation of people who accepted that being free meant being free to confront the insecurities, challenges and obstacles of life because they believed that they could be overcome. Nowadays, however, America is increasingly a nation of people who see every opportunity as a risk not worth taking, every challenge as a possibility of failure they are too afraid to confront. That is why we increasingly call upon the State to remove the risk of failure, but in so doing it removes the possibility of success. Increased State-provided security can only come by State-removal of liberty. Remember that these are always at odds.


6. There is no such thing as a black or minority conservative.

Cornell will teach you that Conservatism entails racism and that conservatives are generally or always racists. The factor usually cited for this is Conservatism’s rejection of affirmative action and other race-based decision-making policies. They will probably not explain to you the principles and reasoning behind these positions, but will simply guarantee you that they derive from a desire to keep blacks and other minorities down.

What they will not tell you about is the growing body of black conservatives. Perhaps two of the most well-known black conservatives in America are economists and columnists Thomas Sowell (Stanford) and Walter Williams (George Mason). Sowell is a prolific author, and has written many books against preferential policies. Williams is the author of the famous book, The State Against the Blacks, and sometimes guest hosts Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. The Liberals will not tell you about publications such as Issues & Views, Destiny magazine or Alternative Voice. They won’t tell you about the Abe Lincoln Foundation (America’s Black Voice for Conservative Action), the Conservative American Coalition or Project 21. They won’t tell you about radio talk show hosts like Jesse Peterson or Ken Hamblin. Much to their chagrin they can’t really avoid telling you about Clarence Thomas, so they attack him relentlessly and call him an Uncle Tom. They will only tell you about Jesse Jackson, the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, because they toe the liberal line. (If you want more information on any of these individuals, publications or organizations, just write to us or e-mail us and we’ll be glad to send it to you.)


7. All women are liberal and pro-abortion.

Another similar myth is that all women are liberal, pro-abortion and pro-State intervention to help them in life. The problem with this is that it is just not true. Unfortunately truth seems to matter little.

Whenever the mainstream media wants an opinion on issues known as “women’s issues,” they always go to the ultra-leftist National Organization for Women (NOW). They never go to or even tell you about Concerned Women for America (CWA), the conservative national women’s organization. This is odd when you consider that CWA has more than twice the membership of NOW. In addition, nearly any pro-life organization you could care to survey will be at least half made up by women.

8. Everyone is having sex by my age.

“Everybody’s doing it.” This seems to be the most prevalent view regarding sexual activity before marriage. Maintaining chastity until marriage is considered by many to be a quaint notion that went out with Ozzie and Harriet. The Sexual Revolution did away with all that nonsense about purity, self-restraint and virtue. But the observed cycle of teen sexuality, sky-rocketing rates of sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, teen pregnancy, mass abortion, teen motherhood, single parenthood, delinquent children and back to teen sexuality again is causing a new interest in chastity. Teen chastity groups are starting up all over the place, perhaps the most widely publicized being True Love Waits, through the Southern Baptist Convention, which already has 500,000 signed chastity pledge cards. Many of these programs are recording stunning successes and are finding a real audience for their message. Right here in Ithaca, the Ithaca Pregnancy Center conducts prochastity programs in the local schools. (On campus, there are a multitude of Christian fellowships— such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, Chinese Bible Study, Korean Bible Study and Holy Ghost Connection—full of people who are committed to remaining chaste until marriage.) When people tell you that if you choose the path of virtue, you are the only one, you can just tell them that they’re wrong. (By the way, don’t expect Gannett Health Center to tell you about any of these groups and organizations, considering how much money they would lose if everyone reading this stopped having sex.)

Studies also show that people who keep sex for marriage have a much more satisfying sex life and higher frequency of reaching orgasm.


9. AIDS does not discriminate.

The most popular myth promulgated by the media and Cornell, especially Gannett Health Center and Residence Life regarding AIDS, is that “AIDS does not discriminate.” To deal with this subject properly would take a lot of space, which The Cornell American has consistently done in past issues. The fact is that AIDS is predominantly a disease of practicing homosexuals and intravenous drug users and their immediate sexual partners. This fact, however, tends to stigmatize the homosexual community and thus thwart their agenda for societal acceptance of their sexual practices. Thus was born the “AIDS does not discriminate” myth, which is now represented as unquestionable truth. If you want the other side of this issue, we suggest you read Michael Fumento’s book The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS. We have printed extensive summaries of his book and an interview we conducted with him, which is available to you at no charge. If you want any of these materials, just contact us by e-mail or letter.

 

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