A North Korean defector is worried for the future of the United States after experiencing life at Columbia University. She said that the focus on political correctness and indoctrination was very similar to the brainwashing in North Korea.
"I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think," said Yeonmi Park during an appearance on Fox News. "I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying."
Park, 27, fled North Korea in 2007 with her family when she was just 13. When she and her mother entered China, human traffickers sold them into slavery. With the help of Chinese and Korean Christian missionaries, Park and her family were bought back and smuggled into Mongolia. From there, she would eventually find refuge in South Korea. In 2016, she transferred from a South Korean university to Columbia to get a prestigious American education.
Indoctrination in Columbia reminded Park of brainwashing in North Korea
Since fleeing North Korea, Park has become a human rights activist. And her experiences in Columbia have opened her eyes to how many institutions in America help brainwash people.
During her interview with Fox News, Park described how Columbia's culture of political correctness rivaled the society-wide thought policing that occurred in North Korea. She could not believe how much she had to censor herself while at the Ivy League university.
"I literally crossed the Gobi Desert to be free and I realized I'm not free, America's not free," she said.
In one example, Park said she was scolded by a university staff member for admitting that she enjoyed the books of classic English novelist Jane Austen.
"I said 'I love those books.' I thought it was a good thing," she said. "Then [the staff member] said, 'Did you know those writers had a colonial mindset? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you.'"
Park said that every single class she took at Columbia was inundated with anti-American propaganda.
"Every problem, they explained to us, is because of White men," she said. Some of the discussions regarding so-called White privilege reminded her of the caste system instituted in North Korea. People were categorized and given favors by the ruling party based on their ancestors. (Related: Racial hatred against Whites being incorporated into school lesson planning all across America.)
The anti-American sentiment in her classes also reminded her of the anti-American propaganda she was subjected to while growing up. Park explained that she and other North Korean students were constantly taught about the "American B-------."
"'American B------' was one word for North Koreans," Park recalled. "The math problems would say, 'There are four American B-------, you kill two of them, how many American B------- are left to kill?"
"I thought North Koreans were the only people who hated Americans, but it turns out there are a lot of people hating this country in this country."
Indoctrination in universities worse than in North Korea
Park was also concerned with how professors began their classes by asking students for their preferred pronouns. She remembered being scared by the use of the singular "they," because she was afraid of getting socially penalized for supposedly not being inclusive enough in her vocabulary.
"English is my third language. I learned it as an adult," Park explained. "I sometimes still say 'he' or 'she' by mistake, and now they are going to ask me to call them 'they?'" How the heck do I incorporate that into my sentences?"
Park said all of her experiences in Columbia made her feel like civilization itself was regressing.
"Even North Korea is not this nuts," she added. "North Korea is pretty crazy, but not this crazy."
She believes the college system in Columbia and other tertiary educational institutions across the country are making American students lose their ability to think critically. This felt very familiar to her due to her time in North Korea.
Park recalled how, in North Korea, she was made to believe that the country's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, is just like her and that he was also going through the same hardships she and many other North Koreans were going through.
"How can anyone believe that? … Because I never learned how to think critically," she said. "This is what is happening in America."
Learn more about America's schooling systems by reading the latest articles at CampusInsanity.com.
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