Dr. Trevor Tomesh, an outspoken conservative professor, has been taking on woke indoctrination and ideology at a Wisconsin college campus and beyond.
Dr. Tomesh joined Liz Collin on her podcast to explain why he has been speaking out on college campuses (and had to start with a disclaimer that his views are his own and don’t represent his university).
He wrote a social media post in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination that went viral and thrust him into the national spotlight.
His post stated:
“The fact that Charlie was killed on a college campus for expressing his opinions and ideas — the one place in society [where the] sole purpose is to express opinions and ideas — should be a watershed moment for all universities. Every single member of every single university community — faculty, administrators, staff, and students — should be lamenting this as it spells the death of the university. There should have immediately been a press release from every school in the United States condemning this act of ideological violence. Students should have been told about the gravity of this situation. Instead, hundreds of professors and students celebrated and continue to celebrate.”
Dr. Tomesh explained how most of the reaction has been positive to someone speaking up in the world of academia.
“I had about 300 emails immediately after in the upcoming week or the week following that. And they were a lot of really, really good emails, actually. The overwhelming majority of the emails that I did receive from people all over the world actually, not just in academia, were very supportive, a lot of very supportive emails,” he said.
His commentary may seem even more poignant considering how his own perspectives and political views have drastically changed over the years.
A former ‘angry atheist socialist’
Dr. Tomesh called himself “an angry atheist socialist” when he was an undergrad, but he explained how that all changed when he moved to Canada.
“A lot happened in Canada. I really had a massive change of heart. I had a massive change of faith. It all started with the death of my little brother who was killed in a car accident in 2015. I came to realize that family was more important than I had thought. Then on top of that, my marriage had fallen apart and then came the 2016 election. And the 2016 election when Donald Trump got elected over Hillary Clinton, I could not fathom why on earth the United States would have gone that way and it really, really hit me hard. So what wound up happening was I wound up talking to somebody who had voted for Donald Trump. And I was wondering, what, what, why, how could you do this? Cause you, you’re a decent human being and how could you have voted for someone like that? It had never dawned on me as an angry, atheist socialist that maybe I should talk to these people that I think are so terrible. And so I spent a lot of time talking to a bunch of different people, and trying to get their perspectives,” he said.
He credits Jordan Petersen’s work, COVID lockdowns in Canada, and the George Floyd riots for pushing him over the edge to have a different political perspective.
“We had to carry around QR codes to prove that we were vaccinated if we wanted to get into places. I saw that as kind of what I thought was soft tyranny. And then finally, what really set me off was the 2020, the George Floyd protests down here and watching lie after lie in the media, because I was also watching the protesters themselves filming themselves on Twitch. And I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And I thought, well, if they’re lying about this, what more are they lying about? And then I wound up saying, no, fine. I’m a conservative now. And I voted for Donald Trump two times,” Dr. Tomesh said.
“There are a lot of quiet conservative academics. There’s a lot of people who are afraid to speak out. I know of a number of faculty, even tenured faculty who have reached out to me and said, I wish I had the fortitude to speak out like you do. Honestly, at this point in my career, I am looking at the universities and where I see them going. And if they go anywhere like they did in Canada, I don’t want to be a part of that system. And so I thought I’m either going to change it now at the beginning of my career while I still can try to affect some sort of change, or I’m going to have to change careers,” he said.
The First Amendment: A right and a responsibility
Along the way, Dr. Tomesh realized the significance and importance of the First Amendment.
“We have the First Amendment for a reason. And the First Amendment isn’t there just because it’s a nice thing to be able to say what you want. It’s not just a right. It is a responsibility,” he said.
Dr. Tomesh further explained that, “to pursue truth, you have to speak your mind and you have to allow other people who you disagree with to speak their minds as well. It’s so critically important that you present your point of view, even if those points of view are unpopular, because at best you’ll change some minds, at worst you’ll learn why you’re wrong.”
He also emphasized the role that institutions of higher learning play: “This is what universities are meant for, right? They are meant for you to go with your presuppositions, learn new things. Present your point of view and maybe change your mind on a few things. And I think without that, universities, their mission has failed.”
You can follow Dr. Tomesh on X @realDrTT.
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
