RUSH: I haven’t commented on what happened at the University of Oklahoma and that fraternity that has been banned and closed down on campus, the racist rants and so forth. You know, it’s fascinating. There’s another story that I think is relevant to this in its own way, and it’s going to be my job to link them. A story from Fortune magazine, here’s the headline: “American Millennials Are Among the World’s Least Skilled.”

Let me read the opening paragraph. “We hear about the superior tech savvy of people born after 1980 so often that we tend to assume it must be true.” And how many people do? I think this is true. A lot of people think that the Millennials, because they understand tech, are light years ahead of where we were when we were their age. They’re bright and they’re smart and they’re fast and they’re quick.

What’s happened here is that researchers at Princeton-based Educational Testing Service thought that would be the case “when they administered a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Sponsored by the OECD, the test was designed to measure the job skills of adults, aged 16 to 65, in 23 countries. When the results were analyzed by age group and nationality, ETS got a shock. It turns out, says a new report, that Millennials in the US fall short when it comes to the skills employers want most: literacy (including the ability to follow simple instructions), practical math, and — hold on to your hat — a category called ‘problem-solving in technology-rich environments.’

“Not only do Gen Y Americans lag far behind their overseas peers by every measure, but they even score lower than other age groups of Americans. Take literacy, for instance. American Millennials scored lower than their counterparts in every country that participated except Spain and Italy. (Japan is No. 1.) In numeracy, meaning the ability to apply basic math to everyday situations, Gen Yers in the US ranked dead last.

“Okay, but what about making smart use of technology, where Millennials are said to shine? Again, America scored at the bottom of the heap, in a four-way tie for last place with the Slovak Republic, Ireland, and Poland. Even the best-educated Millennials stateside couldn?’t compete with their counterparts in Japan, Finland, South Korea, Belgium, Sweden, or elsewhere.” (interruption) Well, no, they probably are setting up home servers. That’s the point. The broadcast engineer snidely said to me, “Guess they won’t be setting up any home servers.” No, they probably are.

At any rate: “With a master?’s degree, for example, Americans scored higher in numeracy than peers in just three countries: Ireland, Poland, and Spain. Altogether, the top US Gen Yers, in the 90th percentile, ‘scored lower than their counterparts in 15 countries.'” The ETS researcher who worked on the study said, “We really thought [US] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the US or to the same age group in other countries. But they didn?’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.”

Now, what does this mean for US employers hiring people born since 1980? “Goodman notes that hiring managers shouldn?’t overestimate the practical value of a four-year degree.” ‘Cause all these people are going to college and they don’t have anything to show for it. “US Millennials with college credentials did score higher on the PIAAC than Americans with only a high school diploma,” but not measurably.

“‘But a degree may not be enough,’ Goodman says, to prove that someone is adept with basic English, can do what she calls ‘workaday math,’ or has the ability to use technology in a job.” And what are people spending for this, 200 grand? Your average student loan debt bill now is 200 grand to come out of there and not be able to do day to day math?

So you say, “Well, how does this relate to what happened in Oklahoma?” Well, one other story. “A threat of violence prompted the University of California, Irvine to cancel a Tuesday meeting that was set to discuss a ban on flags — including the US flag — in student government offices.

“Campus officials on Tuesday received ‘a viable threat of violence associated with the recent controversy,’ and while the threat wasn’t specific it was being taken seriously and campus police had increased security and were asking students to report suspicious activities, according to a UC Irvine statement. … The debate erupted on the Southern California campus with nearly 30,000 students when someone removed a U.S. flag that hung on a wall in a common area of the student government suite. Six undergraduate members of the Associated Students legislative council then passed a ban on posting flags of any nation in the office lobby last week. A higher student panel vetoed it two days later amid condemnation from some veterans.”

Anyway, some people didn’t like the fact the American flag was being displayed on campus. They took it down, and they wanted to replace it. So the solution, conflict resolution 101, the solution is no flag so that nobody will be offended. No flag will be portrayed. No flag will be on display at UC Irvin ’cause we don’t want to offend anyone. Okay, so we’ve got this. We’ve got American Millennials among the world’s least skilled in basic day-to-day vocational activity, and we’ve got these frat boys at the University of Oklahoma singing a racist song that uses the N-word hanging from a tree, thrown out of school and the fraternity cut down.

What, if anything, is common here? Would it surprise you to learn that on MSNBC this morning rap music was blamed for what happened at the University of Oklahoma? Not Republicans, not conservatives, but a rapper. The name escapes me at the moment, but a specific rapper and his lyrics. And the point was made, “Hey, look, these kids are just a product of their culture. They hear that word. They turn on the radio, they hear the N-word, they hear ho, they hear bitch, it’s common, it’s every day, and the people using the words are big stars, and they’re making gazillions of dollars, and they’re running around dating the Kardashians, and they’re staying in Las Vegas.”+

I mean, they’re living the life all these young kids want to live, and how are they getting there? By doing all this stuff. Even on MSNBC it was theorized we just had a bunch of copycats, not racists. I am not kidding you. And you know who advanced this theory? Mika Brzezinski. It’s uncanny. Mika Brzezinski advanced this theory. I didn’t watch it ’cause I have instituted a personal ban on MSNBC. Okay, so let’s take that, UC Irvine. We’re talking Millennials here, in every story we’re talking Millennials. This story from Fortune magazine about the Educational Testing Service at Princeton that found American Millennials among the world’s least skilled — we really shouldn’t be surprised by this, I don’t think.

Anybody paying any kind of attention over the last 25 or 30 years of hard-left control of public elementary and secondary education, as well as the pop culture, couldn’t and shouldn’t possibly be shocked by this. This generation, these Millennials, I mean, look at ’em. How many still live at home? They, by virtue of this story in Fortune, they’re not equipped to function day to day in the workaday world. But where they’ve been educated in their schools, starting at kindergarten all the way through high school and college no doubt, things that are useful in life are not taught, like the ability to follow simple instructions.

No, instead, what are their heads being filled with? Useless, crazy aspects of the leftist agenda. They know everything about climate change. They know everything about the polar bears dying. They know everything about electric power and electric cars and who’s making ’em. All of this useless stuff. They have been taught about white rage. They have been guilted into being white. They have been guilted into believing that if they’re white they’re automatically committing criminal activity and sin just by virtue of being white. We’ve had the audio sound bites of students on this program. We’ve read their quotes where this is what they’re taught.

And then they’ve been taught that everything should be equal and it ought to be equal and it can be equal and everybody can be the same and there’s never any discrimination, there shouldn’t be any discrimination, all of this. They’ve been taught this phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ roll utopia. They’ve been told it’s attainable. They’ve been told they can achieve it, and they’ve been told who’s responsible for it not happening.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: My point is, you have Millennials testing out as incompetent; you got what happening at UC Irvine. “No flag! The American flag is oppressive,” and all that. “We can’t have any flag,” and then we’ve got this thing in Oklahoma. All of it could be chalked up to environmental reasons, not inherent racism. But instead what people have been taught or not taught, and what they’re consuming as entertainment. Every rap star in the world that uses the N-word and talks about women as hos and bitches, for all intents and purposes.

They’re multimillionaires. They’re superstars. They got big cribs. They got giant cars with diamond decked wheels on them. They’re always in Las Vegas, and there’s always a Kardashian with a big butt around everybody seems to want to be part of, and so this rapper schedules a concert nearby and these kids go nuts and do their own video. Some people thinking it’s copycat now rather than just inherent racism.

In fact, it could be. But they’re being taught in school about white guilt, white rage. They’re being taught that they’re destroying the environment or that their parents did. Woman are being taught that wherever they go, they’re gonna get raped by predatory men. They’re being educated and filled with a bunch of useless drivel and garbage that’s not even true. While that’s happening, they’re not learning anything practical. They can’t even do day-to-day math like basic addition, subtraction, multiplication.

I don’t know, folks. It all ties together. It makes sense. You know, I keep talking about… Well, I reference my tech blogs. I’ll tell you what that’s become. To me, it’s not about the tech anymore. This has become a cultural study for me. This has become almost a project. I’m studying the Millennial culture, at least in this segment of it. I mean, they do react on political things, like this business with the CIA trying to crack Apple. You would not believe some of the comments, the inability to connect dots.

On the one hand, Obama’s the greatest guy, compassionate, he loves everybody, is the smartest guy! Over here, he’s trying to crack their iPhone, and they say, “You know, history’s not gonna treat him well on this.” They do not have the ability to conceive, “Well, if he’s trying to crack my iPhone, what might he be doing with the health care server, and what might he be trying to do with any other program?” They just… It’s uncanny, the inability for critical thought, and it’s right in front of your face.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right. I have learned that Twitter is blowing up. Twitter should be blown up, if you ask me. I think some of the most repulsive hate and disgust in this country is on Twitter countless thousands, millions of times a day. But, beyond that, Twitter is blowing up, angry as hell at Mika Brzezinski for daring to say that frat boys at OU were simply mimicking a rap song. (interruption) You don’t think they were? Okay, here the thing. Here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter.

Whatever happened, Mika and the whole Morning Joe crew thinks that rappers — a particular rapper and a particular tune — inspired this, which dumbfounds me. I mean, what happened over there? Normally something like this happens and you blame the whole Republican Party. Then you blame talk radio. And then you blame the conservative blogosphere. But now they’re blaming rap music? It doesn’t happen, okay?

But, now, let me put this in a different perspective, along with this American Millennials among the world’s least skilled and the stuff that happened out of UC Irvine. If this had been a song by Kim Kardashian’s husband, and they’d sung this song at the Grammys, it’d be a hit. Can we agree with that? That’s number one. Snerdley doesn’t think I have a point on this. Snerdley thinks I might be wrong in my attempt here to be down for the struggle.

But I’m telling you, this stuff gets awards, and the people that sing it are portrayed as American royalty in terms of celebrity. You can’t deny that. Again, I want to go back to education. Look at what Millennial kids are subjected to under the guise of being educated in the classroom. It’s just the left-wing liberal agenda. They have been taught — and I want to give this a little bit different perspective. I want to talk about what happened at the OU fraternity as a total failure of the education agenda.

It’s an embarrassing, total failure of the education agenda.

Look what happened. These kids in this fraternity went to high school before they got to OU. When they were in high school, when they were in junior high school, probably when they were in K school they were taught not to hate. They were taught everybody’s special. They were taught everybody gets a prize. They were taught that white people are bad because it’s unfair there are more of them than anybody else. They were taught about white guilt.

They were taught about white rage.

They’ve been taught that white Europeans brought all the poison that affects this country today. They have been taught that African-Americans are deserving. They have been taught that homosexuals are as normal and free and clear and loved as anything else is. They’ve been taught to accept it. They’ve been taught to promote it. They have been taught all of the minority status that feels victimized. They have been taught to accept and promote it all.

They have been taught not to bully.

They may have been bullied themselves, but they have been taught that bullying is bad. There have been movies made about bullies. They have been forced to watch those movies in school. They have been told not to play rough. They have been taught not to point your finger like a gun. They have been taught to eat a bunch of rotgut vegetable garbage that’s considered to be health food as defined by Michelle (My Belle) Obama. They have been treated to Black History Month every February for their entire lives.

They have been taught about gender, wealth, race, orientation, and equality from the first step they ever took inside a school, and… (interruption) Oh, and social justice! Exactly right. They have had social justice ladled out to them as part of every class. Even mathematics is presented as social justice. And yet, despite this indoctrination, despite the best efforts of the liberal education elite, despite this liberal indoctrination, these frat boys at the University of Oklahoma are singing a racist song at the top of their lungs?

Would somebody tell me, how does that happen?

How does that happen when they have been subjected to an educational process their whole lives that has denounced and ridiculed everything that they got caught doing? Everything that they did has been impugned, it has been criticized, it’s been taught as filthy and dirty, and yet they’re doing it. Talk about failure! You talk about a liberal educational failure. What happened here? (interruption) Why are you laughing? (interruption) Why…? (interruption)

Well, my point is, even if you think that these frat boys are nothing but perfect 100% racists… Is that what you think? (interruption) Okay. (interruption) All right. (interruption) All right. Even if you think that they come from racist, viciously discriminatory, prejudiced homes with the Confederate flag on their dad’s driver’s side door of the Ford 150, well, why didn’t the liberal education system wash it out? They’ve been subjected to it. They’ve had all the corrective measures.

Why didn’t the liberal education system fix all of this? Conflict Resolution 101 obviously failed, but all of it failed. Big time. Diversity training? They’ve done it all. Where are the positive results? This is one of the biggest failures education I can believe. There’s also another possibility, folks, to explain this. It could well be that these are just a bunch of little horny SOBs trying to press girls with outlet behavior — risky, risque behavior. They’re trying to get noticed.

This is their way of showing their brave and like they don’t answer to anybody, and nobody tells them what to do. “Hey, babe, look at me! I’m Mr. Tough Guy.” Of course that’s out the window now, but who knows what’s inspiring this stuff? My point is the liberal education establishment has had hold of these kids for 15 or 20 years, and what do they have to show for it? Zilch, zero, nada.