Offhand remark? Anyone else victim of the ranting professor who starts talking politics even though you're not in a political science class? One of my brother's teachers devoted an entire class to Noam Chomsky, even though it was an English class on research writing.

I may be way off here, but students dont pay tuition to serve as captive audiences or indulge the politics of university staff.

Horowitz is drawing attention to the notorious intellectual inequality manifest in American academia. The professors are shrieking about their right to speak being curtailed, I dont think it dawned on them for a second how any right-wing or Republican political speech has been institutionally squashed in most American universities.

[Edited on Apr 25, 2005 by stockula]

[Edited on Apr 25, 2005 by stockula]

oh, yeah, that shit happens all the time. one of my profs made it mandatory that we vote for John Kerry. i mean, wtf? is there nowhere i can go to escape the liberal horde?

since you edited yours, allow me to do the same.

perhaps the reason that so many college professors describe themselves as liberal is because most educated, intellectual people tend to be so. the conservative right isn't traditionally up for matters of the mind, ya know? met many right wing philosophers? artists? besides, there are plenty of diehard conservatives on college campuses. just find the college of business and BAM! you hit the jackpot.

[Edited on Apr 25, 2005 by rottenart]

No.

If it's an etire course on research writing, one class looking at Chomsky isn't out of line.

I don't know what it is you cons are whining about. I've never once seen anyone the "victim of a ranting professor." Victim of a ranting stockula on the other hand...

[Edited on Apr 25, 2005 by troglodyte]

Yeah, I was in some restaurant and saw Bill O'Reilly on the TV overhead bitching about this. The question being how we're supposed to get a "fair and balanced" education when we're surrounded by people of one political persuasion. But what the fuck can you do about it? Nothing. Encourage Republicans to become teachers; they're welcome to do so, we certainly don't have enough. The Republicans are, more and more, becoming a party that wants to legislate everything, including, apparently, what can and cannot be said in classrooms.

This is kinda like the whole 'liberal media' piece of shit that I hear conservitaves complain about all the time. I mean it not bad enough that the have an entire fucking news channel (referring to FOX, of course) spewing their rhetoric, but they have to bitch and moan all the time about how they are victims of the media bias. And now....attacking the very institutions of higher learning from which this country grows and prospers because they are 'too liberal'?? This is a pile of shit.

I have actually...during a calculus class of all things. Began small talk about the recent election and my prof spent the entire lecture stroking Bush's dick, thereby pissing off most of the class (minus 4 people or so).

Yeah, that's always annoying. I have an English professor right now who will start ranting about political shit every once in a while. It's stupid, but if you don't like it, complain to the school or drop the class and get a new professor. This is not a valid reason to make it so that people can't say what they want to in their classes.

Shocking!!

That's like treating Chomsky like he were some sort of a. . . a linguist!

oy this pisses me off....

why do conservatives only believe in affirmative action when it comes to professors? i mean, i figure a lot of top CEOs are probably conservative right? and they wield TREMENDOUS power - over jobs, via resources (personal connections, income, influencing how corporations give to charities), culturally (think marketting), products (what is available, how safe it is) and in all kinds of other ways. i mean, shouldn't we make sure THOSE fuckers are balanced between the parties?

hey, in fact, maybe this is just the free market at work. maybe conservatives don't WANT to be professors - b/c it doesn't pay enough, or it requires a flexibility and openness that they are not really comfortable with (after all - *conservative* suggests liking current explanations right? what we have works etc). this doesn't mean they're not smart (they make smashing lawyers & doctors i'm sure). they're just not ACAEDEMIC material.

don't get me fucking started on having a research sample consisted of two schools...

in sum: the free market has done its job. conservatives don't want to be professors. they've opted. don't bring in your "welfare" now to try and help these whiny pricks out. let them publish something that matters, then they can get tenure just like everyone else. (also - please tell the economists here at the university of chicago that they're all liberals. they'll LOVE it.)

I always liked it when professors went off on tangents. It meant I didn't have to pay attention and could get some other work done. Then again, my brain shuts off like Homer in the Apple Cider Factory whenever politics is brought up. My feeling is to each his own, what you say isn't going to affect me, so I have no problem with you talking because I also have no problem not listening, wether it be at home, on the street, or even in the classroom.

you and a few million other americans.

The free market is only a valid tool when it is doing what the conservatives want. When free market forces are in favor of things like porn, gays on tv (gasp!), nipples on tv (GASP!), liberal professors and the legalization of the pot, then free markets need "helpful" legislation.

Just because I understand, doesn't mean I care.

hey, no sweat. that's how we got to the amazing place we are today.

Do you think the Chomsky tape was about his linguistic work? No. It was about what Chomsky's most noteworthy for.

Well those are pretty good points. But if I was a shareholder or paid a CEO who delivered profits or pumped share prices, I honestly wouldn't give a damn what his politics were. I may not like his ideas or opinions, but who cares? He delivers.

It's nothing like that in the university. And what Horwitz is decrying is that people with conservative ideas and opinions are PERSECUTED. He doesn't really care what people's politics are, and this wouldn't be an issue if people kept their politics to themselves.

Academics stridently support equal treatment on the basis of race and gender, things that cannot be freely chosen. Yet they feel righteous in persecuting political views, because those are freely chosen. The implication is, when free will or free thinking is exercised, it must be regulated or controlled. But there's a problem; they dont think this way uniformly or fairly.

[Edited on Apr 25, 2005 by stockula]