American higher education resembles totalitarian societies?

[flashl]

Indoctrinate U

Hailed by the New York Sun as one of "America's most promising" documentary filmmakers, Maloney has assembled a scorching indictment of higher education in America today, one that should make students, parents, trustees, lawmakers, and concerned citizens sit up and take notice. The London Telegraph has called the long-awaited feature-length film "as slick and incisive as anything by Michael Moore."

Maloney spent two years traveling to campuses across the country, interviewing students, professors, and administrators to find out what life on campus is really like. Instead of the vibrant debate, intellectual diversity, and academic freedom we like to associate with universities, Maloney found violent protests at UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State, persecution of student members of a conservative club at Cal Poly and the University of Tennessee, divisive racial and ethnic politics at the University of Michigan and Yale, doctrinaire teaching at Duke and Columbia, and much more.

[Elspeth]

1. Is David Horowitz funding this guy?

"persecution of student members of a conservative club at Cal Poly"

I have never heard about persecution of conservatives. Details!

[patrice]

2. Perhaps universities have become the corollary on the Left of

what churches have become on the Right. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, churches:universities.

A siege mentality could be the result of how defensive one has to be about being a Liberal these days. Lefties have to KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT everywhere: on the job, socializing, at church, out in the community in general. Is it surprising that the ONE and only single place that it is okay to be Liberal there is a concentration of the Left?

The Right is only bitching about it because they want absolutely EVERYTHING.

[Sadie4629]

6. I guess I'm not seeing that many lefties keeping their mouths shut

After all, you are free to say (nearly) anything you want on a message board.

Your argument about churches makes no sense. You are free to up and leave a church any time you like. There are many churches that will preach what you want to hear. Go to one of those instead.

A university is different. There are very, very few colleges that are conservative. Conservative students, or their parents, have very little choice about the atmosphere of a university. As a student, or as the parent of a student, you are paying big bucks for an education. You have made an investment, and deserve to get some bang for your buck. By which I mean, an education instead of an indoctrination.

[izquierdista]

9. There's a reason

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid ..., it is true that most stupid people are conservative." - John Stewart Mill (1806-1873) PS: "I never meant to say that the Conservatives are ... stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it."

And if you ever do run into a conservative intellectual, be it John Paul II or William Buckley, they spend 99% of their intellect creating arguments based on faith and "common sense" to support their own self-interest.

[patrice]

11. Lefties keep their mouths shut where I live.

Notice how many people don't use their real names around here? Why do you suppose that is?

Church? Perhaps you come from a tradition in which you get to shop for a church that fits your style. I don't.

Many churches are afterall businesses and the style right now is intolerant "patriotism" and as with all social trends, the pressure to conform is intense and there ARE serious emotional consequences for not conforming.

I've also spent enough time on phone banks for Democrats in national elections to know the animosity that has risen amongst religious communities when people say things against Bush's War.

You know what, it's only "indoctrination" if you're too weak to know why you think what you think. It's only an indoctrination if you can't stand on your own two feet and be different. The NEED for support is what makes people vulnerable to other people's ideas. You ever heard of someone named Ayn Rand?

[patrice]

12. To some people, any Lefties at all opening their mouths are "many",

, hence your perception, quite possibly, that many Lefties are dominating the discourse.

No, quite simply, I'd be willing to bet, in the over-all spectrum of social discourse, the "Right" is WAY over-represented proportionally, otherwise there'd be MANY more candidates similar to Dennis Kucinich.

[RainDog]

29. do you have any examples of this "indoctrination?"

The reality I see at American Universities is research paid for by defense contractors, big pharma and chemical cos, for example. If there is any "hotbed" of "liberalism" it is in areas that also focus on issues of identity, such as gay, female, person of color... in studies, people have, over the years,s begun to look at the course of history, trying to see outside of the ideology into which they were born to see the effects of colonialism, for instance, on others.

yes, there are some real kooks. but there is also debate among people who are mostly, as far as I've ever known and seen, raging moderates.

anyway, again, want to know some particular examples to uphold your statement. everyone knows Ward Churchill was not considered part of the "mainstream" of University-level thought.

There are professors whose tenures have been blocked because of their pov toward Israel. 2 that I know of in the last few years. They weren't blocked because they were conservative.

If someone in this country doesn't want his or her child exposed to women's studies or queer theory or evolution, then a state university of any merit is not the answer because these are topics that have been around for years as people who were silenced before form their own voices. Evolution, of course, is not at issue except among those who do not understand the workings of science anyway.

What are the agendas that are forced upon students as a wide-ranging University pov? Again, concrete examples, please. with links, preferably.

thanks

[EFerrari]

20. No, that isn't happening.

Universities are not the left leaning corollaries of nutwing churches. But, David Horowitz wants you to think so.

[spooked911]

3. right-wing propaganda, I bet

NYSun link is a clue

[flashl]

5. Its in the NyTimes

Yet Once More: Political Correctness on Campus

[tishaLA]

27. You'll notice that Prof. Fish calls it sophistry

"red herrings and non-issues" are his exact words.

[flashl]

32. Yes, thats true.

[xchrom]

4. yeah right conservatives are persecuted. -- look

conservatives want to distort history -- it is one their main goals and has been since the 70's.

they aren't persecuted -- on campus or anywhere else.

they do have to deal with reality on campus however -- and THAT makes them feel persecuted.

because they are fuckin nuts.

[Jade Fox]

7. What you wrote.....

That's exactly what I was thinking.

In the academic world you have to PROVE your theories with facts. That's why Neocon thinking disintegrates on college campuses. There are actually knowledgeable people around at colleges who can easily refute nonsense.

[xchrom]

8. it's horrifying situation for them -- look at the concerted effort to turn out conservative judges,

and graduates for conservative think tanks.

this is 100% war for these folk -- and they're not playin.

[fujiyama]

17. Colbert's line hits it on the head:

"Truth has a well known liberal bias".

[patrice]

13. Right on! To some people ANY opposition at all is an attack.

That's because they are weak to begin with. The strong can deal with the differences between themselves and others.

[rucky]

10. Not my college experience.

and I went to one of the most conservative around.

[BadgerLaw2010]

14. Why are you promoting right wing materials on DU?

[flashl]

16. It may appear to be right wing to you. n/t

[BadgerLaw2010]

18. All I see is London Telegraph, "presecuted conservatives" and a slime fest of liberal schools.

This material reeks.

[flashl]

23. The point is

this is how the abortion rights, the christan right movement, and swift boating got momentum while Dems stood still like deers staring into flashlights.

This kid is getting a HUGE amount of press as the anti-michael moore. Refusing to SEE the significance and importance of this movie to a group of desperate people is a MISTAKE.

[patrice]

22. Where'd his/her buddie Sadie-whats-her-name go?? nt

[flashl]

15. College Students Fight for Their Right to Say "F**k Bush"

Angry students and faculty call for the firing of a college newspaper editor at their own peril.

The Sept. 21 editorial of The Rocky Mountain Collegian was a taunt: TASER THIS...FUCK BUSH. Students groups like the College Republicans and faculty have in fact, obliged -- insofar as they are legally able -- to take down the students responsible.

Or at least the editor in chief, J. David McSwane.

Newspaper editors may be the face of the publication, but the publication is not its editor. The editorial board's decision to run the statement was a 4-3 split, so it's clear that the editor is not the only one who should technically be held accountable. But this isn't really about "journalistic integrity" as the CSU College Republicans would spin it. It is about creating taboo lines around free expression, especially ones that deviate from tamer, 'legitimate' forms of discourse.

The statement itself was a four-word punchline that exercised the right to express a sentiment that many U.S. youth may be feeling. Fuck Bush and Buck Fush stickers and statements are common. Coupled with bizarre tasering incidents at University of Florida, and before that, the brutal tasering of Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a UCLA student in a library, excessive, punitive force seems to be the guard waiting to pounce the moment someone says something out of line.

Read More ...

[Igel]

21. Key words: "insofar as they are legally able."

In other words, it's a contest. Editorial board vs readership. I'd hope that the administration and faculty stay out of it, but haven't bothered to follow the story.

I've seen tussles between student journalists/editors and constituent groups on campus. In some cases, they've screamed racism, oppression, bias of one sort or another; in other cases, misrepresentation of facts. As long as the university faculty and administration stay out, it's usually not so bad. Assuming, of course, that the groups behave themselves--I've also seen a "liberal" group decide that they didn't like an article, follow 100 feet behind the guys delivering the newspaper to the distribution boxes, and take them. I've heard the same kinds of juvenile, close-minded tactics from "conservative" groups via U-Wire.

On the other hand, having it be tussle between campus groups is radically different from it's not being a contest. "Faculty vote to refuse *-fucker to enroll in courses," "Administration suspends financial support to editor who approved 'Fuck Bush!'"

See the difference?

[flashl]

24. Yes. I have followed the "tussle" on campuses since the beginning of this administration. n/t

[EFerrari]

19. It's funny that this RW propaganda has to compare itself to Mike!

lol

[Igel]

25. Grad school certainly can be.

To say otherwise, or to say adherents of certain ideologies/disciplines can't be bastards, is foolishness.

[EFerrari]

26. Grad schools have their dominant ideologies that aren't

liberal or conservative but supportive of the status quo, whatever that may be. This article is claiming something very different. Let's be careful.

[Igel]

33. Can be.

But the dominant ideologies can also align uncomfortably well with general political ideologies. They certainly don't have to, there are many kinds of narrow-minded mean-spirited repression that grad programs (and undergrad faculty) can engage in.

In any event ... often totalitarian communities, whatever the ideology that passes for fashion.

[EFerrari]

34. I must have been lucky. My teachers pretty much let me think

with the exception of that one medievalist who had a war with me over whether there was a Virgin Mary cult or not. The bastard gave me a B.

lol

[tishaLA]

28. grad programs are usually about internecine warfare

not "ideologies" except insofar as the encampments hide behind ideological pretense.

[TZ]

30. Maybe this has to do with Universities

offering courses in "imaginary" and "controversial" topics like "Evolution", and "Ecology"? After all it was in college in the late eighties and early nineties that I first learned about global warming. EEK! Political indoctrination disguised as actual SCIENCE.
Seems to me this is just another attack on the intellectual freedom that most Universities offer. Fundies and other RW nutbags can't stand the idea that some of their precious flocks might be exposed to those dangerous fact thingies.....Too much reality isn't good for the RW mind after all....:eyes:

[RainDog]

31. maybe the guy only went to frat houses?

where you are "forced" to drink intolerable amounts of alcohol? the overlords of delta chi?

[baldguy]

35. Ward Churchill would agree.