By Professor Doom
Every day I read
another poll that says something or other. Now, the last election showed that
pollsters (or at least the media) can outright lie about the results, but even
if pollsters were honest (stop laughing!) about the results of their polls, they
can still be dishonest about what they are doing.
“Three out
of four people prefer flame broiled burgers to open gas!”
A fast food chain
used the above line to say their burgers tasted better, but it was dishonest.
The “open gas” referred to the flame coming from burning natural gas…meat
cooked by flame is meat cooked by flame, for the most part. The simple phrasing
of the poll created the desired result…the chain’s burgers were
indistinguishable from any other chain, but people were just turned off by the
phrase “open gas.” You can easily manipulate poll results by using the right
phrasing.
So, we have polls
on higher ed that show Republicans don’t
like higher education, while Democrats
do:
Well, the articles, based on separate
polls from Pew and Gallup,
found some strong partisan disparities. According to Pew, 58 percent of
Republicans say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the
way things are going in the country (36 percent said they have a positive
effect), compared to 19 percent of Democrats with a negative view of colleges
and universities.
I’m quoting Reason
magazine above, and they’re often worth reading. Unlike mainstream news, they
do more than just read off the party line, they ask questions and think about
the information being spoon-fed to them.
The polls make it look like Republicans
want people to be ignorant, that Republicans don’t believe in Education, even
implying that Republicans are “against science” and free thinking and all
that…because the headline news says Republicans don’t like higher education.
I’m no Republican, but kudos to Reason for thinking about things:
Wait a minute. Those headlines said
"higher education," but poll respondents were asked about
"colleges and universities." That's not necessarily the same thing.
Note the twisting of the results of
the poll: a different phrasing would likely get a different result. It’s no
secret that colleges and universities are openly supportive of Left wing
Hate/Democratic ideals, shoving them into courses which have no need of them:
“Why am I
f$(&ing reading The Communist Manifesto in an English Lit class?”
--a student
records her issues with higher education, and asks this question, among quite a
few others. Her language is foul, but you can hear her address
this around 3:10 of the video.
It is
unconscionable that Karl Marx is basically the #1 author in our colleges and
universities right now. Students
are heavily exposed to him in philosophy, political science, economics and,
yes, even in English Literature courses. To clarify, they’re very heavily exposed. While students
might read snippets of other books, Marx’s entire books are used in many of
these courses. I’m not pro-censorship, but the writings of Karl Marx should be
studied by students about as often as the works of Hitler, Mao, Charles Manson,
or Ron Jeremy—there are times and places for such things. Honest, Karl Marx
belongs in college courses exactly as often as Ron Jeremy: in very specialized
courses covering extremely particular topics, not in foundational courses for
education.
Karl Marx was not
an Englishman, and didn’t write literature, but he’s now assigned in English
Lit courses. Why might thinking people see this and suspect something is awry
in our universities?
Now, Republicans
see that colleges and universities today are indoctrination centers, and,
probably more importantly, indoctrination centers for an ideology that does not
support the Republican party (the gentle reader should note carefully: I hold
no illusions about what Republican support would be like if colleges/universities
solely advanced Republican ideology).
That flip occurred during years when
colleges and universities have frequently featured in wince-worthy headlines
about ideological intolerance, politicized instruction,
and eroding due process.
It wasn’t always
this way, there was a time when Republicans supported colleges and universities
as much as, well, the only other political party Americans are allowed to have.
It’s a simple fact that things have changed on many campuses. Between the open
fraud at many of our community colleges, the horrific fraud at many of our
for-profit schools, and the blatant indoctrination at many of our state and
non-profit schools…I think it’s fair for someone to not be supportive of the
current environment in colleges and universities.
But colleges and
universities are, to a great extent, not
higher education. Our media conflates these concepts since it’s to the
detriment of the Republicans (again, to be fair, the media is also pro-Democrat
to a huge extent, and, I reiterate, if it were as biased towards Republicans as
it currently is towards Democrats, I’m sure their opinion would flip
accordingly).
“Higher education”
as most people think of it has changed, it’s that simple. The gentle reader
might recall the conservative professor at Evergreen college, who stood up and
said it was time to end racism. He did so
by speaking out against the racist policies there. The
students rioted, of course, because admin tried to appease them the last time
they rioted. While any idiot could predict what further appeasement would
bring, admin, despite their Ph.D.s in Leadership, had no idea it would cause
more riots.
It’s no surprise
how they’d respond to more riots:
No, not that Weinstein.
Only tenured
faculty can dare stand up to what’s happening on our campuses, but, as
Weinstein has learned, tenured faculty are nearly extinct on campus…there just
aren’t of them of them to stop what’s happening here. While I’ve documented the
myriad underhanded ways admin has removed tenured faculty, they’re not above a
straight payoff just to get the last scholars off campus.
Again, this is a
slur against colleges and universities, not higher education.
One of the many
evils on campus is our kangaroo court system; as a former insider to this
system, I assure the gentle reader it’s a joke of a system, and, much like
everything else on campus, is being abused to further advance and instill
ideology.
Nevertheless, many university administrators seem averse
to restoring some legitimacy to campus judicial processes. University of
California President Janet Napolitano and Stanford University Provost Persis
Drell both expressed doubts about
efforts to restore due process.
Seriously what
hope is there for our colleges and universities, when the “leaders” of the
system have no interest in legitimacy?
So, sure, Republicans are against colleges and universities…there’s
nothing in it for them.
All the
indoctrination on our campuses, as well as the kangaroo court system, is paid
for by the student loan scam. The day will come when the scam will end, and our
campuses won’t be drowning in student loan money.
When that day
comes, many of our colleges and universities will wither and die; Republicans
won’t shed a tear, and neither will I.
I promise the
gentle reader: higher education will not in the slightest be reduced by the
death of those colleges and universities, as they are no longer a part of
higher education.
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