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> Universities and colleges have become very liberal, with hardly any conservatives left. Have they become more liberal? Academia has long been called liberal;
by hackuser 10y ago
> Universities and colleges have become very liberal, with hardly any conservatives left.
Have they become more liberal? Academia has long been called liberal; I don't know that it has become more or less that way. Also, liberal is a matter of definition and is relative to a degree; perhaps society has become more conservative.
> The downside to this liberal success is that the public image of "scientist" is now tied to "liberal".
That's not a downside to "liberal success", IMHO; it's an intended outcome of a propaganda campaign. The perpetrators want to discredit any opposition to their ideology, whether Democrats, whose voters and politicians are called frauds (voters, Obama), demonized (voters, Obama, Clinton, etc.), and criminalized (voters, Clinton, etc.); "liberals" (made a word of ridicule rather than a valid but differing point of view); groups that provide services to the poor (ACORN, Planned Parenthood, etc.); scientists, other academics, experts of any sort, even theories of science (evolution, climate change), etc.
- eropple 10y agoPurported legitimacy is another big thing that troubles me. I remember "not my President" getting some nontrivial shit when liberals employed it about George W. Bush. (I threw some of it.) I do not remember the same sort of "unpatriotic", "treasonous" rhetoric employed when the Republicans did the same thing in 2008. I do not remember birtherism being considered unpatriotic, either. "The only legitimate government is a Republican government" is reason enough to fear.
- CalChris 10y agoExactly. This is equivocation nonsense that the right trots out. We did it therefore you must have done it. The two sides are not mirror images of one another.
- edblarney 10y ago" I don't know that it has become more or less that way. " Universities were mostly founded by Churches - and they were for the Upper Class. They were bastions of conservatism in the classical sense. In the 1930's it started to change. Many profs in the 1930's were card carrying Communists. Unlike today, wherein nobody would care, and many would be sympathetic - they would be destroyed in that era if it were found out. Put more simply: Universities were not leftists until the middle of last century. It was the 1960's when things really flipped. There is no 'propaganda' needed: open discussion is suppressed on campus and this is a fact. Banned speakers, profs not allowed to speak of certain issues due to 'trigger warnigs' etc.. All of your comments about 'ACORN' and 'Obama' etc. have nothing to do with academia - those are completely political issues. And FYI it is progressives who are against GMO's - and science indicates they are completely safe. The 'anti vaxxers' are definitely 'anti science' and those groups lean left. Those supporting Chinese medicine, herbal therapy etc. - that's fairly 'anti science' - and those people tend way left. (I have hippie family members who practice Chinese medicine and some of the stuff they do should be illegal. They don't actually diagnose patients with illnesses, but they truly believe they can, by looking at your tongue etc.) I don't support any political ideal, but I would say that 'leftist / progressive' populism on campus is seriously a problem. I think it's mostly the culture and the students, not so much the course material.
- hackuser 10y agoTo respond to my own first question: > Have they become more liberal? Academia has long been called liberal; I don't know that it has become more or less that way. Also, liberal is a matter of definition and is relative to a degree; perhaps society has become more conservative. See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13352697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13352697