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The main problem with the humanities is that they have been consumed by the political far left. That's sad, because English, history, and philosphy could be gr

The main problem with the humanities is that they have been consumed by the political far left. That's sad, because English, history, and philosphy could be great programs. I remember I was struggling to get decent grades on my history papers. I was running out of patience and decided I just wanted to pass. So I just wrote what I thought the professor wanted to hear (far left BS) and started getting B's and even an A-, with little effort.

exelius 8y ago
Why doesn’t it always have to be about politics? I swear, right-wingers get their panties in a bunch any time they’re confronted with the fact that the strong majority of people with advanced education disagree with their values...
deleted 8y ago
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softwaredoug 8y ago
I will just say this was not my experience. In my Arab Israeli crisis class, for example, we were encouraged to see and role play Palestinian and Israeli points of view, as well of those of the various nation states involved. You can’t get much more politically charged then that, and we needed to genuinely understand very “conservative” and “liberal” policy points of view.
- jeffdavis 8y ago
  I met a Palestinian on a plane once, and we had a long conversation. He was born in an area that is now Jordan, but was not Jordan when he lived there. Later, he was flying through, and they claimed he was a Jordanian that hadn't performed his mandatory military service, and wouldn't let him leave. He eventually got away by the skin of his teeth when he found a higher up who took pity on him, and allowed him to leave as long as he "promised to return". Very interesting person and I learned a lot about what's going on in that region and why it's so hard to resolve in a way consistent with our modern values.
paublyrne 8y ago
That's very strange to hear. I'm not sure where you studied but when I studied history at university papers were assessed in terms of argument construction, and how you assessed other historians work, and all you said had to be referenced in some way. Whether the lecturer agreed with your conclusion or not was not the basis of your mark.
- jeffdavis 8y ago
  UCSD. If it was about argument construction, then why would my rushed papers get better grades than the ones I put thought into? To be fair, not all classes were quite so bad. I took a small class in ancient ME history and it was much more detached and apolitical, while still being interesting and surprisingly relevant.
- mmsimanga 8y ago
  I think parent post might be alluding to the saying, history is written by the victor. Here in Africa we have freedom fighters who started out as brave and selfless people fighting against colonialism. Once they became elected officials unfortunately a significant number fell into the money trap or were naive when it came to structuring deals with foreign bodies, resulting in messed up corrupt economies. How you view these leaders largely depends on your outlook in life (and probably age). Some see them as villains who have take us even further back than we were and others see them as the heroes they were 40 years ago. If I wanted to pass in my home country I would stick to the hero theme.
- BeetleB 8y ago
  While I didn't perceive a leftist bias, I will mirror what the person said: You just need to figure out what they want you to say. In the first history class I took, the professor was harsh on perspectives that he didn't agree with. I realized it about halfway into the course, and just started trying to figure out what he wanted me to say. Grades improved. In the second history class, the professor didn't have a particular perspective, but would highly reward positions that required well constructed arguments. If you wrote an essay that had "easy" arguments, you would do poorly. So I focused on "which position would require the most convoluted argument (within the limits of reason)" and would go with it.
0815test 8y ago
> The main problem with the humanities is that they have been consumed by the political far left. That's overstated. There's plenty of good scholarship being done, in the humanities and especially in the social sciences, that is by necessity either non-political or extremely careful and overt about any political claims that they do make. But you're absolutely right that there is a growing far-left fringe, driven by Red Guard-inspired ideas from the 1960s and 1970s about "culture" and "academica" being nothing more than bourgeois privilege that one shouldn't have anything to do with. (And yes, that's especially in the Anglosphere - since by and large, other Western countries did their own Maoist thing in academia literally decades ago, and they've gotten it out of their system by now.) At the end of the day it just functions as an enabler of corruption and laziness, since the political stance is pretty clear as you say. They basically spend their time awarding "B's and A-'s" to one another, with basically no-one else caring much at all about the whole thing.
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bluedevil2k 8y ago
It’s funny to read that because I had the same experience when I was in school. I’m in the US and took a Canadian and Mexican History class, and had a TA from Canada. When I wrote positive things about America it would be crossed out in red with comments like “wrong!”, “at the expense of others”, things like that. I did a 180 for the later papers and talked about “evil American imperialism” and suddenly started getting A’s.
chasing 8y ago
If you just want to write papers about whatever you want to write papers about, why take a class? The professor is supposed to give you push-back. Anyway, I studied those subjects in college and had zero issues with professors pushing political agendas. I did, though, have professors push back and give me poor grades on papers where I either didn't understand the material, did a poor job thinking about the material, or had some issues with my writing style that hurt my ability to communicate my ideas. But those are fair reasons for low grades: Students should be compelled to improve those weaknesses. 'Tis the whole point.
- jeffdavis 8y ago
  I could have dropped and taken a different class, but I lost my patience. I rationalized it as an experiment to see the intellectual value of the class I was taking. I feel like I learned a valuable lesson, but not in history. Sure, there's supposed to be push back on any claim. But it's very much lighter if the professor/TA believes it to be true already. I am not claiming I am an amazing historian who is right and the professor is wrong. But I expect my ideas to be evaluated on the merits: how well I defend the idea given my level of study.
0x445442 8y ago
I had a history course like that as well. For papers, I would literally grab a beer and ramble on in the most sarcastic fashion I could muster. I received an A, it was a complete sham.
segmondy 8y ago
... and that's the real life skills you learned. sometimes you gotta do/say what people want to hear to get ahead. One of the most important life skills ever.

exelius 8y ago

Why doesn’t it always have to be about politics? I swear, right-wingers get their panties in a bunch any time they’re confronted with the fact that the strong majority of people with advanced education disagree with their values...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

softwaredoug 8y ago

I will just say this was not my experience. In my Arab Israeli crisis class, for example, we were encouraged to see and role play Palestinian and Israeli points of view, as well of those of the various nation states involved. You can’t get much more politically charged then that, and we needed to genuinely understand very “conservative” and “liberal” policy points of view.

jeffdavis 8y ago
I met a Palestinian on a plane once, and we had a long conversation. He was born in an area that is now Jordan, but was not Jordan when he lived there. Later, he was flying through, and they claimed he was a Jordanian that hadn't performed his mandatory military service, and wouldn't let him leave. He eventually got away by the skin of his teeth when he found a higher up who took pity on him, and allowed him to leave as long as he "promised to return". Very interesting person and I learned a lot about what's going on in that region and why it's so hard to resolve in a way consistent with our modern values.

paublyrne 8y ago

That's very strange to hear. I'm not sure where you studied but when I studied history at university papers were assessed in terms of argument construction, and how you assessed other historians work, and all you said had to be referenced in some way. Whether the lecturer agreed with your conclusion or not was not the basis of your mark.

jeffdavis 8y ago
UCSD. If it was about argument construction, then why would my rushed papers get better grades than the ones I put thought into? To be fair, not all classes were quite so bad. I took a small class in ancient ME history and it was much more detached and apolitical, while still being interesting and surprisingly relevant.
mmsimanga 8y ago
I think parent post might be alluding to the saying, history is written by the victor. Here in Africa we have freedom fighters who started out as brave and selfless people fighting against colonialism. Once they became elected officials unfortunately a significant number fell into the money trap or were naive when it came to structuring deals with foreign bodies, resulting in messed up corrupt economies. How you view these leaders largely depends on your outlook in life (and probably age). Some see them as villains who have take us even further back than we were and others see them as the heroes they were 40 years ago. If I wanted to pass in my home country I would stick to the hero theme.
BeetleB 8y ago
While I didn't perceive a leftist bias, I will mirror what the person said: You just need to figure out what they want you to say. In the first history class I took, the professor was harsh on perspectives that he didn't agree with. I realized it about halfway into the course, and just started trying to figure out what he wanted me to say. Grades improved. In the second history class, the professor didn't have a particular perspective, but would highly reward positions that required well constructed arguments. If you wrote an essay that had "easy" arguments, you would do poorly. So I focused on "which position would require the most convoluted argument (within the limits of reason)" and would go with it.

0815test 8y ago

> The main problem with the humanities is that they have been consumed by the political far left. That's overstated. There's plenty of good scholarship being done, in the humanities and especially in the social sciences, that is by necessity either non-political or extremely careful and overt about any political claims that they do make. But you're absolutely right that there is a growing far-left fringe, driven by Red Guard-inspired ideas from the 1960s and 1970s about "culture" and "academica" being nothing more than bourgeois privilege that one shouldn't have anything to do with. (And yes, that's especially in the Anglosphere - since by and large, other Western countries did their own Maoist thing in academia literally decades ago, and they've gotten it out of their system by now.) At the end of the day it just functions as an enabler of corruption and laziness, since the political stance is pretty clear as you say. They basically spend their time awarding "B's and A-'s" to one another, with basically no-one else caring much at all about the whole thing.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

bluedevil2k 8y ago

It’s funny to read that because I had the same experience when I was in school. I’m in the US and took a Canadian and Mexican History class, and had a TA from Canada. When I wrote positive things about America it would be crossed out in red with comments like “wrong!”, “at the expense of others”, things like that. I did a 180 for the later papers and talked about “evil American imperialism” and suddenly started getting A’s.

chasing 8y ago

If you just want to write papers about whatever you want to write papers about, why take a class? The professor is supposed to give you push-back. Anyway, I studied those subjects in college and had zero issues with professors pushing political agendas. I did, though, have professors push back and give me poor grades on papers where I either didn't understand the material, did a poor job thinking about the material, or had some issues with my writing style that hurt my ability to communicate my ideas. But those are fair reasons for low grades: Students should be compelled to improve those weaknesses. 'Tis the whole point.

jeffdavis 8y ago
I could have dropped and taken a different class, but I lost my patience. I rationalized it as an experiment to see the intellectual value of the class I was taking. I feel like I learned a valuable lesson, but not in history. Sure, there's supposed to be push back on any claim. But it's very much lighter if the professor/TA believes it to be true already. I am not claiming I am an amazing historian who is right and the professor is wrong. But I expect my ideas to be evaluated on the merits: how well I defend the idea given my level of study.

0x445442 8y ago

I had a history course like that as well. For papers, I would literally grab a beer and ramble on in the most sarcastic fashion I could muster. I received an A, it was a complete sham.

segmondy 8y ago

... and that's the real life skills you learned. sometimes you gotta do/say what people want to hear to get ahead. One of the most important life skills ever.