All your children belong to us!

[Phatscotty]

A generalization like "Professors are Liberal" is a stereotype
and as such is not a one size fits all. Stereotypes don't work
any more than liberal is a bad attitude that conservatives
must fear. There is no shortage of conservative professors
in the university systems and I doubt there ever will be.

There is always the potential for higher education to make
students a bit more open minded and still not a "liberal."

What is the % of Conservative professors?

[Phatscotty]

Wait a sec, is everyone else here that is talking about American education non-American? Okay then Brits, go ahead and highfive each other about comments on college in America.

[Phatscotty]

What's the author's definition of 'liberal' and 'conservative'?

he uses the terms "left of center" and "right of center" a lot, so I guess the real question is what is his definition of Center? And how does he know he is really a Progressive Liberal?

[notyou2]

American academia just seems to be less out of step with the rest of the world than the American public in general, and whether you like it or not Scotty, that is probably a good thing.

[crispybits]

Wait a sec, is everyone else here that is talking about American education non-American? Okay then Brits, go ahead and highfive each other about comments on college in America.

Yeah because the rest of the world doesn't have higher education sectors....

If you want to talk exclusively with americans why are you posting questions on an internationalf orum - can't you just stick over with your like minded folks at www.welovemurica.com?

[The Voice]

I think timing plays an important part. It's likely more convenient for students to identify as liberals, that is, if they even care about politics at all, which is another matter.

My old boss used to say, if you're young and conservative, you don't have a heart; if you're old and liberal, you don't have a brain. Sure, there are plenty of mindless masses who stay one way or the other all their lives, but for those of us who can think for ourselves, our ideologies shift as our environment, priorities, etc. change.

[BigBallinStalin]

I think timing plays an important part. It's likely more convenient for students to identify as liberals, that is, if they even care about politics at all, which is another matter.

My old boss used to say, if you're young and conservative, you don't have a heart; if you're old and liberal, you don't have a brain. Sure, there are plenty of mindless masses who stay one way or the other all their lives, but for those of us who can think for ourselves, our ideologies shift as our environment, priorities, etc. change.

You should consider the following for your new signature:

[Phatscotty]

Wait a sec, is everyone else here that is talking about American education non-American? Okay then Brits, go ahead and highfive each other about comments on college in America.

Yeah because the rest of the world doesn't have higher education sectors....

If you want to talk exclusively with americans why are you posting questions on an internationalf orum - can't you just stick over with your like minded folks at http://www.welovemurica.com?

Your open-mindedness is showing

This thread is in response to another thread from earlier this year, Education in the USA by Lootifer
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=190419&hilit=education+america

[Lootifer]

I think timing plays an important part. It's likely more convenient for students to identify as liberals, that is, if they even care about politics at all, which is another matter.

My old boss used to say, if you're young and conservative, you don't have a heart; if you're old and liberal, you don't have a brain. Sure, there are plenty of mindless masses who stay one way or the other all their lives, but for those of us who can think for ourselves, our ideologies shift as our environment, priorities, etc. change.

Im with BBS. You have one the internet.

[john9blue]

it's not complicated.

liberals think they know everything.

college professors think they know everything (because they do know more than most people).

that's why the two are correlated.

the smartest people (who realize that they don't know everything) usually end up being libertarians.

[GreecePwns]

A good troll is one that makes ambiguous whether or not they really believe what they say.

10/10 john9blue.

[AndyDufresne]

the smartest people (who realize that they don't know everything) usually end up being libertarians.

The smartest people usually end up being from Uranus.


--Andy

[thegreekdog]

Hey greecepwns - you seemed to have a problem with the Catholic university you attended? Why did you go there? Did you not know it was Catholic oriented? Seems weird to criticize it when you could have left or not attended in the first place.

the smartest people (who realize that they don't know everything) usually end up being libertarians.

YES!

The smartest people usually end up being from Uranus.

Dammit.

As a history major in college, the majority of my professors taught class with no bias that I could see (in college I was a member of the Republican Party and active on campus in that respect - including, in 2000, walking into the quad after the election of GW Bush and yelling - "f*ck YOU LIBERALS!" - good times). The history professors with some bias, were usually interventionist-type Republicans. Some professors, mostly political science professors, were solidly liberal and were quick to criticize Republicans and defend Democrats. This had little to no effect from an indoctrination perspective (as I argued in that other thread - if universities were good at indoctrinating, there wouldn't be any Republicans or conservatives left). I couldn't tell what party the economics professors were affiliated with.

In sum, college was mostly unknown (which, to me, means unbiased).

Law school was another matter entirely; every professor (wih the exception of the tax professors) were very much liberal and class was slanted in that way. Most of the students were conservative so it made for interesting discussions. In any event, the majority of professors in law school had no practical legal experience; rather, they went to Havard or Yale or Georgetown Law, then they clerked for big time appellate or Supreme Court judges and then became professors. That would explain the liberal slant. Again, though, it did not affect anyone's political views in any major way.

[Timminz]

Of all my professors, I could only figure out the political leanings of two of them (other than the ones I got to know outside of class). One, my intro business prof, I figured out because of his involvement with the faculty union, and even then, only because there was a strike that semester. The other was an economics prof (social cost benefit analysis)*, and my assumptions (that's all they were, she never explicitly stated her political beliefs) were due entirely to the subject material of the class. Then again, I didn't take any political science courses.

* I had to take one 3rd year econ class, and Money and Banking was already full, so I took the one labelled "Cost/Benefit Analysis". It wasn't until the course started that I found out the word "Social" was part of the course title.

[crispybits]

Wait a sec, is everyone else here that is talking about American education non-American? Okay then Brits, go ahead and highfive each other about comments on college in America.

Yeah because the rest of the world doesn't have higher education sectors....

If you want to talk exclusively with americans why are you posting questions on an internationalf orum - can't you just stick over with your like minded folks at http://www.welovemurica.com?

Your open-mindedness is showing

This thread is in response to another thread from earlier this year, Education in the USA by Lootifer
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=190419&hilit=education+america

Then why not just reply in that thread?

And my point stands, you seem to have a problem with anyone from outside America having an opinion, even when the subject material is far from exclusively American (as I said further education exists in other countries too, life goes on outside of American borders). Don't start a thread about something and then bitch and whine when you get responses you don't like from people perfectly entitled to give their opinion just because they're not American. There's plenty of forums (joking aside) you could easily go onto to get an exclusively American response...

By the way, criticising something has nothing to do with open-mindedness. Show me new evidence that you are in fact not a xenophobic, selfish, brainwashed little twerp (sorry, that's an english slang word - you might have to find a dictionary...) and I'll be more than willing to review it...

[Symmetry]

It's worth pointing out, to Scotty at least, that being a professor at a university in a country doesn't give you nationality. My professors as an undergrad included Americans, Australians, South Africans, and Belgians, as well as Brits. These are only the ones who directly taught me. The department as a whole was even more diverse.

[Nobunaga]

My favorite professor ever was Dr. Muhammad Hoque (sp?). This guy was a history professor from Bangladesh, spent about 30 minutes a day, every class talking about soccer.

Easiest course I ever had in college. Now what was the topic here again?....

Oh yeah, Liberal professors - bad. OK.

[john9blue]

A good troll is one that makes ambiguous whether or not they really believe what they say.

10/10 john9blue.

now i think i know how scotty feels, constantly surrounded by political idiots who can only throw troll accusations instead of make substantive arguments

[thegreekdog]

It's worth pointing out, to Scotty at least, that being a professor at a university in a country doesn't give you nationality. My professors as an undergrad included Americans, Australians, South Africans, and Belgians, as well as Brits. These are only the ones who directly taught me. The department as a whole was even more diverse.

My astronomy professor was from Romania. I was learning about the moon from a guy who sounded like Count Dracula. Yeah, it was awesome.

I also had an economics class that was taught by three professors: one from Japan, one from Russia, and one from Germany. None of them spoke English very well.

I do wonder what college Phatscotty attended and whether there were "liberal" professors. If there were liberal professors, how did Phatscotty not turn liberal?

[Symmetry]

It's worth pointing out, to Scotty at least, that being a professor at a university in a country doesn't give you nationality. My professors as an undergrad included Americans, Australians, South Africans, and Belgians, as well as Brits. These are only the ones who directly taught me. The department as a whole was even more diverse.

My astronomy professor was from Romania. I was learning about the moon from a guy who sounded like Count Dracula. Yeah, it was awesome.

I also had an economics class that was taught by three professors: one from Japan, one from Russia, and one from Germany. None of them spoke English very well.

I do wonder what college Phatscotty attended and whether there were "liberal" professors. If there were liberal professors, how did Phatscotty not turn liberal?

To be fair, Scotty is the kind of guy who thinks that Hitler was too far to the left for his tastes.

[john9blue]

To be fair, Scotty is the kind of guy who thinks that Hitler was too far to the left for his tastes.

i may have just had a revelation.

the reason most liberals post ignorant bullshit like this, and choose to circlejerk with other liberals instead of trying to participate in reasonable debate, is because they have no interest in debating in the first place, because debating is for increasing your own knowledge of the subject at hand, which most liberals have no interest in because they already think they know everything about the subject. the only debates they will actually participate in are the easy ones (debating young-earth creationists, nationalist war hawks, etc.) in order to increase their ego.

the pieces are starting to fall into place, you guys

[thegreekdog]

To be fair, Scotty is the kind of guy who thinks that Hitler was too far to the left for his tastes.

i may have just had a revelation.

the reason most liberals post ignorant bullshit like this, instead of trying to participate in reasonable debate, is because they have no interest in debating in the first place, because debating is for increasing your own knowledge of the subject at hand, which most liberals have no interest in because they already think they know everything about the subject

the pieces are starting to fall into place, you guys

Symmetry posted (on page 2) some discussion. It was ignored by Phatscotty. While I'm no big fan of Symmetry's political views (or greecepwns'), I can readily say that they do not just throw out one-liners.

Don't act like Symmetry typed that in a vacuum dude. You should know better than that.

I think Phatscotty's argument is stupid paranoia; even if it's true that all professors are liberal (which it's not, even just based on anecdotal evidence), there is no evidence that it has had any great effect on American politics (given that, you know 50% or so Americans are conservative).

[Symmetry]

Indeed, and I've argued against Scotty for a long while on these forums. Scotty does indeed consider the Nazis as left of his position.

[The Voice]

I think timing plays an important part. It's likely more convenient for students to identify as liberals, that is, if they even care about politics at all, which is another matter.

My old boss used to say, if you're young and conservative, you don't have a heart; if you're old and liberal, you don't have a brain. Sure, there are plenty of mindless masses who stay one way or the other all their lives, but for those of us who can think for ourselves, our ideologies shift as our environment, priorities, etc. change.

You should consider the following for your new signature:

I guess I've been outed as a staunch monarchist.

[Lootifer]

I did engineering and didnt notice one single bit of political slant in any class I ever attended (though arguably I was probably too hungover to notice - assuming I even attended the class at all...)