<p>But I’m not looking for a particular answer, if I already knew how people thought I wouldn’t have to ask them. Look, if somebody asks me “you’re a Christian, how do you feel about phony preachers who are only in it for the money, or who are always angry and telling people that they are going to hell?” I’d give a straightforward answer to that question, I wouldn’t hem and haw and say that such preachers don’t exist, or that they are justified, etc. I’m just trying to get the opinions of liberals on a particular question, not start a debate.</p>
<p>Thanks Charlie. I wasn’t necessarily talking about things you had personally witnessed, as I suggested before you can Google for all sorts of examples. I guess it’s like the phenomenon of cops stopping or detaining or being overly-aggressive with innocent black people. I guess if you’re not black, then you believe the phenomenon doesn’t exist and any reported instances of it are lies or misinterpretations. Likewise, maybe most liberals don’t believe that students have gotten lower grades on papers for having the wrong opinion, or students have been punished without cause for such offenses as posting a Republican club flyer or reading the wrong book in public.</p>
<p>First, if you ask for someone’s opinion about a problem that they don’t think exists, it’s perfectly natural for them to preface their response by saying that they don’t think it’s a real problem. Almost everybody cringes when classes are overly politicized, but that doesn’t happen nearly as often as many on the right would have people believe. That’s what people are saying here.</p>
<p>Secondly, if someone says that they’re justified, that’s pretty much as straightforward as you’re going to get. That’s not hemming and hawing.</p>
<p>Justified <em>is</em> an answer, you are correct, but only a few people responded with that answer and I was hoping I’d get more answers from liberals saying they think professors and academia has gone too far and is too biased, even if the bias is in their direction.</p>
<p>I agree! Do you know how frustrating it is to work hours on a paper only to be taken off because you don’t agree that Ronald reagan was an amazing president? The amount of times I have had conservative beliefs shoved down my throat by my professors is infinite. We really need to learn how to change these problems!</p>
<p>Most of those cases don’t appear to be left-leaning professors shoving their views down people’s throats. In fact, a lot of them appear to be left-leaning professors (or normal professors) who were punished or restricted by conservative administrators.</p>
<p>Everybody notices the problems with views they disagree with. This is a heavily liberal forum, so if the OP wanted criticism of liberal professors, he chose the wrong place to ask.</p>
<p>I think it is more the one-sided tone and phrasing of the OP’s question is such that many folks…especially those whom he’s supposedly seeking answers from are going to be turned off. </p>
<p>Not surprising as questions of this type tends to cause many to feel the questioner not only has a definite bias…but is also seeking answers which confirms his/her own biases/perceptions about a given group/situation. </p>
<p>It’s not that different from my asking Christians if all Christian conservatives who insist on imposing their religious views/morality on everyone through laws on social issues are trying to institute a modern-day Christian theocracy. </p>
<p>Moreover…such tone/phrasing of question is provocative to those being asked…and IME…often deliberately so by the one doing the questioning.</p>
<p>Well if it puts everybody’s mind at rest the answers I was <em>hoping</em> to get were along the lines of “I’m a liberal but I disagree with exposing students to only one viewpoint, or inserting politics where it doesn’t belong, or denying tenure to a professor with non-liberal views.” I wasn’t hoping for “I’m a big bad liberal and I want all non-liberals kicked off of campuses!” I’ve actually heard some liberals say that, and it made me unhappy, I’m hoping for more balance.</p>
<p>I’m a liberal but I disagree with exposing students to only one viewpoint, or inserting politics where it doesn’t belong, or denying tenure to a professor with non-liberal views.</p>
<p>BUT I don’t think/see that it’s happening. So yes, I disagree with that but for me it’s a phantom issue because I don’t see it happening. So I disagree with something I don’t think exists/haven’t experienced. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I also disagree with the torture of aliens.</p>
<p>One of things I’ve seen many times is the negative reception conservative speakers get when they come to campus. People like Ann Coulter and Phyllis Schafly – who come to speak for conservative campus clubs and not for the general school population, and who are paid for using the club’s fundraised money – are picketed and protested against during their speeches. However, when liberal speakers come to campus (not just to a specific club, but for the benefit of the whole university, using everyone’s tuition money and with university sponsorship) and actively call those who are not “socialist enough” spineless and show open support for communism, they are met with applause. I’d hate to know what would happen if you so much as bring a poster with a varying viewpoint…</p>
<p>I honestly don’t care what speakers come to campus. However, I am honestly upset about paying 60k to have speakers whose views I disagree with come to speak for the whole campus, on top of paying $20/club/semester dues additionally, to hear speakers who share my beliefs and values. A conservative student should not have to pay an exorbitant scholastic fee to hear Cornel West entertain the university and the neighboring community (note these events include the University president talking about how ‘honored’ he/she is to host the speaker); a liberal student, likewise, shouldn’t be forced to blow tuition on having Glenn Beck come to campus with the university’s sponsorship.</p>
<p>See, the funny thing is, in my experience, the refusal to take for granted that communism or socialism are inferior economic and political systems to capitalism is taken as ‘liberal bias.’ The consideration that social strife, racial, gender, and religious bias, poverty, and exploitation exist is taken as ‘liberal bias.’ The recognition of the scientific fact of anthropologically-driven climate change is considered ‘liberal bias.’ The recognition of shameful chapters of American history is considered ‘liberal bias.’</p>
<p>At Tufts, a notorious hotbed of liberalism, I have found professors nothing if not open to views different from their own. The student body is nothing if not enthusiastic about political dialogue on difficult issues. We have a vibrant political dialogue here on issues such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, the welfare state, the existence of age-old biases in the way many of us view the world, on issues of civil-military affairs, and so much more. And I say this as someone who is significantly to the right of the general campus political orientation. </p>
<p>So I’m curious where you derive this question, Tom, other than from the caricature in your mind of the liberal college professor, and the judgements you render on your visions through that coloured lens.</p>
<p>However, there are students on the other end of the spectrum who, upon announcing that they’re Christians or stark supporters of family values, for example, are told that they’re “biased” and “backwards.” This assertion is usually followed with, “You’re wrong because you’re just wrong!” (or a variant upon a theme) Then again, it seems like a freshmonic phenomenon. I haven’t talked politics with older students too much.</p>
<p>I have met a few liberal students who were very open and genuinely interested in hearing the opposing view, though, so I can’t cry foul.</p>
<p>Ahem. Here’s the issue. Those who support THEIR idea of family values and try to impose it on others. </p>
<p>Family values to me means loving and caring for each other no matter what their gender or whatnot. To a conservative Christian, it means something completely different. You can’t just use the term like it’s universal. </p>
<p>Oh and yes, fwiw, most college aged students and probably most professors support the same “family values” that I do. However, there’s a difference between supporting them and spewing them to a classroom.</p>
<p>^in fairness, you are assuming that those folks seek to impose those values.</p>
<p>But many of those ‘family values’ attitudes contradict what a good number of us liberals think is right and decent. Many self-identified ‘family values’ folks believe, for example, that gay people ought not enjoy the same opportunities afforded to straight people or ought be shamed, that the protection of a fetus makes it okay to restrict a woman’s decisions and choices when it comes to her own health and body, or that men and women ought have certain gender roles in the families they create. When someone tells me that they think that gays are abominable and unnatural, then yes, I do find them backward because their views are informed by factually-inaccurate and disrespectful beliefs. Is it inflexibly liberal to insist that homosexuality is not a dysfunction and that gay people ought be treated just like everyone else?</p>
<p>Yes, there are people at college who will scorn and condemn someone for being Christian. They are euphemistically classified as rectal openings. It’s not because they’re liberal.</p>
<p>Again, at my progressive’s paradise of a school, our school’s Chaplain, who just retired last semester, was widely held as one of the most respected people on campus. Religious organisations at Tufts, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu, are all very active in campus life and are respected by everyone I know. One of my good friends is an active member of the Humanist society here, but she is perfectly respectful of my faith and the faith of her religious friends.</p>