The viewpoints of the Democrat Party and the Editorial Page of the New York Times, even left of those. That Affirmative Action is fair and needed was not up for discussion. Nor redistribution of wealth. Nor banning of all firearms. Etc. And if you went hunting with your Dad, that needed to be kept secret. And going to McDonald’s or having a designer purse was unthinkable.
Are schools like Pepperdine or BYU or Hillsdale or Grove City or Liberty not doing the same thing, just on the opposite side of the spectrum? No DANCING, seriously?
Bob Jones University: “The school even prohibits students from having posters of celebrities and fashion models, and photos showing ‘immodesty or inappropriate physical contact’ in their rooms. The university has a strict dress code and also ensures all its students stay wholesome by requiring chaperones at all events where there are mixed groups of men and women.”
Is that not just as problematic? Is Bob Jones a “safe space” for tea party ideals?
Thanks @katkatmouse . I can see how some of those would be touchy viewpoints (affirmative action, for instance as it directly affects students and maybe firearms) but McDonalds and designer purses seem pretty out there for even the most progressive campus.
@patriot420, I"m more concerned with bullying student vs. student. I have no issue with private schools setting their own policies (so long as they are public).
@NEPatsGirl it isn’t hard to find the rampant homophobia among students at Liberty or BYU or Bob Jones
“Do you feel the student body in liberal schools truly isolate conservative students so much that they feel at fear of losing friends and being stigmatized?”
At the most liberal small schools? Yes, I think some conservative students feel this way, with justification.
As the parent of a current LAC freshman, I think things like gay marriage or LGBT rights are non-controversial and pretty universally accepted. The flash points include acknowledging your white privilege, white feminism, cis-gendered heteronormative privilege, backlash for in any way questioning concepts like microaggressions, safe spaces, etc etc. This is exemplified by @runswimyoga’s report of the issues her cis-gendered gay white son has encountered. My D has a very close friend who is in a similar situation as an ostracized white gay male. Debate is effectively shut down because you are told that the other person’s subjective interpretation is their “lived experience.” Facts don’t matter and if you try to invoke them you are traumatizing the other person and endangering their mental health. The idea that you will engage in some sort of healthy intellectual debate on these issues is sadly a fantasy much of the time. Who knows what the majority on campus even thinks, because anyone smart realizes that it’s better to just nod and agree and not be the one to engage the vocal activists.
Thank you @Hanna, for your honest response.
I’m fairly certain many a Democratic women carry designer handbags!
Not being able to disagree the PC Police was certain a feeling I got at a few schools we visited, and that feeling was confirmed by one mother posting here on CC that her daughter felt silenced at the LAC because D wasn’t as left leaning as the very vocal lefties at the school. My daughter is not political at all but is probably a little to the right, but I knew her opinion wouldn’t have mattered at that school. I really felt pressured, just being at the school, to agree with the most liberal interpretation of ANYTHING.
I did find that the school wants you to be politically active, wanted you to speak out, wanted you to be a feminist and an activist. If you agreed with them. Otherwise, shut up.
Okay, so what I"m getting is maybe it’s not over-reacting? Again, I have this “go get em’ girl” attitude for my D but that’s just not how she rolls…and I’m really interested in how its playing out in other LACs.
It just went into our overall feeling that she wouldn’t fit into the school (a big part of it, really). She also found some southern schools too conservative. She is a minority, but normally that has very little to do with her choices as she wants her race not to matter and not to be pointman for a cause. If your daughter cares that her opinion is being squashed, she’ll need to find a way to deal with it. My daughter wanted nothing to do with it so picked a place where her political opinions, race, sex, religion just don’t matter. I know it sounds strange (and I little boring) but I think she found just such as place!
I increasingly read about how guest speakers to campus are being dis-invited because someone disagrees with their viewpoint.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/us/brandeis-cancels-plan-to-give-honorary-degree-to-ayaan-hirsi-ali-a-critic-of-islam.html?referer=
Well-known comedians (e.g., Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld) won’t even play college campuses now because of the cheerless speech nazis.
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-espn-college-campuses-politically-correct/
I thought college was supposed to be a forum to debate/challenge difficult issues, not ban all discussion before it even starts. A lot of parallels with what’s going on on college campuses today and the Cultural Revolution in China, with its “struggle sessions” that demonized/terrorized bourgeois enemies of the state.
From wikipedia: Struggle Session
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session
Yep…
…and then you have my D’s LAC, where Charles Krauthammer recently spoke. The speech was well attended and students were respectful and engaged.
But that doesn’t make a very sensational news story, so you won’t read about it.
Butt that is what I want to hear about.
Well here you go then: http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/?q=article/2016/03/23/krauthammer-speaks-conservatism
Well recently at Penn, the students effectively shut down a conservative CIA speaker mid speech in spite of rules/policies about free speech
http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/04/protests-shut-down-cia-director-talk
http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/04/cia-protest-update
and at Brown the identity-politic-policing-students shut down Janet Mock from coming to campus NOT BC THEY DON’T WANT HER TO COME, THEY DO But rather bc she was INVITED to come by a Jewish group and they don’t do Jewish groups bc of Palestine (forget the fact that USA jewish students have zero input as to Israel/ Palestine relations)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/25/brown-students-shut-down-trans-activist-s-speech-because-israel.html
and after they made Janet cancel they painted swastikas on the Jewish frat house… talk about alienation…
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/21/two-events-unsettle-jewish-students-brown-university
Its about more than what side of the issue you take -son’s experience was exactly as @Corinthian stated …you can even be on the same side of the argument (say gay rights) but if you don’t follow the rules or fit the mold with regards to things like acknowledging your privilege, feminism, in any way questioning concepts like microaggressions, safe spaces, etc etc. then you do indeed risk social alienation… “The idea that you will engage in some sort of healthy intellectual debate on these issues is sadly a fantasy much of the time. Who knows what the majority on campus even thinks, because anyone smart realizes that it’s better to just nod and agree and not be the one to engage the vocal activists.”
…This is exactly what my son does in these SJW circles… he keeps quiet bc he has alienation from many sides both conservatives/religious right and now extreme SJW… its a real minefield … so he had to rule out schools like Yale, and Columbia not bc they aren’t worthy schools, but bc the SJW population is too powerful there…
and I read today that the Board of George Mason is fuming about the ASS law school (cracks me up every time) or “Antonin Scalia School of law” name is sending the message that only people w viewpoints like him will be welcomed there…http://www.amren.com/news/2016/05/university-in-turmoil-over-scalia-tribute-and-koch-role/ and they ar ea public university so this is an unwelcome signal…
I think the poster that said you are generally safer at State Schools is right w regards to multiple viewpoints being accepted compared to LAC or Private/ Ivy universities
And NO You are not over reacting at all…
We actually snuck away while being on a guided campus tour at an LAC, because the tour guide (a genocide studies major w a minor in dance) had to climb on her SJW soapbox at every stop.
@GMTplus7 you sound incredibly bitter