<p>
</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>
So you disagree with the argument that those improvements to the capitalist system wouldn’t have been brought about without pressure from the left, including the extreme left? What is your explanation, then? Did we get worker’s compensation laws out of the goodness of rich people’s hearts?</p>
<p>Or you could walk around saying “wow” all day, I guess.</p>
<p>Here’s my 2-cents. I live in a red state where education has little emphasis (even at an elementary level). So, naturally our universities are of lower-caliber when compared to the east, where education is highly-regarded. The liberal thinking seems to rub off on the students, and even the teachers with these upper-tier universities in the east.</p>
<p>
^ This 100%.</p>
<p>rachelm57, last time I checked NYC was the center of the blue state universe so how do you explain the terrible education system in NYC??</p>
<p>[Shocker:</a> 80% of NYC graduates unable to read ? RT USA](<a href=“http://rt.com/usa/nyc-graduates-unable-to-read-011/]Shocker:”>Shocker: 80% of NYC graduates unable to read — RT USA News)</p>
<p>
I think IQ does play into it, just like how there are more blacks than Asians in prison because Asians have a median IQ about 20 points higher than the black median IQ, and being stupid makes you more likely to be a violent criminal.</p>
<p>Seriously, cut that s*** out.</p>
<p>First off, that title is so misleading that it’s not even worth discussing. It’s a pure shock article, plain and simple and it’s far from the truth. They can read, they’re just not college-ready. There is a huge difference. I’m not saying it’s good, it’s quite terrible, but it’s not as though they’re completely illiterate. </p>
<p>Second, the problem with NYC schools is that they are incredibly overburdened and the kids don’t come prepared to schools every day because of issues associated with poverty. I could launch into an essay about that but I won’t.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Um, or maybe it’s because of the ludicrously-unequally-enforced war on some drugs, in which possessing fractions of an ounce of crack cocaine results in 40-year prison sentences?</p>
<p>Which is my [sarcastic] point.</p>
<p>
that’s an interesting way of looking at things 
me like</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Unless your last name happens to be Lohan.</p>
<p>Or, polarscribe, you could actually study the history of economic thought, and real Marxism, and real economic history including “worker protection” laws and the like, or you could continue to rely on the discredited Howard Zinn version of history.</p>
<p>I think TomServo is correct. “Faculty begets faculty” is especially (and alarmingly) true. </p>
<p>I think it is a bit ironic; the left is usually the first to challenge the status quo and “close-mindedness,” but they’re perfectly okay with the recycling of the same ideas and beliefs so prevalent in the liberal university system. </p>
<p>And I can relate to the fear of being attacked for my views. I can’t even mention my stance on abortion, homosexual marriage, or a slew of other things without being attacked (and I’m still in high school) as a “bigot” when in fact more often than not my positions are more thought-out and rational than the positions of those who so often attack me.</p>
<p>I’ve never actually said bigot, but frankly, I don’t care what one’s views are on those things as long as they don’t try to infringe on my right to practice them. I actually know people that are personally against gay marriage but don’t believe it’s their right to deny that right to others based on their own personal belief. </p>
<p>I’ve been attacked for my views as well. I went to a Catholic K-8 and am dating someone from an extremely conservative family. Safe topics to talk about: cats. I chose not to go to a religious or conservative college because I don’t want to spend four years around people that, frankly, bug me. I wouldn’t want anyone who felt uncomfortable around liberals to have to live with liberals for four years either.</p>
<p>I was just using the word “bigot” because that’s what’s so often used by liberals to attack conservatives for uttering the words “I don’t support homosexual marriage.” Boom. Bigot. Doesn’t matter what they believe in particular or why, they are a bigot for disagreeing. I don’t know, the hypocrisy of the left (let’s be open-minded and accepting of everyone until they disagree with us and then let’s call them names that are completely off-base) has left a bad taste in my mouth for awhile now. My beliefs could very well change but I don’t think I’d ever actively support a political agenda drowning in a pool of its own pharisaism.</p>
<p>Most humanities and social science professors have their heads up in fairy land; these are the liberals. English professors are generally the worst because most of what they study is far removed from the real world. If you talk to professors in fields that deal with the real world such as science, math, and economics profs, the liberal vs conservative difference essentially vanishes.</p>
<p>Many of the best economists in the world are conservative. Take Greg Mankiw, the head of Harvard’s economics department, as an example.</p>
<p>The two economics professors that I have had so far have been quite conservative.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most students of the typical college student age range are socially liberal compared to the average of all adults (older people tend to be socially more conservative).</p>
<p>In addition, a “top” college tends to draw in students who are more diverse than a typical local area, so students and faculty there have to become more accepting of such diversity (i.e. a “top” college is likely a more friendly place for someone who is socially liberal than someone who is socially conservative who may find someone practicing a different religion or being gay to be bothersome). Social conservatism may not be too compatible with some types of academic inquiry, such as study of evolutionary biology, economics of prostitution, etc…</p>
<p>However, students and faculty who are fiscally or economically conservative are not that hard to find, perhaps particularly in economics and business departments.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Social conservatism doesn’t have anything to do with bigotry toward different religions and homosexuality. Some social conservatives are religious, and some therefore oppose gay marriage. You don’t understand what social conservatism is.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No less compatible than a far left person would be taking an economics or religion class.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It does not necessarily follow that being religious (of a religion that frowns upon gay marriage) means opposition to gay marriage. Some religious people see religion as a personal matter, not as something whose rules need to be enforced on people of other or no religion.</p>
<p>Did I say that? Look at the wording closely.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Except that we are not talking about occasional (but usually noisy) far leftists, but about more common garden-variety liberals who would not see orthodox economics or learning about religion in a non-devotional way to be bothersome.</p>