November 6, 2016

"They are actually pushing me out the door for having a different perspective," said the "liberal studies" professor.

Michael Rectenwald, 57, is on paid leave, he says, for what he wrote pseudonymously on Twitter. Beginning in mid-September, calling himself Deplorable NYU Prof, Rectenwald tweeted about campus things like safe spaces, trigger warnings, and Halloween costumes. For example, about the costumes, he tweeted: "The scariest thing about Halloween today is . . . the liberal totalitarian costume surveillance. NYU RAs gone mad." (RAs had put out a flyer about avoiding offensive Halloween costumes.)

Speaking of costumes, a pseudonym on Twitter works as a kind of costume, a disguise, allowing someone to inhabit a character. Twitter, with a pseudonym, can be a safe space for the writer, who has a real-world reputation and relationships to protect as he works out his transgressive ideas in public.

But Rectenwald was not outed. He chose to unmask himself, to connect the tweets with his name. He gave an interview to the student newspaper, Washington Square News. Two days later:
A 12-person committee calling itself the Liberal Studies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group, including two deans, published a letter to the editor in the same paper.

“As long as he airs his views with so little appeal to evidence and civility, we must find him guilty of illogic and incivility in a community that predicates its work in great part on rational thought and the civil exchange of ideas,” they wrote of the untenured assistant professor. 
I don't see any "illogic." Maybe "liberal studies" is a field where "logic" is used loosely. I can see that "liberal" is used loosely. As for civility... well, you know I have a tag for that: civility bullshit. It represents my belief that demands for civility are always bullshit — not really about a neutral value but an effort to get your opponents to tone it down.

Anyway, Rectenwald says the dean and an HR representative met with him and "expressed concern about [his] mental health" and wanted him to "leave and get help." An NYU spokesman asserts that the leave does not have anything to do with the tweeting and his opinions. Perhaps the university means that it's not reacting to the substance of the ideas in the words, but the words as evidence of insanity. That would deserve comparison to the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.

Slate/Inside Higher Ed has an article by Colleen Flaherty on Rectenwald's predicament. I see there that Rectenwald says he is a communist and that he diagnoses the university community as insane:
Identity politics, over all, Rectenwald told the [student] newspaper, “have made an infirmary of the whole damn campus. Let’s face it: every room is like a hospital ward. What are we supposed to do? I can’t deal with it—it’s insane.” 
So what does this have to do with Donald Trump? The student newspaper interview asked that question because "deplorable" in the pseudonym made him seem like a Trump supporter (something he admits he intended to do). Rectenwald answered:
I don’t support Trump at all. I hate him — I think he’s horrible. I’m hiding amongst the alt-right, alright? And the point is, this character is meant to exhibit and illustrate the notion that it’s this crazy social-justice-warrior-knee-jerk-reaction-triggered-happy-safe-space-seeking-blah, blah, blah, blah culture that it’s producing this alt-right. Now, I’m not dumb enough to go there. And my own politics are very strong — I’m a left communist. But I think that in fact, the crazier and crazier that this left gets, this version of the left, the more the more the alt-right is going to be laughing their asses off plus getting more pissed. Every time a speaker is booed off campus or shooed off campus because they might say something that bothers someone, that just feeds the notion that the left is totalitarian, and they have a point....
Rectenwald chose to create an alternate identity on Twitter, to "hid[e] this character in the alt-right" — "because otherwise, the social justice warriors are going to come onto me like flies, and they can be so extreme... It’s a nightmare." That is, he's a lefty, criticizing lefties, but he wanted to disguise himself as a righty. Talk about costumes! When do we get to inhabit someone else's identity?

Quite aside from what's permissible and what deserves punishment — I'd say it's all permissible and unpunishable — when is it effective for a speaker to appear to stand on the opposite side from his true ideology? Does the speaker really know himself? Rectenwald seems pretty certain he's a communist and that the alt-right was his mask. That puts him in the tradition of mobys and false flag operations. But there are far more subtle situations, like this blog you are reading now.

78 comments:

Greg Hlatky said...

Leftists: always expecting to be standing on the Kremlin Wall, always surprised to find themselves in the Lubyanka.

Anonymous said...

Just like the guy holding a "Republicans Against Trump" sign yesterday in a Nevada Trump rally. The guy gets beaten up for having the audacity to hold up that sign. He kept yelling he didn't have a gun, he only had a sign, he was treated as if he were an assassin. That is the type of fascism Trump incites in his followers. Watch interviews of the guy with the sign, he is a Republican who says his heart aches for his fellow Republicans.

Worried about fascism? Take a better look at your man Trump, Althousians.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Not liberal enough for the new and improved liberal fascists.

robother said...

Whatever it takes to further the [Communist] Revolution, man. Even self-immolation.

Alice Aforethought said...

Wow. He. Is an assistant professor at 57. Maybe they can offer to promote him to associate if he retires. Career development must be slow in the socialist sciences.

Diogenes of Sinope said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Say the word "Gun" at a loud rally and see where that gets you.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Off with Their Heads! He's a blasphemer, off with his head!

Wince said...

"First they came for the communists"?

rhhardin said...

As Derb says, the classical capital-means-of-production Marxist now notices that the left is now far to his left.

And of course the new left sees this classical Marxist unacceptably to the right.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Oh look at the tolerant liberal fascists.

Qwinn said...

Unknown:

Your "Republican against Trump" is on Posesta's payroll. He's a false flag operative. Everything you just claimed he proves about Trump, it actually proves twice over about Hillary.

Anonymous said...

"Your "Republican against Trump" is on Posesta's payroll. He's a false flag operative. Everything you just claimed he proves about Trump, it actually proves twice over about Hillary."

So says you and the alt right fascists. The man is a Republican against Trump.

traditionalguy said...

Speaking of enlightenment speaking truth to power, there was this French dude. He said, "To find out who rules over you, simply find out whom you are not allowed to criticize."

They tracked him down too. He was last seen drawing cartoons for Charlie Hebdo.

Tuesday midnight is the time we can sing La Marseillaise again.

stlcdr said...

In other news, someone wins at tic-tac-toe.

All this intellectual hand slapping is a pathetic waste of everyone else's time and money; an effort that can be best spent doing something about the ills in the world (not the 'he said a bad word' kind).

Mrs. X said...

"I’m hiding amongst the alt-right..."

Very brave of you, Prof. Rechtenwald, to take a position completely aligned with the supposed alt-right using an "alt-right" Twitter handle. Although you did out yourself. I wonder if you have outer's remorse. Oh well: live by Soviet ideologies, die by Soviet ideologies.

Dude1394 said...

He is correct. The only true totalitarians in our country are the left. People on the right just want to be left the **** alone.

retail lawyer said...

Its the internet, man! Who knows who is behind some twitter handle? Right now I'm literally looking at the next step to publish this comment. It is "Choose an identity"! It is foolish to assume sincerity on the part of anyone. "Unknown" really is unknown. He could easily be an alt-right person just trying to make liberals seems stupid or ill-informed, or trying to get conservatives to waste time and energy responding to him.

I do feel bad for this Communist Assistant Professor. All the rules have changed in higher education. They will prove to be disastrous, and in the meantime all of his skills and instincts are suddenly now wrong. There is no inquiry or debate. There is not even any comedy. He's on the wrong side of the generation gap and he just committed career suicide, maybe even without realizing it.

Quaestor said...

Every time a speaker is booed off campus or shooed off campus because they might say something that bothers someone, that just feeds the notion that the left is totalitarian, and they have a point....

When the "liberal studies" dude suggested Rectenwald seek psychiatric, he may have right for the wrong reason. A totalitarian griping about totalitarianism is... well, cognitive dissonance from hell. It's like one of Dante's fiends from the Malbolge complaining about the heat.

Of course it may be that Rectenwald is remembering the nature of his brand of totalitarianism. Being the wrong kind of leftist got Bukharin a bullet in the brain, didn't it? And then there's Trotsky, who got a new a new and rather deep part in his hair.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The Hillary supporter at the Trump rally - he might be a liar. Like his queen.

Mary Beth said...

"Illogic" and "insane" here both seem to mean "I can't understand your point of view, or choose not to, so there must be something wrong with your thinking."

So says you and the alt right fascists. The man is a Republican against Trump.

We've seen evidence of Hillary PACs promoting violence. How do we know that he wasn't part of a team and that the person who shouted "gun" wasn't working with him?

Curious George said...

"Unknown said...
"Your "Republican against Trump" is on Posesta's payroll. He's a false flag operative. Everything you just claimed he proves about Trump, it actually proves twice over about Hillary."

So says you and the alt right fascists. The man is a Republican against Trump."

You're embarrassing yourself again. I'd use the "unknown" too.

Curious George said...

"Unknown said...
Just like the guy holding a "Republicans Against Trump" sign yesterday in a Nevada Trump rally. The guy gets beaten up for having the audacity to hold up that sign. He kept yelling he didn't have a gun, he only had a sign, he was treated as if he were an assassin."

Do that a Obama or Clinton event and they would be beating up your bullet ridden body.

Quaestor said...

But there are far more subtle situations, like this blog you are reading now.

Come off it. Nothing that goes no here is that subtle or obtuse. It's all pretty transparent.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Another poor bastard who thought that America was still a free country.

Qwinn said...

"So says you and the alt right fascists. The man is a Republican against Trump."

Actually, so says WikiLeaks of Podesta's emails. The "Republican Against Trump"'s name is Austyn Crites. And oh looky, here he is in Podesta's emails:


https://twitter.com/RealPeteRyan/status/795127283803705345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


And the guy registered as a Republican as far back as... 2011. I bet he was a Republican for Obama back then too.

n.n said...

Ambiguous Althouse is part of your appeal. A mystery that is renewed and confirmed with each subsequent post.

That said, celebrate class diversity including institutional racism, sexism, etc.

Celebrate immigration reform including refugee crises, mass emigration, mass displacement, etc.

Celebrate progressive wars, mass abortion, trials by sodomy, assassination, belligerence, and refugee crises.

Raise the rainbow flag and celebrate politically profitable congruence or equivalence.

Compensate and exploit liberal fiscal and social policies, opiates of the masses, through perpetual, spiritually destructive, politically lucrative smoothing functions.

Celebrate abortion rites, throw another baby into the chamber, and Plan for its lucrative parts.

Bow down before the State-established Pro-Choice Church that is selective and opportunistic, unprincipled and vindictive, overwhelmed by progressive corruption.

The tell-tale hearts beat ever louder. We are at civilization's twilight fringe where we have a choice.

Lewis Wetzel said...

By definition, a person who campaigns for the other party's candidate is a member of the other party.
The dude said he had contributed to Hillary, canvassed for her, etc., etc. He is a Democrat. There is no Republican candidate that matches his ideology as much as the Democrat candidate. I suppose I could register as a Democrat and then call myself a member of "Democrats for Trump."

Michael K said...

That would deserve comparison to the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.

If Hillary squeaks in I think we will see more of this but that professor might actually be crazy if he is quoted correctly.

Qwinn said...

Hey, did anyone else see this one? Obama basically promised illegal aliens voting in the election that there would be no repercussions to doing so.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/11/criminal-president-obama-encourages-illegal-aliens-vote-promises-no-repercussions-video/

Qwinn said...

To those who witnessed the horrors of communism in the 20th Century, anyone who would identify as communist today has already clearly demonstrated mental illness. No less than someone proclaiming themselves a Nazi. Hell, communism's track record of murder was far worse. But somehow because they focused their killings on "class enemies" instead of basing it on race, they're somehow still allowed to teach in schools.

Achilles said...

The left is no longer led by good people. They are a threat to liberty and people's way of life. They purposely destroy people's lives to spread fear and maintain power.

This professor is an object lesson.

Oh and Obama just explicitly told Illegal aliens to vote in a live publicized TV interview. Want to guess what the internal polls he is looking at say?.

Achilles said...

Qwinn beat me to it.

A clickable link to Obama trying to destroy the rule of law and erase citizenship.

No I will not accept a Hillary victory. Hillary and her cadre and most of the obama administration belong in jail.

mockturtle said...

A 12-person committee calling itself the Liberal Studies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group

Self-satire. I love it!

EdwdLny said...

"Worried about fascism? Take a better look at your man Trump, Althousians."
Again a lib cries FASCIST ! at a republican, and, again as it always is ; the fascism , or incidents of violence, emanate from the left. Again and again and always has it been. Heh, to borrow a well used and deserved comment.

MaxedOutMama said...

Maybe the guy is just a communist who wants to discuss his beliefs (esp. his beliefs about who the enemy is) without validating the current victim/identification/trumpology on campus.

Maybe he's trying to make the point that he is not allowed to express that set of ideas in the current atmosphere. If that was his attempt, I think he's made his point.

More is being suffocated on the modern campus than it appears. Could MLK get a hearing on one of today's campuses???? I doubt it.

Achilles said...

"When you vote, you are a citizen yourself. There is not a situation where the voter rolls are transferred and people are investigated etc. The sanctity of the vote is completely confidential."

If you have any doubt about Obama's intent go watch the question he is asked. This is fucking insane.

n.n said...

It's not communism, socialism, etc. per se. It's that religion/morality is sufficient for individuals capable of self-moderating, responsible behavior. While others must be prevented from running amuck by competing interests. The Marxist ideological variants operate through progressive establishment of public/private monopolies that predispose them to suffer from progressive corruption and unaccountability.

Liberalism is a degenerative ideology. Progressivism is simply [unqualified] monotonic change. Conservatism seeks to preserve an order. Principles matter. Pro-Choice is selective and opportunistic, unprincipled and vindictive.

Class diversity is institutional racism, sexism.

Abortion rites are rationalized by scientific mystics and transhumans. Perhaps as an opiate to the masses. Perhaps as an insidious plot to select the fittest. Perhaps to reduce the carbon-footprint and keep undesirables of their lawns.

We languish and suffer in a euphemistic state of euphoria.

Fernandinande said...

The guy got out-commied.

mockturtle said...
"A 12-person committee calling itself the Liberal Studies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group"
Self-satire. I love it!


I like the subtle concept of doing the opposite of what the words mean, but can understand why: a "Fascistic Propaganda Conformity, Favoritism and Exclusion Goofing-Around Group" probably couldn't garner any federal funding.

n.n said...

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

MLK recognized individual dignity, perhaps even intrinsic value, he would be marked as deplorable in a society that celebrates class diversity and abortion rites. No, the man and his beliefs would not be welcome in today's climate.

Etienne said...

I'm convinced that most colleges now, are merely an extension of K-12. That is to say, not really a place for higher learning.

Higher cost surely, and a great way for the legislature to raise taxes.

It's not a Democratic institution. It's a political front. Students have no control, except by not applying and paying them tuition in the first place.

Places that have no Democracy, are usually bad. Baseball, for example, is really bad. When Congress makes laws that allow Baseball to exist, you know it is a front for some organization.

It's an interesting story, but I think the divorced father had to know that removing his mask was going to end his career.

He can now move on and get that dream job at Home Depot.

Karen of Texas said...

Watch the entire interview. I'm no fan of Obama's but the question was poorly phrased and his response was equally poor. Maybe it was a wink/nod but that deception is not backed up by the rest of the interview. Perhaps illegals will see intent there.

I think his "when you vote, you are a citizen yourself" refers to the Latina actress doing the interview. In other words - You yourself are a Latina American citizen. You vote. No one investigates you. No one investigates anyone doing the voting. Which yeah, maybe a so go vote. No one will know you are illegal; they won't hunt you down. But later in the interview he walks that back and expounds a bit on being a citizen to be able vote.

The "they contribute so they are citizens" is complete and utter bullshit from the airhead.

mockturtle said...

coupe suggested: He can now move on and get that dream job at Home Depot.

At least his exposure to tools and hardware might lead him to useful employment.

buwaya said...

Coupe, you are partially correct re higher ed.

Advanced studies and professional training are still OK in hard science and technical fields, even in quite humble universities, but the liberal arts are a wasteland even in what should be elite universities such as the University of California system. There certainly are many high schools that do much better than the UC's for that. Granted that most (nearly all) CA high schools are disgustingly bad.

I dont get the impression that most US universities are any better than the UC's for the liberal arts. I suppose places like St. Johns with the "Great Books" might still be respectable.

khesanh0802 said...

If all this stuff were happening in Salem, MA we would know exactly what was going on. Of course the citizens of Salem were really serious - see Gallows Hill!

ga6 said...

Pol Pot knew what to do with these types...The universities are just ahead of the curve here...

David said...

They are worried about his mental health?

We are going Full Gulag here.

James Pawlak said...

Somehow this reminds me of the German universities of the late 1930s.

David said...

Alice Aforethought said...
Wow. He. Is an assistant professor at 57.


He's adjunct. The sharecroppers of academia. As a communist, he should recognize he is art of an exploited class and accept his fate.

Sebastian said...

I like anti-prog object lessons as much as anyone, but I do detect a whiff of personal trouble here. There's more than meets the ideological eye.

TWW said...

"When you vote, you are a citizen yourself."

"And when you draw an illegal weapon while committing an armed robbery, you are exercising your Second Amendment right to bear arms."

Achilles said...

Trump protester votes for his California brother and dead grandmother in Nevada.

Warren Fahy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bay Area Guy said...


"When you vote, you are a citizen yourself"

No, another lie by the Left. You're a citizen of this great country, if you are born here, or if you take LEGAL steps to obtain citizenship, like millions of Americans have done ove the decades.

If you are a right of center guy or gal, still hand-wringing over Trump's obnoxious tone, please compare to how the leftist hordes, led by Hillary, plan to fundamentally transform this country, step by step.

Laslo Spatula said...

Socially Awkward Guy Who Makes No Eye Contact says:

People seem to hate me in the Real World, so I like to be on the Internet when I can: no one there knows who I really am, so I can really be myself, but without the loser parts. The problem is that -- even without the loser parts -- people on the Internet still see me as a loser: it's like I can't get away from myself, even when I'm being someone else...

For a while I went by the name Big Boots Tex, but then people would ask me about Texas and I'd keep having to go to Wikipedia to figure out what they were talking about. What I found out about Texas is that I don't think I'd ever want to live in Texas. Also, that the Houston Astros are a baseball team, not a football team, and they do not have a quarterback: I really blew it on that one...

Then one day I found a forum for men that like to pee on women, and I thought I had finally found a home. Of course, nothing ever goes right for me: it turns out a lot of those guys have problems -- they want to shit on the girls, too, or pee on them and then pretend they are a Police Officer ordering them to put a finger up their Police Officer ass, or they want to pee on girls while wearing nothing but diapers. It seems like no one there just wanted to leave it at only peeing on girls, so I was seen as a Freak among the Freaks: that really hurt...

So then I went on the Internet as a teenage girl, and I'm no longer a loser: all kinds of adult men want to talk to me and send me gifts, and I've gotten pretty good at talking sex like a girl. "I want to put your big adult man penis in my tiny little girl mouth" -- stuff like that...

One day I'm on the internet as Little Cindy C-Cup, and this guy starts to chat with me. It turns out that he wanted to pee on me! I asked if he was into the real weird stuff, like poop or diapers, and he said No, he just wanted to pee on me, that's all. So, great: I finally meet a Kindred Spirit, but I'm stuck being a fourteen-year-old girl. Sometimes I wish God liked me more...

Like no one else thinks these things.

I hope the Girl with the Blue Hair is working at McDonalds today.

I am Laslo.

tim maguire said...

He's a lefty posing as a righty to criticize lefties for making it seem like righties are right. Reminds of a line from some Latin-American socialist leader years ago defending the closing of an opposition newspaper: "they say we support censorship. That is a lie and we can not let them print it."

By the time I got to the end of the post, I was fine with NYU suspending him for illogic.

Warren Fahy said...

Really? (And isn't that the terribly dangerous problem?)

Rusty said...

(In my best Nelson Munz)
Ha ha.

mockturtle said...

It's not as though humanities are not worth teaching. I had wonderful English Lit and History Classes---in high school. In college, I could see a definite bias creeping in. As I was a leftist at that time, I could accept it. But it did bother me that those conservatives in my Poli-Sci class were the objects of scorn. Not just by other students but by the prof. This also happened in some of the science courses when non-believers in Darwinian evolution were singled out for ridicule.

Sprezzatura said...

Maybe this dude started out thinking he was checking out the AltR stuff to oppose it.

But, it seems like he developed at least some affinity for the con POV, if not the AltR POV. Throwing around "SJW" is a tell.

BTW, that Louder w/ Crowder show does the best SJW mocking, imho.

Michael K said...

I'm convinced that most colleges now, are merely an extension of K-12. That is to say, not really a place for higher learning.

We just had a conversation with our middle daughter who is a lefty but speaks four languages and is doing very well in the art world. She has also been contacted by Apple for their design team.

Anyway we were talking about college and she agrees (amazing !) that kids, especially boys, are better off going into the military first and getting structure before college. She has a cousin (my wife's grandson) who is doing extremely well in a technical field with no college education. I think this is the future for lots of boys. College is evolving into finishing school, communist style. It is oriented toward girls and will implode that way for doing so. She agrees, which really surprised me.

Sprezzatura said...

"who is a lefty BUT [all kinds of great accomplishments].

Thank goodness for the lefty mitigation.

Righty kids are easier to mention, no mitigation required. They can be total F-ups in the real world, but no "but" because they're righty!

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Oh, I dunno, Professor, didn't someone lecture us on how it is wrong to put too much emphasis on logic and reason? Maybe these folks are using the word "logic" in a way compatible with the worldview that emotion and feeling is as important, and in fact more valid, than the dictionary-defined concept of logic.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Dude didn't get the latest release of the NewSpeak dictionary. Starbucks is cutting edge. See their new Unity Cup to celebrate individuality and diversity.

boycat said...

MichaelK @9:03
If Hillary squeaks in I think we will see more of this but that professor might actually be crazy if he is quoted correctly

The cognitive dissonance going on has got to be at elephant rutting season levels.

tim in vermont said...

They can be total F-ups in the real world, - PB&J

You mean like Hillary? The only thing she hasn't fucked up is getting really rich. That she has managed just fine.

tim in vermont said...

I would love to see PB&J defend Hillary's record as "not a fuckup." I would love it, but don't expect it.

tim in vermont said...

"First they came for the Republicans, but I was not a Republican, so I cheered them on!"

tim in vermont said...

So she had her maid printing out classified emails for her! LOL! Not a fuckup! Noooooo!

http://nypost.com/2016/11/06/clinton-directed-her-maid-to-print-out-classified-materials/

You would think SNL could do something with material like that.

tim in vermont said...

Yet it appears Clinton was never asked by the FBI in its yearlong investigation to turn over the iMac Santos used to receive the e-mails, or the printer she used to print out the documents, or the printouts themselves.

How hard did the FBI not look for crimes? Really really hard! Imagine if the FBI were investigating Trump and Trump had given half a million dollars to the campaign of the wife of the head of the investigation, and that investigator never recused himself! You don't have to imagine it! Just change the name Trump to Clinton, and that is exactly what happened!

But PB&J thinks that she is as innocent as Honey Boo Boo.

tim in vermont said...

We have nearly passed the event horizon of Democrat corruption, unfortunately. One we pass it, escape from a corrupt national government will be impossible. I just have to vote for Trump. I just decided. Thanks PB&J! I live most of the year in Florida, where I vote. I can't indulge a third party vote, but if I voted in Vermont, that is certainly what I would have done.

Quaestor said...

But there are far more subtle situations, like this blog you are reading now.

I just had an image of Althouse flitting through the darkened, fog-bound streets of Madison dressed in a black cape and topped with a big fedora à la Lamont Cranston.

Have you rehearsed your sinister laugh, Professor?

Stephen A. Meigs said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephen A. Meigs said...

The alternative pronoun battle is even more bizarre.

mockturtle said...

The alternative pronoun battle is even more bizarre.

Oh, no! So this is the next 'What's next! Is there any way to stop this insanity?

damikesc said...

"First they came for the communists"?

In hindsight, it was best that he didn't speak up for the Communists. They would've stomped on him also. Arguably, our biggest mistake ever was not allowing Hitler and Stalin to slaughter one another en masse and then invade and wipe both out.

The man is a Republican against Trump.

The people Dems paid to cause havoc also denied being paid by Dems.

It's not as though humanities are not worth teaching. I had wonderful English Lit and History Classes---in high school. In college, I could see a definite bias creeping in. As I was a leftist at that time, I could accept it. But it did bother me that those conservatives in my Poli-Sci class were the objects of scorn. Not just by other students but by the prof. This also happened in some of the science courses when non-believers in Darwinian evolution were singled out for ridicule.

When I was in college and dealt with this, I became very friendly with the Dean of the School of Govt and Intl Studies. I'd take grades to him regularly and ask, outside of a difference of opinion on an issue, what qualified this paper for this low grade?

Sadly, I doubt deans are left who'd tell the professor that their grade was BS. If it was a class I didn't need, I'd just be an obnoxious ass in class.

I now advocate pulling all public funding from all universities. The good can be picked up by other means of support --- but the bad is too deep and too vast to make funding it worthwhile any longer.

We've seen the utter pit of shit our country is. Nothing will redeem it ever. C'est la vie.

Martin said...

Frankly, this guy may need counseling...

Bad Lieutenant said...

Tim in VT, I thank you and America thanks you. Late, but not too late, you have seen what awaits us on the end of the Democratic fork.