Sharpless taught American history, specializing in statistical methods, comparative demography, and exploration. Political science was never part of his official syllabus, but since 1975, his classroom has been a space for safe political discussions between both left and right leaning students.
“I think it’s more about how I treated students generally,” says Sharpless, 73, who gave his final lecture on Dec. 11. “I treated them as adults whose opinions should be respected and I was always truly interested in what each person had to say. I still am.”...
“These labels have put people into their own bubbles, which is hard for those of us who are really just a bundle of ideas,” says Sharpless. “We tend to talk to people we know agree with us to reinforce what we already believe. I tell my students to get out of their bubbles but I realize it’s extremely difficult because if you push too hard against the walls of that bubble, the people who are in there with you might turn against you.”
March 27, 2019
"Openly disagreeing with people here is like pooping in the pool."
From "Leaving the 'liberal bubble'/Iconoclastic history professor John Sharpless retires" (Isthmus).
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When I was in College Republicans at the UW (yes, we existed and were a large group, at least in the late-80s/early 90s) Prof Sharpless was an annual guest speaker for us, and would frequently join us at the Rathskeller after the meeting to continue the discussion. Several profs would speak to us, including Professor Baldwin from the Law School. They would engage us and challenge our pre-conceived prositions, and we were open to it. I have to assume that to do so now would be risking at least social circle, if not career suicide.
If a male professor still is hogging a tenured position when he is 73 years old, the usual tactic to get rid of him is to accuse him of racism or sexual harassment.
It's odd that Professor Sharpless avoided that usual fate.
Doesn't the University of Wisconsin have any administrators who effectively prosecute accusations of racism and sexual harassment?
Good for him. He avoided diversity or color judgments.
“Openly disagreeing with people here is like pooping in the pool,” says Sharpless. “They turn around and give you this dagger look. I had Republican students in my classes who said they white-knuckled their way through discussions in other classes. They never felt they could say anything.””
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we? Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are. So what else is new?
So are we to infer that pooping in the pool is frowned on? Some of us haven’t been fortunate enough to learn country club manners. Check your privilege, mofos.
It's not that you don't agree. It's that you're openly expressing the idea that other ideas are possible.
Bubbles are thinly-constructed things, built on self-reinforcing elements which cannot be disturbed without the entire structure coming apart.
Next thing you know you're exposed, without any protective covering around you at all.
To those inside, that's not just wrong. It's treasonous.
I thought it was pooping in the punch bowel
It is surprising he wasn't run out of Dodge (Madison) a long time ago. Maybe he is not easily bullied by the snowflakes.
Some drudgetapositioning going on here what with “pooping in the pool” following hard on Stacy “I ain’t #2” Abrams discussion of 2020.
I attended a luncheon talk sponsored by the Federalist Society the other day. Sat with two ardent conservative strangers. When I said I was a liberal (knew the speaker from college) they acted like they expected to see someone with two heads. But the lunch was perfectly pleasant, of course.
"Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we? Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are. So what else is new?"
It's very very important when lefties/LLR's get exposed as hypocrites that the subject be changed as quickly as possible....then forgotten completely....then history rewritten to make it the republicans fault.
Rob said...
So are we to infer that pooping in the pool is frowned on?
Give it time. Pool poopers will be suing to be made a protected class any day now.
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we? Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are. So what else is new?
Everyone is free to posit an opinion.
We are free to point out the leftists are completely amoral power hungry degenerates that are trying to destroy the rule of law and our republic.
There is no bubble on the right. We are assaulted daily in college, by the media, by pretty much every local government, by the IRS and the federal bureaucracy. We know every argument the left makes because there is no avoiding it.
The only bubbles are on the left and they are only interested in expanding ignorance.
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we?
Yes. Poor, poor Inga. She posts things and others disagree with her.
Wonder if she'd ever try posing as a conservative on a site that caters to leftists?
Inga...Allie Oop quoted...
They never felt they could say anything.
then said...
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we?
There's the difference: The students felt they could never say anything. You, on the other hand, seem to feel you can never shut up.
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we?
You are completely unwilling to discuss your opinions in any depth, or to answer any questions, or to give specific objections to replies to your statements, you just repeat your points over and over as if we never heard them the first time. Cut and paste your stuff from Maddow or wherever you get them, as if we were unaware of what is being said, and repeat taunts as if they were arguments, like “Keep hope alive!” How did that one work out? Or “You don’t know what Mueller knows!” How did that one work out, so this doesn’t really apply to you.
And look how much work I put into answering your point and long experience suggests that you will either not respond, or you will reject first, ask rhetorical questions later, or insert some kind of insult.
There is one side of this discussion that acts as though they are in a cult, and it’s the side that can’t even understand the comments or questions put to them.
if you push too hard against the walls of that bubble, the people who are in there with you might turn against you.”
Similar to the Crab Pot Mentality.
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we? Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are. So what else is new?
Sometimes pooping in the pool IS pooping in the pool.
Try not to conflate disagreement with intolerance.
Try not to conflate lobbying unsubstantiated claims with debating.
Here’s a test, maybe Inga or Howard could explain to us the leftie position on the fact that the Steele Dossier was paid for by Hillary’s campaign? I am sure you guys have processed that piece of well documented information into your thinking.
It’s not like you guys are in a cult that has things your forbidden to think about or talk about, after all.
Inga, Inga, Inga, you really want to push the Althouse rules. I just wish you had a better game.
As a matter of fact, for all of the comments I have read on this site, and all of the leftie news sites I have read, I still don’t know what the anti-trump position on the fact that Hillary paid for the Steele Dossier is?
Or what is their position on the fact that the Clinton Campaign paid foreign spies, and in fact interviewed Russian spies and used that info to “affect the election.” I still don’t know why that’s different. Maybe Rachael “Former Cash Cow” Maddow can explain it on one of her shows and one of you can link to it.
It’s not like you would be shunned from your cult for answering that or anything.... right?
Oh, poor little Inga. People are sooooo mean to her here! Why doesn't anybody respect her great knowledge of history, economics, politics and science?
Run to your safe space, do some coloring for a while, pop a few Valium and watch some more liars on CNN for a while. You'll feel better soon, buttercup.
Give that man MAGA hat. He can make his bubble bigger than their bubble.
I knew he was a Republican because, when I checked out his Wikipedia page, it was clear that someone has been trying to get Wiki to take it down.
Inga: Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we?
Uh, exactly what has happens to you here for expressing an opposing opinion? People disagree with you, and if they consider your opinion idiotic, or you dishonest and hypocritical, they say so. Exactly the same thing that you do to the people whose opinions you oppose.
In other words, nothing happens to you here. Unlike what happens to dissenters in a liberal bubble, where having the pharisaical herd turn on you can have serious negative real-life consequences.
So stuff the fucking drama queen martyr act.
I wonder if Sharpless would be interested in a post-retirement job as Principal of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School?
"the people who are in there with you might turn against you"
Professor Sharpless, did any conservative students or activists ever "turn against you"?
Recent incidents of "turning against" people threatening the academic bubble all seem to show a similar pattern. It is the left's bubble, after all.
He ran for Congress around the time I started law school, which meant he was (one of?) the first to run against Tammy Baldwin. Anywhere else in the state, and he would have had a good chance of winning. Not in that district, however.
If he's reading this, I wish him good health and a well-earned retirement.
As if by some inexorable and inevitable and unavoidable Universal Law, every Western Leader designated the "Real Leader of the Free World" by a certain medical professional in Wisconsin is going down in flames:
"NOW GET IT DONE! Theresa May offers her head in last-ditch bid to save her Brexit deal as MPs can’t back ANY other plan despite seizing control of Parliament
In a historic encounter with Tory MPs, the Prime Minister promised to hand over to a new PM within months"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/8730673/theresa-may-quit-tory-mps-brexit-deal-rebellion/
So who were these "world Leaders" (snicker) whose stature was so amazingly amazing that they were really the global driving force for freedom and democracy? (snort)
1) Angela Merkel (Outta here this year after her nation turned on her and whose nation couldn't even put together a single squadron of effective fighter aircraft for more than 2 weeks and whose 13 submarines are all rusting at the pier for lack of parts and crews)
---what a real "powerhouse", eh? Oh, Putin now controls 30% of all their energy supplies and that's going to 50% in 5 years!! yeah lefties!!
2) Macron! LOL, Mr 20% approval and what is it now? 19 straight weeks of middle class revolt while the nation crumbles? Great choice In....er....nurse from WI!
3) Theresa May (LOLOLOLOL), see above. What a buffoon, and she will likely cost her party everything in the next elections. She's a real "winner", that one...
4) Li'l (bib-wearing) Justin Trudeau.....(I know I know, it's almost too unbelievable to accept that someone would designate this child as the "Real Leader of the Free World", but when you are capable of buying into a hoax PP dossier, you'll bit down hard on just about anything)
And there you have it.
Note: If you are a world leader and you find that your name is being bandied about on Althouseblog by a certain subset of leftist posters who have designated you the next "Real Leader of the Free World", just get your resignation letter ready to go....
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we? Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are. So what else is new?
Uh, Inga,
An anonymous forum is different than an employment or educational setting. There is no threat of reprisal here.
I faced the same problems in a doctoral program almost 40 years ago. It was definitely white knuckle time. It has only gotten worse.
You seem to enjoy trolling and suffer no consequences for it.
Inga wrote: Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we?
“Express[ing] an opposing opinion” should mean engaging with ideas, not attacking the people involved. As a mostly-lurker, I rarely see the former, while the latter is very common. When you attack people or suggest someone is bad for disagreeing with you, you should expect to be engaged in like fashion. Sure, it would be nice if your interlocutor could take the high road even when you don’t, but not many have that kind of discipline.
However, engaging with ideas critically is how we grow as a society and culture. When we lose the ability to do that, as we have in many environments, including much of academia, we stunt ourselves. It is depressing how many intelligent people do so willingly.
which is why eu articles 11 and 13 were passed, to crush the internet, and suppress populist movements,
Inga--No one has ever successfully caused you to not speak your mind here, and most people wouldn't even try.
I think you are a little off-kilter this week. I am sure it will pass.
well that's just robust political debate,
https://wchstv.com/news/local/i-68-shut-down-near-west-virginia-maryland-state-line-due-to-investigation
“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”
And the list keeps getting added to.
Kinda like the old rule about assholes: if you come across more than one in a day then it is probably you. If you are unable to have a civil conversation with someone with which you disagree, then that’s on you. Quit your whining, make an argument.
who is more pitiful in this demonstration
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/27/theresa-may-will-quit-mps-back-brexit-deal-dup-hardline-brexiteers/
Althouse's new commenting policy seems to have disproportionately defanged the Left here. It's almost like they weren't saying much of substance all along...
Wow! Looks like you guys have forgotten that Inga is actually a playful sort of person. Plenty of pleasent humor throughout the years:
Inga said...
Ritmooooooo, oh please don't leave me , I told you I loved you BEST of all, now didn't I? I just didn't want to be called a slut again by Dust Bunny and the other good conservative ladies.
11/6/11, 9:03 PM
Liberals on college campuses have gotten intellectually flabby by declaring the end of discussion of many topics on an almost daily basis. Living in the bay area I can still have good conversations with lefties who grew up in the 80's. Unfortunately the millennial crowd is just sad. Glaring gaps of general knowledge followed by a crushing need not to make any one uncomfortable outside of their own group. If they ever move outside of California they will be like animals who evolved in an area with no natural predators suddenly air dropped into the African bush country.
I kind of think of it as eating a tootsie roll in an emptied pool
Well, we see what happens to those who express an opposing opinion right here, don’t we?
No. We see what people who are only here to be assholes to everyone else get in return. Left wing privilege convinces them they deserve better even though they get exactly what they offer and therefore deserve themselves.
This can be tested by noting how people treat the only liberal regular who isn't an asshole to everyone she disagrees with: Althouse. It wasn't the right commenters who called her a "stupid bitch".
Althouse’s new commenting policy turned out to be a farce. Too bad.
Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are.
This shows how left wingers see whatever suits their philosophy whatever the reality. The right commenters are specifically here because they prefer to include Althouse's left opinions rather than comment on one of the many right locations. In turn the left's response is outrage that the right came out of the ghetto and an attempt to disrupt the conversation.
When I said I was a liberal (knew the speaker from college) they acted like they expected to see someone with two heads
They were waiting for you to tell them how they are racist.
Any truth to the rumors that Maddows massive audience loss was due to the tidal wave of tears she and LLR Chuck shed after the Mueller report summary was issued?
"Proves that Republicans/ conservatives are no more amenable to diversity than they claim Democrats/ liberals are. So what else is new?"
(Plugs in Universal Translator)
(Spins dial to Moonbat)
"grh..mphff..grok.. I'm going to pretend Republicans are Nazis so I can justify behaving like a Nazi"
Related: Coincidentally, a number of wackadoos that protested the 2nd Amendment after the Parkland shooting have turned up dead. Lots of suicides. Lefties suspect foul play of the Hillary variety. But Ocam's Razor suggests those kind of people are mentally unstable to begin with.
Like the fake veteran "elder" who attacked the Covington kids.
...Inga, what would you being doing every day if you weren't making us involuntary participants in your therapy?
Try to be clever, remember Althouse is all about the reader experience. Funny how that still includes being subjected to your bullshit trolling every day.
With the clicks you're giving as Blog Clown, you should demand a percentage of the Amazon take.
"They were waiting for you to tell them how they are racist."
And then denounce them for their "privilege" of predicting you would open with the race card.
We really need to revist the repeal of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.
Would take 90% of the Moonbats off the streets and out of our hair.
Well there are those folks who passed away in disgust as Mueller did not deliver the goods
"Any truth to the rumors that Maddows massive audience loss was due to - "
Ace theorizes it's similar to when people avoid checking their stocks after a huge loss in the market.
I think the media pushed the collusion narrative because their faulty "Hillary 90% to win" predictions infected Democrats with complaceny, and they needed to distract the pitchfork weilding mobs with a new "shiney".
And the Dems really are that stupid. As proof, notice how the media trots out another "Yes you REALLY ARE smarter than those other guys" study every 6 months to feed the Dem's self-esteem? Smart people don't need to be told they are smart. If anything they need to be reminded to not be so smug.
I, for one, am thankful for the fair and balanced moderation lately. Although frequently viciously attacked here by (redacted) and (redacted), I have never once complained, unlike some sissies.
MAGA
"Li'l (bib-wearing) Justin Trudeau"
Don't forget his glued-on fake eyebrows falling off. I'm sure that inspired lots of respect from Our Dear Friend Putin.
I have some America-bashing Canadian friends who now retreat in sullen silence when I respond "Eyebrows!"
MAGA!
Collusion Truther: "Althouse’s new commenting policy turned out to be a farce."
Discuss.
The reaction to that open disagreement is more like having them toss a Baby Ruth in the pool, blame it on you and spend the rest of the day acting grossed out and bitching about it. If it was really poop they would bail out and leave you in there by yourself.
Inga...Allie Oop said...
Althouse’s new commenting policy turned out to be a farce. Too bad."
Awww, still feeling sorry for yourself, I see.
That's OK. We all know the past few days have been rough on you. Just light your Mueller devotional candle and - oh wait, I guess that won't help...
Why Trump’s “no collusion” victory lap is premature
Russia’s spy operations were never meant to leave traces behind that could be used in a courtroom.
By Alex Finley - Center for Public Integrity
They were a little dazed, but they are climbing off the floor, but seriously, if there was a referee, he would call the fight now before the poor guy gets seriously injured.
Lack of evidence only proves the depth of the conspiracy!
Update, I finally did find the Democrat’s position on Hillary paying for the dossier. She is innocent because she paid somebody who paid somebody who paid somebody to do it. And they only “made inquiries” they didn’t look for dirt from the Russians! So no collusion.
It’s so clear to me now!
As Orson Bean said on tv about three decades ago, when he became a conservative and discovered the "liberal" Hive's true character, "A liberal is someone who will fight to the death for your right to agree with him."
"I thought it was pooping in the punch bowel"
To each his own.
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