Thought Police
I had this clipped to comment on last week. Never quite got around to, well, forming my thoughts in an eloquent fashion. I won’t try. Instead, I’ll say fuck that:
The film shows various cases of conservatives, libertarians or even liberals who do not toe the leftist line 100% being shut down, shut out or shut up on “liberal” college campuses around the US. One thing that struck me about the cases is that several of those who had conservative or pro-American leanings were told by administrators that in order to stay at the university, they would need to see a psychologist who, I suppose, could vouch for their mental condition.
She has some examples. What I find a bit more surprising is that therapy and evaluation appear to be a punishment and not a legitimate therapeutic exercise. Ideas are not inherently dangerous. These folks were simply shouted down for not going along with the program. And that seems to make a mockery of the whole mental health field, if you ask me. And the psychologists in this case will likely report their findings about these miscreants who dare not agree to the administration.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Keep in mind that being placed under the care of a mental health expert can be considered ground for disallowing firearm ownership….
June 4th, 2007 at 11:05 am
There are plenty of “rightist” college campuses. There are few at which one can get a good education. Grove City College comes to mind as well as Hampden-Sydney College. At the university level: George Mason, Pepperdine or Notre Dame. This hand rubbing over ‘leftist’ universities is just wannabe McCarthyism. The “right” has got what it has wanted and tenure, in any meaningful sense, is dead for newly-minted PhDs. I know that I will never get tenure unless I publish enough, get famous enough or kiss enough ass to get a named chair. I can manage the first requirement, don’t desire the second and won’t engage in the third.
Though seeing that this is Instaputz’s wife posting this, it may be a love letter to a husband who truly is schizophrenic.
“Ideas are not inherently dangerous.”
Then why all of the fuss over ‘leftism?’
June 4th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Oh and another bit. Again the whole notion of “indoctrination” and use of psychological manipulation is even more dissonant when it comes from people like Helen Smith, Glenn Reynolds and all.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/03/AR2007060301121.html?hpid=topnews
June 4th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Yes, there are plenty of colleges of various kinds.
Dangerous is not a synonym for ‘not wrong’.
That’s the metulj I love! nothing of substance but plenty of unsupportable ad hominem.
And what kind of people are they?
June 4th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Butterfly, Charles Fourier would be so proud of you.
No socialist utopia for you.
June 4th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
This hand rubbing over ‘leftist’ universities is just wannabe McCarthyism.
Such bullshit. Pragmatic concern over the “socialist” indoctrination disguised as higher learning should concern any thinking person.
Of course the “thinking person” part excludes many people, right metulj?
June 4th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I really don’t think it is punishment, it is ritual cleansing. The part of 1984 that haunted me the most is that they weren’t happy to just kill dissidents; they had to convert them before they could kill them.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Oh BTW metulj, you might like this.
Or not.
Hat tip to Great Smokey.
Visit Indoctrinate U, the movie.
Support the Constitution, just say no to the thought police.
June 4th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Metalj is using diversionary strawman argument. We’re not talking private universities, which are free to restrict all they want, but publicly funded, state-run universities.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
metulj has brightened my day. The very fact that he doesn’t expect to ever get tenure should make everyone happy.
His thought processes are so faulty I am surprised he can be employed.
Yes, metulj, I know that is ad hominem, but guess what, its true.
Here is an example of your separation from logic.
““Ideas are not inherently dangerous.”
Then why all of the fuss over ‘leftism?’-Metulj
Because the leftists take overt action to prevent and punish ideas that are not theirs, moron! That is what makes lefism so dangerous, lack of tolerated discourse. DUH!
Please tell me you are not really in a position to teach or possibly expect tenure. You surely can’t be educated and be that damn stupid.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
“Because the leftists take overt action to prevent and punish ideas that are not theirs, moron! That is what makes lefism so dangerous, lack of tolerated discourse. DUH!”
“Please tell me you are not really in a position to teach or possibly expect tenure. You surely can’t be educated and be that damn stupid.”
And David Horowitz doesn’t? Fascinating. I may be stupid, but I am not a stupid ideologue.
Remember it’s intolerant to not tolerate intolerance.
As for ad hominen: It’s what I expect from violence addicts. I only come here to entertain myself! And try to get banned! Er, well, he can’t really ban me, but I try!
Bees! Bees! Bees! Arrrgh!
June 4th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
BTW, if a university accepts any sort of federal money, it is quasi-public. It’s true. Just read [i]Grove City College vs. Bell[/i]. Also, George Mason is a state school.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Sure I can. But I don’t because you amuse me. Well, that and I just don’t typically ban people.
June 4th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I only come here to entertain myself! And try to get banned!
You sure don’t come here to debate.
You challenge me about ten days ago, I responded, and poof, you were gone.
I am still waiting for you or Andy Axel or your pal Steve to show what you have. Isn’t going to happen, is it? You guys talk the talk but that is as far as it goes.
I remember when you told me Andy Axel was the best and how he would tear me to pieces. All that happened was your other pal Randy Neal pulled the plug at KnoxViews and banned me completely and banished the others that weren’t card carrying Daily KOS nuts from being able to post. All in the spirit of diversity.
Rikki was right, you guys don’t know how to do anything other than ad hominem. Hell, you even misspelled it. That is why your religion will never work.
Charles Fourier would be greatly disappointed in you.
June 4th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
#9, geez I checked in here for the first time in ages only to find you’re still blathering about R. Neal banning you from KnoxViews. Get a life already.
As you know, I can still post at KnoxViews. I guess that means you just called me a “card carrying Daily Kos nut.”
Which kind of shows why you got banned – it wasn’t for your politics, it was for your total lack of manners.
June 4th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
As you know, I can still post at KnoxViews.
Curious, you no longer post or comment much at KnoxViews anymore Rachel. Why is that? Is it because it is boring now?
In fact it seems to be the sound of one hand clapping over there.
An echo chamber of the same like minded voices. Kind of like in our Universities where actual diversity has been replaced by the mantra of political correctness and the newspeak form of diversity which is not diversity or freedom of speech at all.
Isn’t that what the Daily KOS is all about? And aren’t people that desire this one-way street of the same communication a little nuts?
June 4th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
you no longer post or comment much at KnoxViews anymore Rachel. Why is that? Is it because it is boring now?
Yup, since you left it’s just so-o-o boring that I don’t bother posting.
Geez, get over yourself already.
P.S. And how do you know my posting/commenting has been light lately? Could it be you’re still reading the hated KnoxViews echo chamber?
June 5th, 2007 at 2:22 am
“And David Horowitz doesn’t? Fascinating. “-metulj
Hey! you got one right, almost. It would have been right if you had used a period instead of a question mark. He speaks his mind, he says what he believes, but guess what,dummy? He doesn’t punish people who disagree with him, he doesn’t expell them from college, he doesn’t force them to seek counseling at their own expense when they disagree with him. He doesn’t inform them that they will suffer in their grades if they do not embrace his philosophy. So, it is absolutely correct to say he doesn’t engage in that horseshit. Unlike you and those you defend. I made an assumption that you are one with the those who do, based on defense of them, and your lack of knowledge, logic, and any sense of responsibility.
“I may be stupid, but I am not a stupid ideologue.”- metulj.
That is irrelevant to the topic. However, I will address it. Those two clauses are contrary to each other. You may be stupid, and that is the way I bet. You are definitely a stupid idealogue, so that clause is false
“As for ad hominen: It’s what I expect from violence addicts”-metulj
I am about as far from a violence addict as one can get. The main reason for that is that I have been involved in a lot of it in my life. I have yet to learn to appreciate it or like it. In fact, I like so little that I believe everyone should be able to protect themselves from it. Not something you cowards can get on board with. You just want to hire it done. You want to empower governments and their hired guns to force everyone to your outlook. Tell me you wouldn’t be in favor of calling the cops when one of these wronged college kids beats the Hell out of someone like you who would punish them for political or social disagreement.
But remember, you’re already on record as defending these abominations called policy. The only way they can be enforced is ultimately at gunpoint. You just want to hire it done to serve you. You reek of rot.