So I'm setting in class today, the class was Religion and Society.  The professor comes in and says we are going to talk about Katrina today and the aftermath of the disaster.  I set through 70 f*ckin' minutes of hell..."It's Bush's fault this, Iraq that, our government didn't care about those people, blah blah blah."  

To sum everyone's comments up in a nutshell it would have been better had the USA had a Democrat in the White House.  

Then the professor, who is teaching Religion and Society but is apparently atheist, cites different "religious" websites that is saying that Katrina was a blessing.  I think he was doing this just to throw ridicule at religion.  I was pissed off beyond belief.  He also said that if, for example, terrorist would have blown up the levee during Mardi Gras Bush could have had people there immediately.

I nearly walked out.  The bottom line is, I thought, hindsight is always 20/20.  

I just hope and pray for the best for all the victims and their families.  

This is my view on it...  


Professors are liberal.  And professors are supposed to be smart.  In college, being smart is kinda cool, so if you think like your professor, you are, by association, also smart.  

Fight back with facts.  Be loud.  Be vocal.  You'll find lots of similarly minded students siding with you bitch slapping professor sumbass down.

Why didn't you debate the merits of his statements?

Colleges are urban and State Capitol based. Where better to congregate closest to the government teat?

Self sufficient folks like to be as far away from that as possible, often only settling there purely for employment aspects.  

Quoted: Why didn't you debate the merits of his statements?

I was so pissed that I would have been speaking out of anger which I am not the best at...especially if I want to pass the class.

I can understand that, but your professor won.  You must learn to debate with hard facts.  Sound sure  of yourself.  Take a debate class.  It really helps.  

I've heard some of the same stuff from fellow students.

I just ignore it.

CRC

I think it was Churchill who said, more or less, “If you are young and not a Liberal it is because you have no heart.  If you are old and are still a Liberal it is because you have no brains.”

Am I right or wrong?

hahaha, are you kidding me?

Quantity doesn't equal quality my friend... My school is predominantly "liberal" but the few college republicans are all quality.... Except one extremist whack job who just might go postal one day.

MOST (not all) college age democrats are just followers who only have a basic gist of things, and only know to hate on Bush. Only a few of them REALLY do their homework, and have solid evidence and arguments against the GOP. Take some politics, take some philosophy (logic) classes, and have at em!!!

Many of my friends are the core leaders in the "College Republicans" and they have a great time rocking this liberal arts campus with debates, advertising, and informational campaigns. If you are smart and brave, voice your opinion. If you cannot offer better evidence and support than your political opponents, and if you cannot bear the burden of being hated on then you'll just have to shut up and bear it... The reason why the college republicans do so well at my school is because they do their homework, they read the newspapers and they are smart, cocky assholes, :) Thing is, you also want to be a smooth "debater" and not piss off your prof. who controls your grades. It's pretty easy to do.

"Just to warn you all I'm the left of the left of the left" - Science professor on the first day of class
"Well, we may have a problem because i'm the right of the right of the right" - Army Veteran and fraternity brother of mine.

Yup, my buddy ended up getting a A in the class and the left wing prof. even wrote him a recommendation letter to Law School...

Just ignore it.  Colleges are liberal.  I know.  I go to one.  

Quoted: I think it was Churchill who said, more or less, “If you are young and not a Liberal it is because you have no heart.  If you are old and are still a Liberal it is because you have no brains.” Am I right or wrong?

it's actually a urban rumor, Churchill never said that, but i certainly agree with it.

Just like there are LUGs, lesbians until graduation, same can be said of democrats

I think part of it is because professors tend to be liberal and influence their students as such (yea, duh). A bigger question is why are so many professors liberal. Generaly I think it is because, for the most part, people as smart as them and with their education could be making more working in industry than as a professor. Not to bash conservatives (I am one) but I think conservatives are more likely to equate money/power with success than liberals who tend may have a more touchy/feely view of success (such as teaching people). I don't view either of these ideas of success as really better than the other but I think it may explain why professors tend to be liberal whereas the higher ranking people in the business world tend to be conservative.

I also recognize the "could be makinig more in industry" statement varies in its truth quite a bit. While an economics professor could probably be rolling in dough, this may be less true for a women's studies professor.

I must be the exception.  My school is big on engineering and comp. sci so I have found most of the people I know are pretty conservative.  Kerry was no more than 200 yards from my apartment and I didn't know a damn person that went to see him.  

I actually did have an interesting encounter this term though.  I had a rather liberal sort of hippie prof., but he pretty much kept to himself and would not put down anyone's ideas.  You could say all sorts of stuff and he would not jump on with the other students and lead a crusade against you.  Even if I disagree with his views,  I have to respect how he conducted himself.  He would chime in, but it mostly with facts.  I have a lot of liberal friends like that.  I hate the real rabid types, but thats on both sides .

Just rememeber.  Most people become college professors because they cannot make it in the business world.  Some of them can actually teach you something.  Lots of what they teach you may be interesting, but useless.  Some of it is extremely useful and important.  I thank God every day that I got an engineering degree.

Quoted: Just rememeber.  Most people become college professors because they cannot make it in the business world.  Some of them can actually teach you something.  Lots of what they teach you may be interesting, but useless.  Some of it is extremely useful and important.  I thank God every day that I got an engineering degree.

I don't think it is at all fair to say that people are in education because they "couldn't make it" elsewhere, they largly have different priorities.

Quoted: I must be the exception.  My school is big on engineering and comp. sci so I have found most of the people I know are pretty conservative. Kerry was no more than 200 yards from my apartment and I didn't know a damn person that went to see him.   I actually did have an interesting encounter this term though.  I had a rather liberal sort of hippie prof., but he pretty much kept to himself and would not put down anyone's ideas.  You could say all sorts of stuff and he would not jump on with the other students and lead a crusade against you.  Even if I disagree with his views,  I have to respect how he conducted himself.  He would chime in, but it mostly with facts.  I have a lot of liberal friends like that.  I hate the real rabid types, but thats on both sides .

Same here.

One thing I noticed is that several of my buddies in college were leftist while sucking off their parents teats for tuition/room & board. Once they started to look for jobs they noticed 1, that they were overlooked for employment because of minority quotas and 2, that the Democratic party is the party of entitlement and dependence.  In summary, once they grew up and matured in the work force they became more conservative.  

Are you graded on participation (discussion)?

If not.........your professor is lazy, and possibly a sophist.

If so, you screwed yourslef.  You're probably paying about $45-100/hour of class time, which you didn't take advantage of.


Look at it this way - would you really prefer that everyone blindly repeated a rightist point of view?  That people repeat, without understanding, conservative party planks, or Linbaugh talking points?

some professors here are like that too

luckily, most of us are still pretty conservative

Yeah I remember having to hear how evil white people were during my History classes and studying gay/lesbian literature and art in Humanities classes. I did have a diehard conservative teaching American Government so that was actually interesting though.

It's not a whole lot different then regular schools. My kid already calls them on it and he does it politely but he will not back down either. I believe a lot of it is due to them being insulated from real life experiences like being fired. Once tenured, it's almost impossible to get fired, and most of these types know it. It's then free bash Bush time. Start writing letters to the dean and Board of directors complaining that you are not learning what you are paying for and that you did not sign up for a political science class. BUT, good luck, because most of these types are anal little shits who need a good beating behind the Gym. They were the one's who would never show up for one in grade school and now stand behind a podium.

Quoted: Quoted: Just rememeber.  Most people become college professors because they cannot make it in the business world.  Some of them can actually teach you something.  Lots of what they teach you may be interesting, but useless.  Some of it is extremely useful and important.  I thank God every day that I got an engineering degree. I don't think it is at all fair to say that people are in education because they "couldn't make it" elsewhere, they largly have different priorities.

most of them are afraid of the competition of their peers in the real world, which is why they choose academia. tenure is their holy grail because it means they can come in, not do shit and still get paid.

I know the feeling of being at a liberal university. I go to the University of Texas at Austin.......and for those of you that think all of Texas is conservative, look at one of those 2004 election maps that are colored by county. That little blue oasis in the heart of Texas is Travis county and at the center of Travis county is The University of Texas at Austin.

I have had to hear too much liberal rambling over the past few years but not too much in my classes. I am an Engineering major and politics very rarely comes up in my classes. It is everywhere on campus however.

I am not a good public speaker or debater so I just keep my mouth shut. It is fun the see the College Republicans group fight back though.

I had a great physics professor, always used guns in problems, talked about going hunting in Montana. He once went on a long diatribe about how gun owners are misunderstood by the public.

But the best part of his class, was when he went into a big crazy speil about how he was sure, using his own physical analysis, that TWA 800 had been shot down and that the government was covering it up. This guy is an expert witness who testifies in vehicular homicide trials all the time. Gave me something to think about.

Do what I did in College - don't attend unless it's mandatory.  Professors live to make you see their point of view.   BTW - I did graduate Magna Cum Laude and only showed up to take tests.

The liberal teachers I have dealt with at the college I go to have been very friendly during our debates.  They've been respectful, and most of them are willing to say, "Hey, I never looked at it that way" if you provide a sound argument.  

Students, on the other hand, are the complete opposite.  If they cannot defend their position (and they usually can't) they will stoop to insults.

I remember my Philosophy 105 class last year.  The teacher (a liberal, but one of my favorite teachers) asked us to name some people we would look up to as good people who set an example for the rest of our society.  For a good 5 minutes, nobody could think of anybody, so one girl finally says, "What about Oprah?"  I almost vomitted, but held it in.  So I say, "Hey, what about our soldiers?  I think those are guys we should look up to for their honor and sacrifice."  One girl (you could tell she was a little weird from her barcode tattoo on the back of her neck, her multi-colored hair, and her style of clothing, and yes, I love to pre-judge people) then pounces on me and says, "THEY'RE JUST BRAINWASHED!!!  They don't know what they're doing!"  I reply calmly, I think they're trained, not brainwashed.  She then tells me, "You've obviously never been on a military base."  Not true, but I ignored her.  At this point, the liberal teacher actually stepped in and agreed with me.  

Students in college are usually people who love to drink, do drugs, and fuck like rabbits.  They're going through a period in their life where all that matters is instant gratification, and they just want to feel good all the time.  Liberal ideals make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  It's natural for younger people to gravitate towards them.  

The most important thing we can do is debate them calmly and with facts.  It's tempting to get angry with their immature actions during debates, but if you come off as intelligent and calm, and if your facts are true, then you might be able to swing some of the people who are undecided to our side.  You might even convert some liberals who have never actually thought for themselves.  

Quoted: The liberal teachers I have dealt with at the college I go to have been very friendly during our debates.  They've been respectful, and most of them are willing to say, "Hey, I never looked at it that way" if you provide a sound argument.   Students, on the other hand, are the complete opposite.  If they cannot defend their position (and they usually can't) they will stoop to insults. I remember my Philosophy 105 class last year.  The teacher (a liberal, but one of my favorite teachers) asked us to name some people we would look up to as good people who set an example for the rest of our society.  For a good 5 minutes, nobody could think of anybody, so one girl finally says, "What about Oprah?"  I almost vomitted, but held it in.  So I say, "Hey, what about our soldiers?  I think those are guys we should look up to for their honor and sacrifice."  One girl (you could tell she was a little weird from her barcode tattoo on the back of her neck, her multi-colored hair, and her style of clothing, and yes, I love to pre-judge people) then pounces on me and says, "THEY'RE JUST BRAINWASHED!!!  They don't know what they're doing!"  I reply calmly, I think they're trained, not brainwashed.  She then tells me, "You've obviously never been on a military base."  Not true, but I ignored her.  At this point, the liberal teacher actually stepped in and agreed with me.   Students in college are usually people who love to drink, do drugs, and fuck like rabbits.  They're going through a period in their life where all that matters is instant gratification, and they just want to feel good all the time.  Liberal ideals make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  It's natural for younger people to gravitate towards them.   The most important thing we can do is debate them calmly and with facts.  It's tempting to get angry with their immature actions during debates, but if you come off as intelligent and calm, and if your facts are true, then you might be able to swing some of the people who are undecided to our side.  You might even convert some liberals who have never actually thought for themselves.

+1, very true

I have never had a professor, liberal or conservative fail to be very polite and fair in a class debate. Liberal students...very different story. Although, I have heard horror stories about professors I never had.

I had my first class for Macro Economics, well the Iranian professor went on about how we invaded Iraq for oil and badmouthed bush for an hour, members of his class are OIF vets for christ sakes. I did what I do for those types of professors, gawked at the one hot girl in class and fell asleep. Oh, he also started to talk to a friend of mine who is Saudi Arabian (the prof is Iranian) and made my friend visibly uncomfortable which pissed me off, just cuz he's from you're region doesn't mean he buys into you're bullshit.

Steve

Quoted: Professors live to make you see their point of view.

Some do. Others just like to play Devil's advocate. Both of these are preferable to the professors that don't give a damn.

haha, talk about liberalism...I go to the University of Wisconsin...I dont understand why there is so much "socialism is good!" bullshit because once people graduate from here, they will possibly go on to make lots of money

Follow the money....

Universities and University towns are usually quite liberal as they are a net consumer of outside dollars.  Dollars just appear in the form of tuition, students, grants, alumni donations, and legislated funding.  All this comes from distant taxpayers, parents, or from student loans deferring the pain until sometime later.  This makes a college town artifically wealthy, as they have the wealth, but without the local infasttructure to provide it.    Once one becomes accustomed to living in such an environment, ones outlook on life becomes a bit distorted as supply and demand curves don't exist there as in other places.

Im in the same boat as you bud. Im in my first year at a small liberal arts college. Yeah I know, the liberal arts part might have proved a bad choice, but I wanted smaller classes than at a big state school. The liberals are everywhere, dont be afraid to be who you are. People grudgingly respect those who stand for what they believe in. I dont drink and im a conservitate, that puts me in a very small minority here. But ive found that though some dont like me, most respect me, and a good number even like me for standing by my values. Get involved with a conservitave group on campus like the college republicans. I did and it improves my mood drastically to meet and talk with people who think like me. Stand strong bro. Remember, its better to be hated for who you are then loved for who your not!

Quoted: I think it was Churchill who said, more or less, “If you are young and not a Liberal it is because you have no heart.  If you are old and are still a Liberal it is because you have no brains.” Am I right or wrong?

Close - it was socialist rather than liberal.

I had almost the exact same experience last night at college, except it was Ethics class. We started out class with the teacher all depressed and aggrivated, blabbing about how Katrina was causing "the most blatantly racist situation in America since the 1960's". Apparently, the media/the South/America in general is racist because the TV stations A) show video clips of black people looting, B) sometimes refer to the survivors as "refugees," and C) have the audacity to suggest that the area is out-of-control and in need of the national guard, etc. Apparently the fact that the area that was hit is like 95% black and that helicopters/telephone workers/national guardsmen are being shot left and right mean nothing to her. She also ranted about how the government/National Guard were doing abysmal jobs. Fortunately, there were two national guardsmen in the class, and my oh my how one of them straightened her out. It was like this guy had a speech pre-memorized for a debate, it was glorious. The look on that monsterously obese woman known as our professor's face when he destroyed her was priceless. Not trying to be racist, but there were also two black women in the class and they both made some of the dumbest complaints/arguments I've ever heard about Katrina (or anything). There was a black guy in class who made *a lot* more sense, though.

Quoted: Just rememeber.  Most people become college professors because they cannot make it in the business world.

I appreciate the "most people" qualifier.

Interestingly, I know LOTS of people in who are in the business world because they can't cut it as professors.     In my field, the failures are the ones who sell out and go into consulting, i-banking, whatever and make big bucks.  

Others leave big business to come to academia.  My wife was very successful in the private sector - on the fast track to the executive suite, making tons of money, when she decided to go into academia, and endured five years of graduate student poverty, just to make far less money as a professor.  She is insane.

Sounds about like the day I had. I get to my Political Science class, and being the first day sat kind of close to the middle about 3 rows up. Well my professor comes in and immediately starts telling us about how he went to OU and chose political science as his major, and how he had worked in the White House during the Clinton years. He also told us about a Congressman he worked for who was very pro-gun, with him being an anti. He just kept referring to his stance on the anti-gun issue so I have a feeling that me and this guy aren't going to get along.

Quoted: So I'm setting in class today, the class was Religion and Society.  The professor comes in and says we are going to talk about Katrina today and the aftermath of the disaster.  I set through 70 f*ckin' minutes of hell..."It's Bush's fault this, Iraq that, our government didn't care about those people, blah blah blah."

Sorry to hear that your professor used his class as a sounding board for his political views.  It happens whenever a "superior"  couldn't care less what the "subordinates" think.  Lots of workers have to put up with their bosses political rants for similar reasons -- in other words its not just college.

I've been wanting to address this  issue for a while since it comes up every 3 months or so -- why are colleges so liberal? Here's what I think.  First some definitions:

con·ser·va·tive    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (kn-sûrv-tv)adj.
  1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
  2. Traditional or restrained in style
  3. Moderate; cautious

pro·gres·sive    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (pr-grsv) adj
  1. Moving forward; advancing.
  2. Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments: progressive change.
  3. Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods

I know that republican and democrat/liberal don't map onto conservative and progressive perfectly, but bear with me.

Its only natural that colleges and universities would be filled with liberals because their training is to be proressive. Every professor with a Ph.D. got their degrees because they argued they created a better theory or account of the world or made the case that some established academic doctrine was wrong or at least, incomplete.   That is, academics are trained to look at the academic historical records and make some progress.  If they can't do this, then they can't get the Ph.D.

This has generally worked out well for the natural sciences and technologies, but, IMHO, things got a little weird in the arts and humanities. Still, I find post modern thinking a kind of entertaining word game.

Well this training in progressing in academia typically spills over into other aspects of the academic's life and when faced with the dichotomy of republican or democrat, they often go democrat because there is more challenging of the tradtional life among democrats.

Anyway. thats my explanation.  

Honestly, I think most people are a blend of conserving the things they like in their lives while trying to be progressives about the things they don't like.  Except for the extremists, I find it difficult to pigeon hole people the more I know them.

Quoted: Fight back with facts.  Be loud.  Be vocal.  You'll find lots of similarly minded students siding with you bitch slapping professor sumbass down.

Fight for your own opinions! He's a professor because he can't hack it in the real world. Chances are, you'll end up making way more money than him.

Not all professors are cockwads and I'm pretty sure that they didn't all become professors because they couldn't make it as something else.  

Hell, I'm an education major and it is not because I'm not smart enough to do anything else.  

Let them talk.

Listening to those bleeding heart, fuckhead liberal professors is a small price to pay to be surrounded by 18-22 year-old poon.

I went to college right out of the 82nd ABN Division.  Wish I could go back now.

Post the professor's name and university.  Call local talk radio--maybe they can make things uncomfortable for him.

It's even worse when you pay extra to go to a 'conservative' school and find the same behavior.

Don't blame liberals - blame conservatives who don't CHOOSE to go into academia.  Academia is not full of liberals because of some conspiracy to keep out conservatives, it's full of liberals because far fewer conservatives seem to be interested in being academics.



It's like people who don't vote, and then complain about how the country is run.  

I got so pissed off about attitudes like that I quit college and went active Army. Finished my degree at night when I got out. It was bad back then, it's bad now. F'in liberal socialist skum.

Quoted: Don't blame liberals - blame conservatives who don't CHOOSE to go into academia.  Academia is not full of liberals because of some conspiracy to keep out conservatives, it's full of liberals because far fewer conservatives seem to be interested in being academics.

I actually disagree.  I have a PhD and have worked on a university campus for different departments for about 13 years.  I had a bunch of conservative friends who were in the PhD program with me and none ended up with a tenured position.  One failed tenure simply because he was a white male.  All of the other academic jobs went to women (and every single one of them were less-qualified with worse grades and dissertations).  Funny thing is that all the guys who wanted but didn't get academic jobs have excellent jobs now in the government and other big organizations where they make excellent salaries.  

My own advisor is a lefty kook who is an active member of MoveOn.org these days.  Once he found out that I was a conservative he stopped helping me find a job.  I was told more than once when I searched for an academic job that "we have to hire a woman".  

My wife is now working as a university professor and she has been advised by conservative professor friends to "stay in the closet" until she has tenure.  She has even had to write her CV to leave off conservative publications and places she has worked.  

GunLvr

Quoted: Don't blame liberals - blame conservatives who don't CHOOSE to go into academia.  Academia is not full of liberals because of some conspiracy to keep out conservatives, it's full of liberals because far fewer conservatives seem to be interested in being academics. It's like people who don't vote, and then complain about how the country is run.

Careful there.

That's akin to saying that whorehouses are pits of sin because conservatives choose not to be prostitutes.

My school seems to be pretty conservative. I had a political science professor who nearly got fired for telling one of her students that she thought Kerry was the best candidate. To be fair though, the student did ask.

She typically keeps her opinions to herself, and actually admits it when someone makes a better point than she does. I suspect she wasn't hired elsewhere because she isn't liberal enough.  

Not all are liberal.

ORU in sunny Tulsa is a Republican haven.