And if I am wrong about Andrew Jones and his group, my apologies. But I know how these things work, and in order to get funding from the ‘right’ groups, they are going to have to try to ruin some good people in the process by making charges that are unfair or dishonest.
I think John Cole is being far too kind to this group. Are there some loud, obnoxious extremists at UCLA? I'm sure there must be as it is a big place. And sure, abusive teachers who feel it's their right to indoctrinate instead of teach need to be held accountable. [Or I should say "try" to indoctrinate - the people who get riled up over who's teaching what in the nation's schools always seem to imply that students will come to believe and worship every single little idea put before them by every teacher - a ridiculous assumption if ever there was one.] But that will be a tiny minority of teachers, it's likely a matter best handled by the relevant department and university administrators - the people who actually know the details of what a teacher's job is, and what their contracts require.
And even if we wanted some sort of outside observors keeping tabs on this to make sure that problem cases were properly dealt with, a quick glance at this website shows that the people involved in this website shouldn't be let within 100 yards of an institution where learning and critical analysis is valued. Quite simply, a quick skimming of the site makes it abundantly clear that the people behind UCLA Profs.com simply don't want facts that clash with their narrow worldviews presented or discussed. Facts, schmaks. They just want their bigoted feelings reinforced, they don't want to learn anything.
Posted by armand at January 18, 2006 12:54 PM | TrackBack | Posted to The AcademyThe discussion on the original post is quite interesting. I thought this comment especially so:
Mac, one of the things the Nazis did was to organize youth groups to denounce their professors. Mao did the same thing. And under Stalin, people in various positions were encouraged to inform agains their coworkers and neighbors. I thought all of that was common knowledge.
Always that interesting question, does it really violate Godwin's law if it's accurate?
John Cole too.
Posted by: binky at January 18, 2006 08:45 PM | PERMALINKWoah, woah, woah. We need to slow down here.
First off, there is a difference between leftist, liberal, and left-leaning. Universities may be made up of left-leaning individuals, and certain fields may be dominated by liberals (Womyn’s Studies comes to mind), but the universities are not dominated by leftists.
Even if
they were (and they are not, and I will not agree with anyone who says
that ‘leftists’ run our nation’s universities), their ‘leftism’ should
not disqualify them from their positions. Ward Churchill’s politics
should not get him fired, his demeanor, the disrespect he has show his
students, his plagiarism, and his intellecutal dishonesty, as well as
the damage he has caused his institution should disqualify him.
Are
most people at my university to the ‘left’ of me- a goodly number of
them, but that is to be expected, since I am the center-right of the
political specturm (or at least I was until these incompetent and
corrupt fuckers with their religious zealot friends took over
Washington and the GOP). But I have been on my campus for a long while, and I do not feel like it is dominated by hard-core leftists.
We
need to be a little more precise with our terminology. Also, I would
not confuse moderate Democrats who are now screeching and hollering
because of the current adminsitration with true leftists. I know a lot
of rational Democrats who are mortified by Bush et. al, and they are
not the Ward Churchhill left. Likewise, I know a number of my fellow
Republican colleagues who are in the same boat I am- confused and
disgusted by he current GOP.
Does that make me a leftist, liberal, or left-leaning? or just fed up?