“I am somewhat in the closet,” Ben (not his real name) confesses to Chris Sweeney at Boston Magazine in a new book-length op-ed titled How Liberal Professors Are Ruining College. “I fear that many of my classmates would jump to conclusions about me should they all know I am a conservative.”
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Ben is a freshman at Brandeis University. He recently found himself in an uncomfortable position when he claims a speaker at his school’s orientation “talked passionately” about the Black Lives Matter movement. He was again made to feel uneasy when his economics professor cracked a joke about Republicans during a lecture.
“I think it’s a shame,” he says. “A lot of people have negative preconceived notions about conservatives…we’re intolerant, racist, homophobic.”
Gee, we can’t imagine why. After all, it’s not like conservatives nominated (and elected) a man endorsed by the KKK and his stridently antigay running mate to the highest office in the land or anything. Oh, wait.
Mark Gimelstein, a senior at Brandeis, tells Sweeney that he, too, feels uneasy being a conservative on campus.
“Politics is something I don’t talk about with many people at all because of the ramifications,” he explains. “People mock us.”
He recalls an incident that happened in his Intro to Microeconomics course:
“I won’t name the professor, but he literally yelled that he hated Republicans in class,” Gimelstein says. Though the comment was made in jest, Gimelstein says it still hurt his feelings. “While all my classmates were laughing along, I wasn’t laughing. It was kind of insulting.”
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And then there’s Kassy Dillon, a snowflake at Mount Holyoke College who was banned for Twitter last year for promoting racist hate speech. In an angry blog post, she claims she became a “target” after voicing her support of Donald Trump, and that one person went so far as to say “Fuck you, fuck Trump, I fucking hate Trump supporters” right to her face.
“These students are taught such absurd concepts from their liberal professors that they think resistance to a democratic republic’s election results means violence is justified,” she rants. “To them, the targets of this anger are the only conservatives in clear sight: my few club members, one professor, and I.”
We’re not quite sure how saying “fuck you” to someone equates to violence, but whatever.
According to Sweeney, liberal college professors outnumber conservative college professors 28 to 1 these days, compared to 5 to 1 when Ronald Reagan was in office. This imbalance, he argues, is “bad for everyone.”
“At many of New England’s most prestigious colleges, political conservatism has been reduced to stereotypes,” Sweeney writes, “conflated with the alt-right and branded as being so wrongheaded that it’s not even worth considering, let alone hiring professors who embrace right-leaning ideas.”
He continues: “To some people on the receiving end, however, progressive rhetoric can sound shrill and an awful lot like suppression of speech and intolerant political correctness. The result? Many conservatives on New England’s campuses are feeling more marginalized and alienated than ever before.”
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like the crap LGBTQ people and other minorities have had to put up with since, well, forever.
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jkthsnk
The gloves are off hypocrites.
Jack Meoff
So in a nutshell conservatives feel entitled to dish out the judgement and rhetoric but are quick to complain when the tables are turned. What about the decades of persecution certain liberal groups have had to endure. Conservatives have had to put up with it for five minutes.
robho3
Well he can always transfer to Oral Roberts university.
JessPH
It should not be surprising that most college professors are liberals or progressives. The more educated you are the more you realize how f*ck up the conservative ideology is.
Juanjo
There are folks who are conservative on very specific issues which have nothing to do with the extremist views of the alt-reich and their ilk. They take very principled stands on maters of importance to themselves and they can and do express themselves. I have friends and even some relatives like that and we are able to have very spirited but overall respectful discussions on these issues. That said public discourse is often not civil. It means that regardless of your political or socio-economic positions on any issue, there are going to be those who disagree and do so vehemently and who will react negatively to your positions. This is especially true for those who are in a minority on a particular location where they are expressing these views.
Free speech is a good thing but unfortunately free speech is not free. If you take a public stand on an issue you always run the risk that others will take issue with your position and do so in an unpleasant manner. You either develop a thicker skin and learn how to be the adult in the room, responding in a reasoned and civil manner or you behave as a butt hurt snowflake. Yes you are going to be accused of agreeing with those more extremist elements who may hold similar political, economic or social beliefs as you hold. That is true whether one is conservative or liberal on any manner. Welcome to the real world kiddies. Either learn how to swim in the deep end or go back to the kiddie pool.
Those of us who are openly gay, openly critical of the majority Christian dominated culture of this country or whatever, have all been subjected to this sort of behavior by self proclaimed adherents for the other point of view. If you are upset because you are being treated differently, welcome to my world – a place where I have been told to go back to Mexico when my family is descended from Ladino Jews who resided in Spain until the edict of expulsion in 1492; where I have been insulted for being s Jew and also for being a gay man who is happily married to another man. Not to mention being called a communist and a traitor because I am a liberal and a Democrat.
Heywood Jablowme
“According to Sweeney, liberal college professors outnumber conservative college professors 28 to 1 these days, compared to 5 to 1 when Ronald Reagan was in office.”
Yes, we need affirmative action so conservatives can get government jobs. lol
More likely, “conservatives” are more attracted to working in the more con-artist jobs, like becoming “Realtors.”
Kangol
Poor babies. So they want to rant and spew hate but when you challenge them they become politically correct and start whining that there’s a backlash. So hypocritical and pathetic! We’re not going backwards. Homophobia, heteronormativity, r@cism, sexism, etc. suck. The creatured championing hate and sexual assault may have slithered into the White House this past November, but we’re not going backwards!
1EqualityUSA
Indivisible.
https://www.indivisibleguide.com
Rachel Maddow reporting on a movement that that is akin to Tea Party, but for our side.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
NateOcean
28-to-1? What crap. Where’s the data to support that made up figure?
1EqualityUSA
Ezra Levin, co-author of indivisible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JwOLRWaGX4
BivisibleGuy
Snowflake? Really? Great journalism, respect and equality in displaying a differing points of view… I consider myself very liberal, and have read many articles where we complain that being told to f-off is an act of violence and spewing hate speech. So why is it okay for it to be done to a conservative? Yes, many of the emotions in this article have been used against us time and time again – and we fought against it… Why is it alright for us to do it to them now? Hateful, insulting speech is just that: hateful and insulting regardless of which side of the isle is flinging it. Let’s use some better judgment and tone down the fires.
I will march on any action that threatens my freedoms, but just to say and be proud to be a conservative does not rise to that level. Let’s be more thoughtful in our interactions and disciplined in showing the cohesive unity in the world we hope to achieve.
Neonegro
And that is why Putin, China and others are laughing at a declining US.
the colleges have sissified an entire generation.
I used to give those snowflake teachers hell in undergrad and grad school. As often they had no rational argument.
Without the red states males, this country will not be able to win another major war.
1EqualityUSA
Major wars are technological, so though your red states males comment is a pleasant exercise, it is antiquated. Now for a Zombie apocalypse, the red state boys have it hands down.
1EqualityUSA
Many have come back with limbs missing. The red states boys comment was a clever divisive measure. Us against them, JoeyT?
Neonegro
@1EqualityUSA: Oh really, so no need for troops in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.
You still need manpower to hold and control territory.
1EqualityUSA
JoeyT, you should change your name again, to Mr. Moiety.
Mo Bro
My school is pseudo-liberal, not annoyingly so, but I have one prof who loves to boast of Obama’s perfection . . . until a select few of us ruin his day with facts. One day, we almost made him cry. ‘Twas glorious.
1EqualityUSA
Mo Bro, Pure silicon hasn’t any free electrons. Love flows in one direction and is stronger than hate. Have you something to teach? If so, do so, in a way that edifies your brothers and sisters. The biochemical kick your thoughts give to you must be the payoff. Returning to the pellet bar?
Creamsicle
So what they feel is that they really need a safe space to express their objection to safe spaces.
Chris
The self righteousness evident in this article, its headline, and so many of the comments worry me because that sort of arrogance leads to hubris.
Even liberal students measure their words for fear of being policed. And people like me, who teach, find ourselves unable to expose contradictory positions and to engage in any thoughtful exchange. As a result, college becomes a place that’s less than it could be.
As someone once said: just because you’ve silenced someone doesn’t mean you’ve changed their mind.
mhoffman953
College professors are extremely predominantly liberal and exude a liberal bias in their teachings. It is the job of educators to present both sides of an argument and let the students decide and have constructive debates based upon facts to decide which side is right on the issues.
Instead, college pacify students by creating safe spaces from ideas or free speech. Liberal colleges and liberal students will call the police on someone on Halloween for wearing a costume that they feel is cultural appropriation. They’ll remove the American flag because it triggers someone and replace it with the United Nations flag. They’ll give college students play-doh and a ball pit to play in if they need to leave class because the topics being discussed are triggering. They’ll ban clapping because it might upset the liberal students and encourage students to use jazz hands instead of clapping. Those are all factual events that have happened at colleges across the nation.
The conservative students are correct. Our nation’s colleges are predominantly liberal and are beginning to brainwash students into thinking their is only one side to an argument and that if you scream and yell and threaten to get people fired, then you win. Poor example our colleges are setting
Billysees
@1EqualityUSA:
” Love flows in one direction and is stronger than hate. Have you something to teach? If so, do so, in a way that edifies your brothers and sisters. ”
A most excellent comment 1EqualityUSA.
Alex90
The irony that these Republican students are saying is “we are not racist & ignorant”……….yet the people THEY ARE PUTTING INTO OFFICE are against LGBT people(putting policies in place to stop LGBT equality), making it harder for minorities to vote since Republican political know majority of minorities don’t like them.
So it’s funny to say “oh I suport LGBT rights & im a conservatie Republican”….yet the person you elect is fighting hard against it ?.
FYI The smarter people are the less conservative they become & the more they exposed to diversity the less conservative people become as well. Both of these claims are supported by a large amount of data.
Explains why NYC, Hollywood, & even the large cities in Texas are full of Democrats is chz they are exposed to diversity.
Lookyloo
–“He recently found himself in an uncomfortable position when he claims a speaker at his school’s orientation “talked passionately” about the Black Lives Matter movement… — “I think it’s a shame,” he says. “A lot of people have negative preconceived notions about conservatives…we’re intolerant, racist, homophobic.”–
Uhh.. Dude. If someone talking passionately+positively about BLM makes you uncomfortable… check to see if the shoe fits.
— Then there’s this: “To them, the targets of this anger are the only conservatives in clear sight: my few club members, one professor, and I.”
Uhh.. Girl. You’re in college. It’s “my few club members, one professor, and ME (or MYSELF)” not “I” — I’m gonna guess you got into college via Affirmative Action for Conservative Women with such a lame grasp on proper English.
Lookyloo
My comment keeps getting put ‘moderation’ — So if there ends up being a double post I apologize because I tried to change it to avoid auto-moderation.
Oh well, perhaps I’m on a list or something.. let’s see if this one goes through.
Lookyloo
Hey, my comment about ‘moderation’ went through.
So, if there’s a person moderating, I choose my second comment about the article to be the one to be put through.
Or put them both.. I dunno.. I don’t want to piss off the moderators.. do your will.
Desert Eagle
One day the South, er, I mean conservatives, shall rise again! (I pray).