Any first hand accounts of professors indoctrinating students against conservatives?

[chuck norris 42]

I would be interested in any examples

 

 

[DMC]

In all my courses I assign @Kalbear's posting history as required reading.

Seriously, while I get a handful of "inserts liberal bias" on student evals - and those ticked up last year - I've never had a problem with in-class discussions dealing with very controversial topics.  Actually about two years ago we were discussing the Syrian refugee crises and one student suggested "putting them in camps."  Those are the type of instances where you as an instructor take over that position as devil's advocate to control the discussion.  Most of the dozen or so students I've gotten to know long enough to openly admit my political preferences - which I'll only do after they've finished a course - are surprised when I tell them I'm liberal.

If you just stick to ensuring they understand the concepts behind political phenomena and introducing them to how to analyze research, it's actually really easy to present an objective political science course.  Even discussing current events isn't too tough to act as a moderator, but I'll admit my tongue is sick being bitten since January 20.  I think the problem is in subjects like feminism or even, say, economic inequality where it's fairly obvious both professor and any genuinely interested student is coming from one side of the aisle.  That and liberal arts professors that tend to be aging hippies. 

[Myshkin]

When I expressed the idea that the means of production should be privatized professor Trotsky kicked me out of his class. Does that count?

[S John]

It's no longer only topics like feminism and economic equality.  Two things that spring to my mind on this one are climate change and the accepted right/left political spectrum.  For the former, American conservative mouthpieces have successfully popularized that climate change is a globalist conspiracy, for the latter that Nazi's were actually leftists (because nothing bad ever comes from the right).  Teaching anything counter to those could be construed as injecting liberal bias.  That's pretty much where we are at.

[Altherion]

Although I went to an archetypal "liberal" school (during the Cold War, one of its nicknames was "Kremlin on the Charles"), I cannot think of any during my time there. The closest thing to political correctness I remember witnessing in person was a professor apologizing to the whole class for describing an Arabic text as being read backwards in an earlier lecture (he meant to say "from right to left"), but this was a matter of accuracy. There are well-publicized examples of problems in more recent years, but I don't recall any while I was there (this was slightly over a decade ago).

When I was a grad student and teaching assistant at a different institution, the only courses I ever took or taught were scientific ones so there wasn't much room for political indoctrination. I do remember that one of my classmates was a pretty hard core fan of both Ayn Rand and Terry Goodkind and this never caused any problems. The professors I assisted did hand out extra time on tests for the undergraduates for practically any excuse, but this wasn't political correctness so much as the university's fear of being sued.

It is relatively easy to find online examples of what you ask for (here's one), but I've never encountered it firsthand.

[Seli]

Well, it has been a few decades. But I was taught that slavery was bad, and that the worker protection laws of the 19th century were a good start.

[S John]

For the record, I was fairly moderate and even a bit of a conservative lean when I was in undergrad, mainly due to the cultural influences where I grew up.  I don't really recall any overtures from professors to switch sides so to speak.  

There were a handful of professors who were obviously liberal, but I really can't recall anything other than a more or less professional presentation of facts at hand.  I didn't really swing to the left politically until a few years after college and it was a number of life experiences that did it - living in a big city for the first time, and visiting other parts of the world - not anything a professor told me.  

Unless something major has changed in the last 11 years, I think most of the outcry about liberal indoctrination in universities is just one of many BS talking points where a handful of egregious but (more importantly) rare examples are trotted out on Fox or Rush in an effort to discredit the whole system and make room in the political arena for fact denial.  Sadly, I'm pretty sure it's working.

[DMC]

13 minutes ago, Seli said:

Well, it has been a few decades. But I was taught that slavery was bad, and that the worker protection laws of the 19th century were a good start.

That reminds me - when I first taught at a southern community college I was confronted with the fact some students did not view "the war of northern aggression" as a punchline.  And these were in classrooms that were about 66% minority.  It was then I felt the need to clarify that the civil war was about slavery.  So there ya go:  guilty of liberal indoctrination.

[chuck norris 42]

1 hour ago, dmc515 said:

That reminds me - when I first taught at a southern community college I was confronted with the fact some students did not view "the war of northern aggression" as a punchline.  And these were in classrooms that were about 66% minority.  It was then I felt the need to clarify that the civil war was about slavery.  So there ya go:  guilty of liberal indoctrination.

Was it a gentle clarification  such as "'It is all well and good to dispel the misconception that the timeline for the civil war was "the slaves were freed and the south attacked' However it should be acknowledged that the war ended slavery."?

[Myshkin]

59 minutes ago, chuck norris 42 said:

Was it a gentle clarification  such as "'It is all well and good to dispel the misconception that the timeline for the civil war was "the slaves were freed and the south attacked' However it should be acknowledged that the war ended slavery."?

I should hope not. I don't think anyone questions whether or not the war ended slavery; some people need to be presented with the fact that the war was about slavery. That clarification need not be a gentle one.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I think exposure to actual conservatives is the major influence involved in indoctrinating students against conservatives. Students hear them, read them, grasp what they stand for and emphatically reject the conservative agenda in most instances. There really is no need for  Professors to indoctrinate when the conservative themselves are such an effective repellant.

[Jo498]

Instruction is not in Latin. Case closed.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I'm sure most young people are already pretty left leaning and hardly need much indoctrination by the time they get to college.

[maarsen]

My institution of higher learning inoculated me against bad argumentative form and stupidity. As a side effect conservatism was thus dispelled from my being.

[Dr. Pepper]

Bro, that shit started in KINDERGARTEN!  It's epidemic.  My kinder teacher taught me to read and from there it was just a downward spiral into reading comprehension and critical thinking and that shit all leans left.  Total indoctrination started when I was five.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Is nobody wandering if the attitudes displayed above ie ' Of course I hate conservatives and am liberal and left, I'm not an idiot' , aren't part of the reason that you have things like the alt-right and a big conservative over reaction. A little bit of humility and open mindedness might be helpful sometimes. 

[Dr. Pepper]

Open mindedness about what?  Climate change?  Evolution?  Yeah no, I'm not going to be 'open-minded' about basic science.  I'll be open minded about someone's choice of religious practice or what style clothing they wear, but there are actual facts and then make believe things.  I don't need to be open minded about someone's make believe bullshit if they are using that make believe to try to direct policy.  

[Cas Stark]

31 minutes ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Is nobody wandering if the attitudes displayed above ie ' Of course I hate conservatives and am liberal and left, I'm not an idiot' , aren't part of the reason that you have things like the alt-right and a big conservative over reaction. A little bit of humility and open mindedness might be helpful sometimes. 

LOL.  Making fun of conservatives is de rigueur, as you can see.  

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Open mindedness about what?  Climate change?  Evolution?  Yeah no, I'm not going to be 'open-minded' about basic science.  I'll be open minded about someone's choice of religious practice or what style clothing they wear, but there are actual facts and then make believe things.  I don't need to be open minded about someone's make believe bullshit if they are using that make believe to try to direct policy.  

Conservatism isn't just global change and evolution though is it. 

 

2 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

LOL.  Making fun of conservatives is de rigueur, as you can see.  

Yep. I used to engage in it a lot too. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I greatly appreciated my exposure to more left leaning points of view when I was in undergrad.  I grew up in South Carolina and didn't have much exposure to leftist thought growing up.  It broadened my point of view even when I disagreed with it.  That's never a bad thing.