Liberal Hysteria Against Academic Freedom
Hysteria Against Academic Freedom
By Mike Rosen
Rocky Mountain News | February 3, 2004
If you can't defeat someone's arguments with an honest rebuttal, then
misstate and exaggerate those arguments and debate a straw man. That
was the underhanded tactic employed by Gail Schoettler in a recent
Denver Post column personally attacking David Horowtiz. Schoettler, an
apologist for the leftist status quo, opposes an Academic Bill of
Rights, which Horowitz and others have proposed to encourage
pluralism of views and curricula on college campuses, protect students
from ideological proselytizers masquerading as professors, and to
protect faculty members from discrimination based on their beliefs.
Schoettler lamely brands Horowitz a hypocrite for accepting speaking
fees for college lectures "while claiming that people of his political
persuasion were never allowed to speak on our so-called 'leftist'
college campuses" (emphasis added). The woman is hallucinating.
First, it is absolutely incontrovertible that leftist (not "so-called"
leftist) professors dominate the liberal arts and humanities. They even
admit it, proudly, explaining that this field of endeavor attracts
enlightened liberals, like themselves, while greedy conservatives lust
for filthy lucre in the world of business.
Second, Horowitz hasn't said that conservatives are never allowed to
speak on college campuses, just that leftist speakers dominate. And
they do. You can look it up.
Leftist speakers far outnumber conservatives at Metro State and the
University of Colorado, for example. Have you ever seen the list of
participants at the annual World Affairs Conference at CU-Boulder? It's
summer camp for lefties.
Schoettler wildly claims that Horowitz is "opposed to the whole concept
of freedom of speech, unless it's his own." She goes on to accuse him
of "attacking the core of higher education - open and free discussion
of ideas and access to knowledge, not just propaganda." Now, the woman
is hysterical! I defy her to produce any evidence to support that
charge. Horowitz has long defended free speech on campus. He just wants
a fair hearing for all sides. Leftist propaganda is the current order
of the day, and political correctness runs amuck. The absence of free
and open expression is precisely the problem that Horowitz is seeking
to redress.
Schoettler and her ilk defend the status quo because it supports their
biases. Has she even read the text of the Academic Bill of Rights? All
viewpoints are protected.
Schoettler's diatribe goes on to attack Colorado Senate President John
Andrews, as well, for the recent hearings he held at which students
were invited to give personal testimony about unfair political
treatment at the hands of faculty members.
Schoettler complained that only conservative students were heard.
Perhaps that's because leftist students have no beef. It's hard to
accuse right-wing professors of bias when you have to launch a manhunt
to even find one. If there are valid complaints of conservative bias at
Colorado public colleges, I'd love to hear them.
Schoettler ought to urge her Democrat friends in the state legislature
to hold their own hearings at which a young Marxist student can
complain that his economics professor had the gall to defend the unjust
law of supply and demand.
Circling the wagons to protect their ideological stronghold, the
tenured left and their political shills like Gail Schoettler first
claim that there's no merit to charges of political bias and academic
abuse. Then, when
you offer first-hand student testimony, they say, "Well, these are only
anecdotes." But how else can you present tangible evidence? Since
leftist department heads and like-minded or timid administrators,
trustees and regents are apparently unconcerned about this issue, there
haven't been any official studies or investigations. So all we have are
anecdotes - and plenty of them.
Keep in mind these "anecdotes" are the personal accounts of our sons
and daughters who have had the courage to come forward. These are the
kids we've spent our lives rearing, hoping to persuade them that our
values are worthwhile. We've invested our hearts, our souls and our
time in their development, our tax dollars in the public universities
they attend, and our hard-earned savings in their tuition, room and
board.
And now, we're paying the salaries of left-wing college professors to
trash everything we believe in. Are we crazy? It's high time we did
something about this.
--
Left-wing liberals are EVERYTHING they accuse the right of being. They
are mean, vicious, hateful, greedy, cold-hearted, closed-minded,
selfish, intolerant, bigoted and racist.
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