
Don’t Blame Politics for the Crisis at American Colleges - douche
https://newrepublic.com/article/140320/dont-blame-politics-crisis-american-colleges
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didibus
I'd love to see legit speakers come give talks about conservative philosophies
such as those of Jeremy Bentham or Edmund Burke or other more modern
conservative philosophers (though those are pretty hard to find nowadays).
There's quite a few valid philosophies that could support the view that the
immigration executive order is actually a good thing. The problem is that,
when you invite a demagogue instead, by definition, you're not going to
provide any new piece of information to the attendants, but only to appeal to
their desires and prejudice rather then their rational. And frankly, that kind
of appeal is dangerous to a person. As an example, someone who's a Debby
downer and constantly reminds you of the worse case scenarios of everything
will in fact eventually get to you, even if you don't want it too. You'd had
been best to silence that person from the start, and make sure none of his
message even gets processed by your brain.

~~~
Chris2048
Can you tell me who is not "legit"?

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osazuwa
Personally I think the backlash against colleges is overblown. Articles like
this talk about conservatism as if it were just another view on the correct
way to slice a pizza. But often the ideas in question are those that
specifically challenge the rights of a group of people to exist or have
opportunities to succeed. Certainly it can go too far. Certainly,
administrators shouldn't run universities by mob rule. But on the other end,
why should I stand there and smile politely while someone comes to my campus
and launches a propaganda campaign and recruiting drive for ideas that
challenge my way of life and in some cases my life entirely? And you know
what? Fuck Andrew Calhoun and Cecil Rhodes, and all these great namesakes of
many campus halls and public works, who spent much of their lives
institutionalizing oppression. It is easy to ignore the "bad" in favor of the
good when the "bad" wasn't trying to create a future where people that look
like you are under someone else's boot.

~~~
guitarbill
Personally I think the backlash against colleges is just starting. Diversity
of opinion should be encouraged, not stomped out because you feel
"challenged".

With diversity of opinions comes unsavoury or misguided opinions. Then debate
occurs and some people might change their minds, but either way both sides
growing in the process. Shaming and other ad hominem attacks are lazy, even
the ancient Greeks understood this.

> why should I stand there and smile politely while someone comes to my campus
> and launches a propaganda campaign and recruiting drive for ideas that
> challenge my way of life

It's a bit self-centred, no? And also ironic, that campuses are so dominated
by left ideologies that different ideas have to come from outside, and then
are rejected by the uniform group think on campus.

Safe spaces are disingenuous and counterproductive for preparing students for
the real world. After college, nobody will protect you, unless you live at
your parents. Especially if you've travelled, you know this. If you don't push
the boundaries, you don't grow.

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bobdole1234
I think you've missed the point of safe spaces.

These are places for people to figure out who they are outside of that
"protection" that parents and the rest have put over these people their whole
lives until this point.

The reason people go a little crazy in college is because they're forced to
confront the idea they've never had the autonomy to be themselves before.
They're exposed to people who lead lives that they had no idea were a
possibility, let alone something they might want to become.

And the reason the left is practically universal in higher education the same
reason why the left side of the spectrum is represented pretty much
universally across every other government in the developed world: Education
forces you to consider things larger than yourself and your little tribe.

You want the students in the "real world" to consider things the same way you
do, but when they reject your opinions, it's not because they're brainwashed.

It's because you've not presented an effective argument.

When they show up in masses to shout down your ideology, I'm curious why you
don't question your approach.

But no, it's the children that are wrong, isn't it Principal?

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guitarbill
> It's because you've not presented an effective argument.

Um, no, in fact one of the points you might learn from talking to different
people is that most of them are irrational in some way or another. It's part
of the human condition.

> And the reason the left is practically universal in higher education the
> same reason why the left side of the spectrum is represented pretty much
> universally across every other government in the developed world: Education
> forces you to consider things larger than yourself and your little tribe.

I don't buy this for a second. Like the article says, many of the staff are
openly left, and have been since the 70s. And look, you assume I'm right
leaning. I've always considered myself left or maybe centrist. But since
college, that has definitely weakened, as I've travelled and worked with
people of all political orientations. So yeah, the kids are wrong, and I
am/was one of them - but it's not their fault. I'm agreeing with the article.

~~~
bobdole1234
You don't buy that education forces you to consider things outside yourself
and your tribe?

Even after you say you used to believe it, but as you've left education, it
speaks to you less and less?

~~~
guitarbill
Yeah. At college, people are either left or pretend to be cause it's better
than constantly looked down uppon. And the alure of the left is that you think
your policies are helping most people or the people who need it the most. Well
meaning but well off leftists can come up with some terribly misguided
thinking. It's too easy to live in a bubble, and the world isn't black and
white.

To put it in programming terms, you have to go speak to your customers to know
their use-cases, even unintentional ones. Otherwise, you might implement the
wrong features.

~~~
bobdole1234
I find the differences between the left and right are that the right tends to
tell what everyone else to change in order to fit in the with the group.

Whereas the left tends to ask the group to accept the differences in outsiders
they work with.

This fits better with the reality of working with a large group of people from
all over the world for short projects, you often don't have the time or
political ability to make your collaborators conform, so you expect your group
to make do.

~~~
Chris2048
Interesting that you say the right "tells", where as the left "ask". What do
you base that on?

> accept the differences in outsiders they work with

unless you are a conservative in a mainly left environment, where goes
tolerance then?

