Interesting University discussion about 0bama with me

Mountainclmbr ^ | 4/22/15 | Vanity, myself

[MtnClimber]

May be a long post to explain circumstances, but I will try to be brief in my explanation that all professors are not slobbering at zer0's every word.

I graduated over 25 years ago from a major university with a degree in electrical engineering. I have worked my way up in many areas including terrestrial communications and satellite communications. Last year I got handed (at the last minute) an obligation to support a university project funded by my company.

[MtnClimber]

Skip all the good work we did and the young students that I was working with, and with their professor coach, were so far from the level I was at at their same point in college. I guess this is how real progress happens.

I was an industry coach on a project at my old university for the final presentations (I travelled across country to attend and was proud of my team).

I saw no 0bama socialism propaganda, just entreprenuraual prospects. A very fulfilling experience.

iand sitting at a mostly random table when politics came up. It started with 0bama criticism and got worse. I kekp silent as I was just listening. The professor who was on my team asked if I agreed with Zer0. I was subtle, but said I did not think he understood economics or national independence. None of the professors from my old university at the engineering table of professors and me were with Zero, I was so proud.

[MeshugeMikey]

Engineering being about real stuff...probably wouldnt attract people who could be drawn in by the propaganda purveyots?

[clintonh8r]

True. Engineers are guided by facts, not emotions.

[MeshugeMikey]

The people drawn to sociology and the “liberal arts” so called...seem to be more the emotionally driven ones.

[LegendHasIt]

That’s all nice; I’m glad you found it to be so.
I think in general, that folks in the hard sciences and engineering tend to be much more conservative than any other fields (Including Business).

I wonder though... Do your colleagues talk the same at general faculty meetings and cocktail parties?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Bkmrk.

[MtnClimber]

I didn’t talk at the same faculty meetings and this was the first time I had been back in over 25 years. I saw two different student (obama leftist smackdowns) for energy and government oversight issues. The students got majorly slapped down. I only watched. Gives me hope for the future.

[MtnClimber]

At the end of discussion I did talk about the similarities of the “proressive” take-over of society between chavez and obama. And who can tell you what to eat!

[markomalley]

In general, I’d agree that engineering and hard science professors are more conservative than liberal arts professors.

But government money corrupts (after all, there are more than a few professors in the sciences who have been corrupted by Planet Gore and the Global Warming Hoax)

And I still have vague memories of my Calculus 2 professor who taught “Marxist Calculus”...

So it isn’t universal.

[cripplecreek]

But government money corrupts

Bingo.

That government money becomes a vehicle for getting even more government money and before long they have to start justifying the money. They hire race and gender studies "professors" along with sociologists and any number of other activist professors. The students are required to take useless courses from useless professors for no other reason than to keep those professors employed.

The saddest part is that even very liberal schools like the University of Michigan have spectacular hard science programs but the students are forced into the social manipulation as required courses. Its a long hard slog that few can survive unscathed.

Now a small private college like Hillsdale has to produce results for those paying tuition or the tuition will dry up. Liberals will accuse Hillsdale of social manipulation to produce conservatives but what they really do is encourage true critical thinking. Critical thinkers don't last long as liberals, not because of peer pressure but because of conscience.

Something like engineering requires critical thinking which probably finds its way into all aspects of an engineer's life.

[The_Reader_David]

A fair number of university professors in engineering, mathematics, economics, business, and the physical sciences have right-of-center views.

In my own department (in mathematics) besides myself, we have a close colleague of mine who saw the Chicago Left close-up, being a member of it in the 1960’s, and now hates the left; a few people who grew up in Eastern Europe under Communism, who are now solidly men of the right; an Italian expat who saw his own country’s version of crony capitalism and is now a devoted free-marketeer; a fellow we managed to hire after political correctness drove him out of another tenure-track job because of his vocal support for Israel (who is also a devoted free-marketeer) — and all of us are fairly open about our political views. To the extent there are any identifiable leftists in our department, it’s one old Catholic Worker type (who is thrilled with the new Pope) who took emeritus status, but still comes into the department to attend seminars, and a little coterie of Argentines who have typical Argentine political views.