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Why professors are liberal: They're intelligent
San Diego Union ^ | December 3, 2004 | Various

Posted on 12/03/2004 12:55:13 PM PST by Ramonan

In his column, "Campuses remain Democratic havens," George Will certainly tries hard to explain why faculty members at our prominent universities are overwhelmingly liberal. But as is often the case with Will, he fails to mention the obvious. These people are liberal because they are intelligent, thoughtful and well-educated. They know something of labor and social history and realize that for most people a return to conditions of the early 20th century would not be in their interest. Finally, they are unpersuaded by slogans like "compassionate conservative" and "ownership society," which are primarily a cover for the transfer of society's wealth into the pockets of the rich.

THOMAS ALDEN Borrego Springs

Demonstrating once again that you can be articulate, educated, powerful and connected yet still have no clue to what is actually going on, Will bemoans the lack of "conservative" thought on college campuses. The first thing that comes to my mind is thank God. If most professors' ideological rudders represented those of the current Republican Party, institutions of higher learning would be teaching creationism as the explanation of man's existence on Earth, ignoring more than a century of anthropological discoveries because they conflicted with biblical teachings. Government studies would renounce labor unions as pseudocommunist fronts, since businesses always do what is best for workers. Law schools would concern themselves primarily with property law, since only owners of property have rights.

CLIFF HANNA San Diego

(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Philosophy; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: academia; bias; clueless; college; education; elites; faculty; georgewill; liberalism; msm; university
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To: Ramonan
My experience has shown me that professors are liberal because they are angry that they chose a low-paying profession, they are jealous of their peers who have entered the more lucrative corporate world, and they are bewildered about why they aren't paid six figure salaries. Thus, they embrace socialism and the Marxist idea of confiscatory taxes/income redistribution. It has nothing to do with intelligence; it has everything to do with stupidity and ignorance of history.
41 posted on 12/03/2004 1:10:18 PM PST by 45Auto (Big holes are (almost) always better.)
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To: SCALEMAN
"Careful there... I taught"

Proving the case....

42 posted on 12/03/2004 1:10:24 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Democrat Obstructionists will be Daschled!)
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To: Congressman Billybob
By and large the Bush County populations are smarter, better, more law-abiding, than the Kerry County populations.

And more productive.

43 posted on 12/03/2004 1:10:32 PM PST by My2Cents ("Well...there you go again.")
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To: Ramonan
"the transfer of society's wealth"

Society's wealth?!! Tell society to get a real job.

44 posted on 12/03/2004 1:10:45 PM PST by laotzu
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To: Ramonan
a. Yes, they are smart, but they lack common sense.

b. They are social misfits, working in the culturally incestuous world of academia.

c. Because they are shallow, being 'intelligent' is all they can talk about.
45 posted on 12/03/2004 1:11:04 PM PST by najida (Aunt to The Cutest Baby Girl in the World! (Come on and name her already Bro!))
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To: Ramonan
Why professors are liberal: They're parasites
46 posted on 12/03/2004 1:11:08 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The democRATS are near the tipping point.)
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To: My2Cents
Those who can't teach, teach P.E.

(I've also heard)

Those who can't teach, teach teachers.

47 posted on 12/03/2004 1:11:56 PM PST by freedomlover
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To: Ramonan

LOL.....because they can't get real jobs!!!


48 posted on 12/03/2004 1:12:16 PM PST by OldFriend (PRAY FOR MAJ. TAMMY DUCKWORTH)
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To: Mudcat
Liberal professors may be the best example of this phenomena.

Actually, liberal professors seem to gravitate to fields where it's very difficult to demonstrate that they are incompetents.

When a Civil Engineer screws up, a bridge falls down.

49 posted on 12/03/2004 1:12:20 PM PST by jdege
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To: My2Cents
I taught for a semester at a 'left coast liberal arts' university. I could probably still be teaching Computer Science there. What soured me was a department dean's daughter was in my class who NEVER showed up for class, NEVER turned in coursework, and NEVER took a test. I gave the young woman a F for the course. Someone in the Registrar's office showed me the offical grades listed in the computer. The F had been corrected by her dad to an A. Needless to say the young lady graduated with honors and a 4.0 GPA.

Now when I hear someone graduated with a 4.0 or honors, I wonder what their daddy did for a living.

50 posted on 12/03/2004 1:12:53 PM PST by pikachu (The REAL script)
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To: Brad Cloven

That's a bit overused and not always true. My husband is very talented in his field and could have made a lot of money, but wished to teach college instead. His students are getting the very best and he puts up with all the crazy administrators and parents (the kids for the most part are ok). To this day, my wealthy brother I think looks down on us because my husband did not choose to use his talents to make money. He chose a higher calling. (Not that there's anything wrong with making money! He just teaches some very fortunate students how to do it!)


51 posted on 12/03/2004 1:12:54 PM PST by twigs
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To: Ramonan
These people are liberal because they are intelligent, thoughtful and well-educated. They know something of labor and social history ...

The educate elite who think that they know the best way to run a government because of a piece of paper on a wall, but have to call some uneducated commoner to fix his car, or his toilet.

This country was built by restless doers, not by thinkers who were thoughtful and caring and stayed in the safety provided by the eastern cities.

There's such a thing as being "overly educated", when common sense is replaced by abstract social theories that no one wants any part of except the liberal elite.

52 posted on 12/03/2004 1:13:26 PM PST by Noachian (A Democrat, by definition, is a Socialist.)
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To: Ramonan

Should have been a barf alert! It's not because they're smarter, it's beacuse they isolate themselves in academia and have no idea what's really going on in the world.


53 posted on 12/03/2004 1:13:29 PM PST by Conservative Canuck (The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness)
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To: freedomlover

I like yours better. Mine is a line from "School of Rock."


54 posted on 12/03/2004 1:13:54 PM PST by My2Cents ("Well...there you go again.")
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To: Bush_Democrat

I agree.


55 posted on 12/03/2004 1:14:10 PM PST by rwa265
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To: Ramonan

"These people are liberal because they are intelligent, thoughtful and well-educated. "

No.

They are liberal because they live in an insular world, isolated from the realities of every day life which face most normal people. They are the products of an establishment - the American University System - which is - by and large dominated by extreme left-wing elements. And they live in the environment which produced them.

Are they intelligent? Sort of - in a defective and limited sense. Their intelligence is limited to the fields they study and circumscribed by their elitist peer group.

They are out of touch with reality, the real world, and with normal people and their needs, fears and wants.


56 posted on 12/03/2004 1:14:12 PM PST by ZULU (Fear the government which fears your guns. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
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To: Ramonan

What a joke. Tell me, what does it take to become a teacher, or even a professor? Any real world experience? No, all it takes is school. Thats it. All you need to do is put your time and poof you're a teacher. So, really how inteligent are you when you live your life in the abstract?

I'll tell you why teachers/professors are liberals. One main reason is that like doctors they get a god complex becuase everyone comes to them for answers, but really what does a vast knowledge in 15th century poets have to do with whether or not we invade Iraq, or lower taxes, or every other possible topic besides poetry?
Lastly, creation vs. Evolution; who the heck knows and therefore how can you justify teaching one over the other if you're going to be honest? Just becuase there are rules to this universe doesn't mean there is no god, or that god didn't create us. Who/what made the rules, who/what made the matter? So what if monkeys look like us, we're all made of the same thing, on the same planet, and we've had about the same amount of time here.
The biggest hole in the evolutionists case is that there are quite a lot of religious scientists. How do you square that Professor Liberal.

Have a great Friday Everyone.


57 posted on 12/03/2004 1:14:14 PM PST by ReeseKev27 (Liberalism = Idealism; Conservative = Realism)
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To: tallhappy

Over the summer, I did research on a 50 year old Supereme Court case called Hernandez v. Texas. It was decided at the same time as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, and held that Mexicans had the right to the opportunity to serve on juries (the broader holding was that the 14th amendment can protect any group that is unfairly discriminated against due to regional prejudicial treatment). Anyway, we had a conference to celebrate the anniversary, and professors came from all over, with most coming from Berkeley.

Anyway, I was chosen to keep time for the presenters, and was happy to do it. The conference was not what I expected. At all. Instead of celebrating this case, the professors excoriated what they called "the politics of whiteness" and the effort to promote assimilation of Mexicans. I'm not kidding, they thought that assimilation was a great evil. It got worse. The professors believed that all ethnic groups were being brainwashed by the all-powerful "white media." Here's the best part: they argued that diversity in juries was good for its own sake, because otherwise white prosecutors could speak in their "white code" to white jury members to convict the accused.

It was madness, plain and simple. These leftists are obsessed with race, and have the audacity to cry racism at every opportunity. I remarked to a friend after the conference (who, while being shocked at many of the statements, still defended some of the ideas expressed) "Do you not see the inherent hypocrisy in the statement, 'All white people are racist?'" Those professor-buffoons live in their own world, one of hatred, hypocrisy, and haughteur.


58 posted on 12/03/2004 1:14:51 PM PST by Cyclopean Squid (The 80s belonged to the Gipper, the Aughts belong to Dubya!)
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To: My2Cents; Congressman Billybob
By and large the Bush County populations are smarter, better, more law-abiding, than the Kerry County populations.

>>And more productive.<<

Y'all forgot "better-looking."

59 posted on 12/03/2004 1:15:01 PM PST by nina0113
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To: My2Cents

"Those who can't teach, teach P.E."

From Alvie Singer (aka Woody Allen) in "Annie Hall".


60 posted on 12/03/2004 1:15:05 PM PST by Buck W. (How can anyone who works for a living vote democrat?)
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