Socialist Professor Responds

7/8/02 | commieprof

[BrooklynGOP]

...took care in my pledge not to identify with terrorists, suicide bombers, or Islamic regimes, but with the ordinary people around the world, including those here in the United States.

From your post. And from your article: I’ve come out as a lesbian,

Interesting. So you are a lesbian. And how do you think your fellow "ordinary people" from around the world (ie, afghanistan, syria, egypt, iran, etc) would feel about you being a lesbian? I wonder how many stones it would take for them to throw at you before you realize what's going on.

[VRWC_minion]

Another Lefty with no sense of Irony, and an apparent love for the usual boilerplate presented as if for the first time heard by anyone anywhere. What a bore.

"They" all seem to think they are the very first to put forward their ideas to us and by implication if we were only properly taught we would see how wrong we are. Such arrogance is humbling. Well maybe a little.

[Jay W]

"If you cherish the freedoms of the United States, it would be hypocritical of you to be intolerant of the expression of opinions that differ from yours. I am a well-educated, thoughtful human being. I am well qualified to teach at the University ("universe"-ity), which should be a place for thoughtful and respectful sharing of diverse views. My students get trained in critical thinking: the capacity to take in a number of perspectives and weigh evidence and reasoning on their own, which they would not be able to do if there were not at least a few dissenters among us here. I mean, the business school gets the big bucks and military- and corporate-funded research dominate the campus. It's a rare class where a student would find points of view that challenge the corporate and geopolitical hegemony of the United States. So I feel sorry for the students whose parents would keep them from attending my classes or the University of Texas because of what I wrote. Don't you have faith that your children can think for themselves? Don't you trust them with a range of positions and approaches to knowledge? Haven't you prepared them to defend your family's values? Any viewpoint is welcome in my classes so long as the arguer can provide evidence and reasoning in support of claims. Contrary to popular mythology, I do not routinely fail conservative students; I do welcome their voices in class so long as respect for others and standards of argumentation are sustained."

Uh-huh. You are rationalizing there, Ms. Professor. You and your kind are always telling us that there is no equality wherever there is a power relationship, correct? That is, if one person holds power over another, then the person over whom power is being exercised isn't exactly free to speak her, or his, mind. Even if they are told to "feel free" to speak up, they will still keep in the back of their mind, if they're intelligent and savvy, the unequal power relationship.

Well, guess what? In your tiny fiefdom of your classroom, exactly such a power relationship exists. You are the professor. They are the students. Your power resides in the grade that you give out. You can wax all flowerly and eloquently all you want about how you are open to opposing views provided they are supported with evidence and sound and are respectful of the rights of others, but that does not gainsay the unequal power distribution in that tiny fiefdom. All of your students, including the ones who agree with you, will always keep in mind -- unless they're stupid -- this power relationship.

I'm therefore sure that you flatter yourself regarding your views on how tolerant you believe you may be, but since evidence and sound reasoning are ostensibly important to you, I'd like to hear from your students whether or not what you say is actually true. See, I've been there. Done that. Seen first hand "feminist" professors at work (the term is semantically equal to the common definitions of "fascist"), and it ain't a pretty sight, in both senses of the word typically. So, unless you provide evidence to the contrary, I would have to assume that you delude yourself into believing that you are welcoming of contrary opinions. But even then, I'd wait until hearing from your students before agreeing with your opinions of yourself.

[Lazamataz]

Reading your missive has made my pants tumble, effortlessly and like a feather, to the ground.

Now I am not wearing any pants.

[Texas_Longhorn]

"I feel a certain obligation, an obligation that comes with freedom, to speak out alongside of those with less freedom to speak."

Al-Queda doesn't have much freedom right now. FARC doesn't have too much freedom right now. Would you speak out alongside FARC? The logic here is very wrong.

[Benrand]

Unfortunately in Universities, you can stay away from the EE classes (well, depending on if you want to take the classes), but you sure as hell can't stay away from the indoctrination classes.

I know. I had to deal with that. Requirements for graduation. It was beyond pathetic. My worst mathematis teacher was better read than the illiterate moron who taught my class. The DiffEq teacher barely spoke English...well, the black humanities teacher barely spoke english as well. He would sing us slave songs, while being ill prepared and lazy.

I was informed by the head of the dept., after emailing all the porfs in the department, that the class teaches "critical thinking". I asked what that meant and never recieved a reply. That class effed up my GPA that semester. I'm still pissed.

[Dog Gone]

Now I am not wearing any pants.

I don't think that will have much effect on a lesbian. Sorry.

[M Kehoe]

I take my freedoms to dissent in this country very seriously. I do not want to live anywhere else in the world,

Well, ya got balls, newby. Although, your hypocracy kinda jumps out at the reader, and an impartial observer would think you didn't grow up in the U.S. But hey, if you think you can change minds here, well have at it.

LOL!

5.56mm

[dennisw]

 

You deconstruction fakers are the bottom feeders of academia. The lowest of the low. You are just a bunch of unemployables leeching off the taxpayers. In your case the taxpayers of Iowa. Communists had balls and made revolutions. Killed millions in their pursuit of raw power. While you parasites in the academy only engage in word games and posturing and seeing who can best impress the 19 year olds in your classrooms.

You aren't even a commie. Just a wannabe who thinks feminism and critical theory is a big deal

 

 

Dana L. Cloud (PhD, University of Iowa, 1992) specializes in the analysis of contemporary and popular and political culture from feminist, Marxist, and critical anti-racist perspectives. She teaches undergraduate classes in persuasion, social movements, speechwriting, and rhetorical criticism, as well as graduate courses in rhetoric and the public sphere, rhetoric and ideology, rhetoric and feminist theory, and rhetoric and popular culture. Dr. Cloud's areas of current research include the critique of therapeutic discourse, feminist and Marxist theories and politics, rhetoric of "family values," and the rhetoric of the U.S. labor movement.

Source: University of Texas - F A C U L T Y : research & teaching

[VetoBill]

Suffice it to say that if you have read any history you know that the U.S. either put in place or supported with money and guns the very dictators you decry today, including the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.

Does this demonstrate failed US policies or does it show allies can and do change with the times?

England was prime factor in the foundation of the US, we rebelled and England became our enemy. Fast forward to WWI and WWII, England was our ally. So can it be said that the US was inconsistent with its foreign policy?

How about the alliance with the USSR during WWII? We shipped supplies to aid in the war against Germany, only to once again become enemies at the conclusion of the war. Did the US build up Soviet Russia in order to have someone to decry at a later date?

Foreign policy is an inexact science. Perhaps one has ally with a demon to fight the devil. If I am being mugged on a street by a gang, and the only help available is from someone I suspect will rob me at a later date, I would except the help. Foolish? Perhaps but I would deal with the possibility of being robbed at a later date... I know I am going to be robbed now if the situation does not change.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Dear Desperate Professor,

Struggling to make sense from the socialist view is a daunting task. This is especially so when arguing with people who are successful making their way as Capitalists in a society where individual freedom is still by and large cherished.

For therapy to ward off a deep depression caused by a feeling of indifference and rejection, I suggest the following two treatments.

(1) Round up scores of like minded sisters and brothers and start a co-op enterprise to show how socialism beats Capitalism in the socio-economic marketplace. It will be demonstrable proof that until now no Socialist visionary has attempted. You do have to prove to the Capitalists that you are really not bloodsuckers looking to re-distribute the savings others have worked hard to accumulate.

(2) Work on the two socialist Senators from Massachusetts who between the two have more than a billion dollars in assets. See to it that they redistribute their wealth to the needy. By the way, I would like to learn that tax evasion trick Kennedy pulled by taking his mother to Florida for several days while she was dying so he could claim his mother was from Florida and avoid Massachusetts inheritance taxes.

[VRWC_minion]

You are the professor. They are the students. Your power resides in the grade that you give out

I teach my children that they must suck up to the teacher to get a grade from them especially if they disagree. If they think the teacher is a total jerk they need to save those thoughts and feelings for graduation day.

This teacher may think her students agree with her but she would probably be surprised how many merely tell tell her what she wants to here.

[supercat]

I should add that people in developing countries are not being liberated by the opportunites provided by U.S.-dominated world capitalism.

It is a fact that captalism cannot yield improvements for anyone without certain unfortunate problems. Many factory workers were poorly paid and worked in lousy conditions, but the wealth they generated for the factory owners was re-invested to provide factories with better working conditions which operated more efficiently, and whose owners could thus offer workers more money [and had to, to stop those workers from going to work at other factories that could offer more money]. Likewise, early steam engines were horrendously innefficient and horribly polluting, and yet it was the savings they generated which provided the capital to research improvements to provide engines which provide ten times as much useful energy from each ton of coal while producing a fraction of the 'real' pollution (carbon dioxide excepted, which per ton is going to be essentially constant).

If early steam engines had to comply with anything even remotely resembling the pollution laws that exist today, the industrial revolution never would have happened. Likewise if today's regulations regarding working conditions were applicable in the nineteenth century. It is the wealth generated when conditions are bad which allows them to get better. Prevent the generation of such wealth, and the standard of living cannot improve.

One thing which has really been lost in the world today is the notion of people toiling in the interest that their children would have a better life than their own. Unfortunately, for many classes of people today such a notion is almost unfathomable.

[Constantine XIII]

My vote for quote of the day!

[DainBramage]

You don't look lesbian

[Texas_Longhorn]

"you have read any history you know that the U.S. either put in place or supported with money and guns the very dictators you decry today, including the Taliban"

WRONG! The U.S. didn't put the Taliban into place. The CIA was backing the "Mujahideen" in Afghanistan when the Russians were there. You need to read your history.

[Fzob]

ping

[Texas_Longhorn]

"When four percent of the world's population controls more than 60% of the world's wealth, when the nation states that harbor the strongest enterprises defend those interests with force, when U.S. foreign policy and economic policy are designed to drive countries into unsalvageable debt or rubble,"

You need to learn the concept of "comparative advantage". You can learn this in any Freshman economics book.

[fnord]

long-winded ball of snot, eh

[SJackson]

WOW, that was quick, thanks for the link

Commieprof, the original pledge works for me too. I don't need "under G-d" to remind me, any more than I need "of the United States of America". I don't need your bogus "pledge" either.

I don't see the controversy, any more than I believe your 11 year old daughter was delighted with the court decision. It's nonsense.

You pledge allegiance to Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan? Why? I was hoping for something serious to discuss here.

Lot's of feel good, liberal silliness. No content. Cute poem, but I even question the communication skills, though I admit FR may not be your ideal audience. Who did you convince, of what?

BTW, IMO (thats by the way, in my opinion) you should feel free to out the death threat frmails. Nothing private about that. It's not in keeping with our American tradition.