And for the record: if that’s what happened, the school administration is composed of major assholes who need to be run through the wringer.

J.

To you and me and the rest of Team Reality Based it’s fucked up. To Team Right Wing it’s standard operating procedure. To them it’s no big deal: the kid was a fruit, he had it coming.

I’ve got one for you JayTea – a student at the University of the Cumberlands was expelled for coming out on a blog. Not only that, but they tried to give him straight “F”’s for the semester, in spite of the fact that he was an honors student.

Yes, Jay Tea. And now, do you want to try to strain your brain and posit a likely scenario as to WHY professors tend to be liberal? There are perfectly good reasons for this phenomenon. Hint: I talk about it above.

Congrats. I think you managed to hit every single conservative religious college, including the three more laughable ones. It really does seem like an epidemic, doesn’t it?

Students who don’t care for the philosophies of those schools have zillions of alternatives available to them. The number of schools who take the “liberal” part of “liberal arts” a bit too literally, though… those are the ones that dominate.

J.

This coming from a guy who belongs to the party of Grand Chairman Limbaugh. LOL.

I got college education from mostly liberal professors who made me read everything from Karl Marx to Allan Bloom and Irving Kristol. That was my experience.

Please tell us about yours.

Republicans can’t deal with ideas other than the ones they’re comfortable with. Me? I’m perfectly happy to pick apart and deconstruct the sham “philosophies” of the current right because they’re so piss-poorly constructed.

Lets look at those numbers a bit more closely, shall we?

The average pay at the Professor level is around $100,000 at public institutions, and about 20% higher at private institutions. That’s the after 5-7 years of graduate eduction, 2-5 years as a post-doc (at least!), 5-6 years as an un-tenured assistant professor, and maybe 5 years as an associate. Since it’s an average number, lets also assume that the folks making the average have been at the Professor level for ~3 years.

So, with 15 to 23 years of education and experience beyond my bachelor’s degree, I can hope to pull down in the low six figures as a full Professor.

Yipee.

While I don’t necessarily agree it’s typically out of an altruistic streak that people become college profs, it’s almost certainly not because the massive paychecks that await them when they land their first job at 30-32 years of age.

You’re a fucking moron. What the fuck is wrong with you?

Oh snap! Good one! Zing! You be da man, Haplo9!

Also, to claim that people go into academia from some kind of altruistic desire to help people or challenge themselves is kind of silly:

Yeah, no one ever ever ever does that. Ever. Right. But go ahead and keep believing that nonsense if it gets you through the day. And thanks for the worthless link.

You’re right, I was busy making fun of you for being a puffed up snob. You made a claim with no evidence. I will “refute” it by asking if you have any evidence for this legendary liberal tolerance. I’ve seen very few examples of what you say – liberals, as is human nature, prefer opinions that they already agree with and shun those that they don’t. Would you honestly claim that the denizens of this website are “comfortable” or “excited by” opinions that disagree with their own worldview? I certainly wouldn’t. The most common reaction of liberals to dissenting viewpoints that I’ve seen is the same as that by conservatives – attack the messenger, avoid the message. I’m sorry, but liberals have the exact same all too human failings as everyone else. Your claim that liberals in academia are somehow immune to this is just wishful thinking.

Also, to claim that people go into academia from some kind of altruistic desire to help people or challenge themselves is kind of silly:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/12/salaries

Theres some money in them thar hills! Who woulda thunk it!

Oh, I’ve been flamed some on the con blogs, myself. All in good fun, I think. Providing the digital opposition is extremely valuable – it’s my belief that a blog is only as good as its trolls. Who wants to read witty versions of ‘YEAH! EXACTLY!’ over and over?

Right. So’s the media.

And the moon landings were a hoax.

You should read and hear what your people are saying (to a large audience, sadly enough). It’s way worse than anything you’ll read or hear from the closest liberal equivalent (and, it should go without saying, no real equivalence exists, no matter how hard Non-reality Based try to make it so).

Well, they are your people; of course you thought they were fine. Lovely bunch. Really. Bravo, old sport.

Guess you have to go looking for it like the guy with the video recorder asking people questions as people went it in.

Oh noes! He asked questions! Of all the nerve! Well, that explains everything. Dadgum liberals and their video cameras asking questions, exposing the Republican base for what it is! No wonder you have to spend your days clutching your pearls so tightly. It’s a tough world out there.

Here’s the thing: There is no great conspiracy to keep conservatives out of academia. The faculty in my department, liberal though they may be, don’t give a flying fuck about your political leanings with respect to your skill in science. All they care about: Do you do interesting and important research? Do you publish? Can you teach multiple classes? Etc.

I think people above have hit the nail on the head – liberals are more likely to want these academic jobs than conservatives.

But on top of that, whining conservatives demonstrate another reason why they don’t have these jobs. They see that most professors are liberal, and the first thing they jump to is, “That’s horrible! There must be some sort of ivory-tower conspiracy to keep conservatives out!” This conclusion displays a stunning lack of critical thinking skills. Sorry, if you’re going to work in science (or in most fields as a professor), you have to be able to think critically and without bias on information. And conservatives over the last decade or more have clearly demonstrated that this not, as a group, their cup of tea.

I don’t go to Free Republic forums, or listen to Michael Savage. I did go to a couple of Sarah Palin rallies, and the people there were fine. Even stood next to a group of people holding up Obama signs, and no one said a word to them. Didn’t see one bit of ugliness the whole time. Guess you have to go looking for it like the guy with the video recorder asking people questions as people went it in. That or you have to make it up like the reporter in Scranton who couldn’t get anyone else to back him up, including the Secret Service who looked into it.