Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Explicating the great liberal conspiracy


I know, it's a sickness. But I was in my car during the conservative a.m. hours and listening to Shout Down/Hang Up Connecticut on WTIC AM. Buddy V and a guest, Evan Maloney were talking about Evan's new documentary film, Indoctrinate U. It deals with the perceived loss of freedom of expression on college campuses due to what the directors of the film feel is an autocratic liberal cabal in America's university classroom and administrative offices.

I haven't seen the film, but will, but in their discussion, I've come to a few conclusions:

1. The film directors equate criticism of conservative thought, arguments against conservative thought and protests against conservative thought as repression. In fact, it's the opposite of repression, it's free speech.
2. The film directors feel that student who are afraid to speak their mind in classes are being repressed. The fear of being challenged is simple a fear of being unprepared to defend their thoughts.
3. I have no doubt that universities are filled with liberal professors and administrators. It's the kind of folks you expect to find in education - willing to give up a huge paycheck to educate others, and to live the life of the mind. To me, it means that really smart people are likely to come to the conclusion that liberal ideas make sense. One could also say that the upper ranks of corporations and the military are filled with conservative thinkers, and that in those organizations liberal ideas are suppressed. It's a specious argument either way.
4. There are more than 4,000 colleges in the U.S. I'd love to see the statistical breakdown that proves this liberal conspiracy exists. Likely it doesn't.

In the process of this discussion, the two geniuses also quacked about how liberal Hollywood was making it difficult to get distribution of this film.

Only goes to show that creative industries are more likely filled with liberal thinkers too. Who would have guessed.

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