http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StrawmanU

LET THERE BE LIVE LINKS!

5/20/2009 3:14:22 PM

Old Viking

Hold on! You did post-grad work (in some unspecified discipline), and you were exposed to ideas and opinions? After that kind of trauma, no wonder you looked to religion for succor.

5/20/2009 3:49:57 PM

atrasicarius

lying for Jeebus much?

5/20/2009 3:58:24 PM

LadyJafaria

Assuming a school that's probably not even accredited wants you for your ideology more than your skills isn't prejudice. It's probably true.

5/20/2009 4:14:32 PM

John

"Reality has a well known liberal bias." - Stephen Colbert, White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, 4/29/2006

5/20/2009 4:15:25 PM

szaleniec

@ #958586: Cheers. I'm always making that mistake :o

5/20/2009 4:41:28 PM

So many words..so much utter bollocks.

5/20/2009 5:15:06 PM

Lucilius

"I have recovered" from "leftist" education ....

Apparently by hitting yourself repeatedly in the head with a rock.

5/20/2009 5:24:32 PM

You obviously weren't taught lying is wrong.

5/20/2009 6:42:15 PM

rubber chicken

How is it that a nation with, apparently, so many Marxist educators produce so few people who actually know what Marxism is?

5/20/2009 7:50:36 PM

D Laurier.

So PhD Mom went to school in a chick tract.
Because thats the only place where that sort of shit can happen

5/20/2009 8:01:46 PM

Vince

if one of my friends suddenly was brainwashed into thinking all the sane and normal people around him are evil and villainous, I'd be pretty disappointed in him too.

5/20/2009 8:06:21 PM

WMDKitty

I had to laugh when I read the email from someone who couldn't imagine what a "leftist" education would be. Although I have since recovered, in my elementary, secondary, and most of my college educations, I was the victim of just such a scheme.

A scheme to do what, exactly?

For example, in my junior high years, I was taught that the Palestinians were right and Zionism was racism.

Bullshit. They don't cover that in junior high. And Zionism, just like Christian and Islamic extremism, is quite bigoted.

I was taught that abortion is a right, and "anti-choice" extremists were not only disagreeable, but both stupid and cruel.

It *is* a right -- the right to CHOOSE whether or not to have an abortion, to CHOOSE to have the baby, if you're so inclined, or to CHOOSE to put the little snot up for adoption.

You forced-birthers are, in fact, stupid and cruel -- you not only insist on ignoring medical experts, you insist on harassing patients, even going so far as to murder OBGYNs -- so much for "pro life".

[i]I was taught that animals are more important than people.[i]

Animals *are* more important than people. Think about it -- the Earth would be much better off without humans around fucking it up!

In my math class, we once figured the cost of raising a child as opposed to the cost of having an abortion.

Abortion is cheaper, yes. But even *cheaper* is BIRTH CONTROL, like Teh Pill, or Depo, or the IUD, or tubal ligation, or *gasp* a vasectomy!

Every year, when we had debates and individual presentations, the issues of gun control, abortion, prayer in schools, and Palestine were always among the most popular.

Because these are important issues that actually affect people, you know -- and I suspect many did it because you made yourself then, as now, an easy target for trolling.

There was no question which side of the argument would garner the better grade.

It's not which "side" the paper takes on the issue. Teachers aren't allowed to grade papers based on whether or not they agree with the position stated, but must grade by the quality of the work. (Someone's pissed that she kept getting an "F" for turning in "GAWD SEZ ABORSHUN IS BAD!")

In college, I was trained in Marxism, Maoism, and feminism. I was taught a class on sexism, racism, classism and heterosexism in American life by an avowed Wiccan who wore a pentagram around her neck in class.

Bullshit.

I was taught political economy by a professor who carried a copy of Das Kapital everywhere he went and called it his "Bible."

It's called a "joke", you know, ha ha, funny...

(Of course, none of my instructors would ever have carried a REAL Bible.)

Because that would be highly inappropriate for an instructor to do.

At long last, God chased me down and changed my mind.

So you admit your "God" is a stalker. That's creepy.

[i]I became a Christian just before beginning my PhD dissertation, after many years as a teacher's pet feminist secularist.[i]

Bullshit.

Things...changed.

Yes, once you've publicly declared that you are delusional, people are going to treat you differently.

My professors were terribly disappointed and lost all respect for me

Because they saw what a fucking waste of time you were.

(though eventually they did pass my dissertation which was promptly academically published,

Proof, plz.

despite treating pro-life activists as a legitimate political faction instead of a disease in the body politic).

Forced-birthers (aka "Pro-life activists") ARE a fucking disease. So is Christianity.

On the way, however, there was no end to the insults to which I was subjected.

Yes, because a few insults are PERSECUTION!

For example, I asked my major professor for a letter of reference to apply to teach at a Christian college. He agreed, but told me I shouldn't need it. "A place like that," he said, "isn't looking for excellence."

Your professor is right: Christian "colleges" aren't looking for intelligence or excellence -- they're looking for drones to promote the party line.

Really? Suppose I had received the same reply when asking for a reference for a historically black university?

Except that you wouldn't have gotten that reply.

Would I have had grounds to sue? You betcha--and this professor would have been the first to say so.

Because race, like sexual orientation and genetics, isn't something changeable. Religion, on the other hand, is a CHOICE, and you CHOSE to be an ignorant prick.

But in the rareified air of the academy, only one kind of prejudice doesn't have an odor to it.

Bull. Shit. Go to any college campus, and you will find religitards pushing the "Word of God" on anyone and everyone who passes by. There is a reason for all the ridicule and scorn Christians face -- YOU BRING IT ON YOURSELVES.

5/20/2009 8:14:50 PM

nutcase

I think you're a liar, ma'am. I'm not kidding, here: I honestly believe you are lying - as in, deliberately telling falsehoods.

It is my contention that that the following snippet of your comment is made up of both exaggerations and outright lies - mostly the latter:

...in my junior high years, I was taught that the Palestinians were right and Zionism was racism. I was taught that abortion is a right, and "anti-choice" extremists were not only disagreeable, but both stupid and cruel. I was taught that animals are more important than people. In my math class, we once figured the cost of raising a child as opposed to the cost of having an abortion.

I contend that none of this - i.e., the tales you relate in the above paragraph - really happened. No teacher told you the Palestinians are good and the Israelis are bad. No math teacher had you calculate the cost of abortion versus rearing a child. None of that happened.

In other words, stop lying.

5/20/2009 8:24:36 PM

lonelocust

I'm not clear why people think most of this is a lie. Some of it certainly, though the parts of which I am most skeptical could be misconstruing. A lot of people interpret "Zionism is racist" as "Palestine is RIGHT" or "I hate Jews!" for instance.

Also I don't find this particularly fundie. Higher education DOES tend to be a bit leftist. Because amazingly when lots and lots of people spend their whole lives trying to logically and rigorously think about shit, they often come to the same conclusions. Saying that higher education tends towards leftism isn't very fundie IMHO.

5/20/2009 8:39:11 PM

lonelocust

OK, seriously, why do people think she was lying, as opposed to telling reasonable facts through a lense of rightwing and conservative Christian beliefs? (I'm not quite willing to call them "fundie")

*I* went to an historically Baptist (no longer directly associated with them) small liberal arts college with very good academics. You could get degrees there in both evolutionary biology and Christian ministries (aka "pre-seminary). I wonder if anyone ever got a double major.

I *was* taught Marxism, Maoism and feminism. Those are important, history-shaping philosophies. Anyone with a good education in political science and modern history should know them. I wasn't taught to BE Maoist or Marxist (and the writer actually didn't claim she was either, though she implied it), but I was TAUGHT Maoism and Marxism. And I was taught what feminism really was and learned that I already was one.

There were a good number of fundie students (note the existence of a pre-seminary degree), but no fundie professors. Except one adjunct in Communications who gave me a bad grade for what I believe to be an excellent speech that disagreed with her beliefs. (Yes teachers shouldn't do that; sometimes they do.) The religion professors were ALL what I would classify as "moderate Christians" or "liberal Christians" and "very very liberal Baptists". They liked to fuck with the fundie students in religion classes and try to actually teach them their own avowed holy book. If comparing the Religion department to the world at large I would call them "centrist" and the faculty to the world at large I would certainly be comfortable to call them "leftists". This was not a particularly liberal school.

I had no classes on "sexism, racism, classism and heterosexism in American life", but those topics got covered in my Gender Studies class a lot, and a friend currently at a large state school is taking a class with an almost identical name.

And I sure as fuck think my grad school professors would have been disappointed in me if I started turning my field into conservatism. (Instead they were disappointed in me for dropping out.)

So yeah... I assume many of you have gone to college. What exactly do you think she's lying about? Could you explain it, to me, in specific?

(Additional edit: to be clear, I would happily call myself a "leftist")

5/20/2009 9:01:12 PM

The Watcher

For example, I asked my major professor for a letter of reference to apply to teach at a Christian college. He agreed, but told me I shouldn't need it. "A place like that," he said, "isn't looking for excellence." Really? Suppose I had received the same reply when asking for a reference for a historically black university? Would I have had grounds to sue? You betcha.

You betcha what? That you WOULDN'T have grounds to sue? Because you don't get grounds to sue somebody for saying something that offends you. Or have you forgotten the First Amendment?

5/20/2009 9:13:28 PM

LM

Considering that Marx is one of the primary thinkers in political economy, an instructor and theorist in the discipline really should know Das Kapital forward, backward and sideways.

So that example of scary leftist bias fails, and most of the rest sounds exaggerated or like good old Lying For Jesus.

5/20/2009 9:19:16 PM

Ajax

Wow where do u live? I want 2 move 2 ur town & send my kids 2 ur high school if I ever have any. & whered u go 2 college?

Unless u went 2 1 of those "unschooling" schools & there arent that many I doubt u could call ur education "leftist". Even then unschooling doesnt force ideas on children like mainstream schooling so not sure if u can call it leftist xcept that ppl who advocate it r usually leftists.

5/20/2009 9:23:20 PM

Antichrist

What the hell is this woman doing teaching at a Christian college? What kind of role model is that? Back in the kitchen you loose whore.

Anyway, IF this is true, what a waste of an education.

5/20/2009 9:55:44 PM

Mrs. Antichrist

Did they teach you how to exaggerate too?

5/20/2009 10:43:57 PM

Selkie

See, I did my master's in a second-tier Midwestern university, so I know your type. Set in your ways, smug but without the guts or intellectual fire to venture out of your comfort zone. I would dearly love to peruse this dissertation of yours, which was probably a semiotic analysis of The Passion of the Christ or some other gem along those lines. If you even have any credentials that you didn't have to obtain via mail.

5/20/2009 11:04:34 PM

Selkie

See, I did my master's in a second-tier Midwestern university, so I know your type. Set in your ways, smug but without the guts or intellectual fire to venture out of your comfort zone. I would dearly love to peruse this dissertation of yours, which was probably a semiotic analysis of The Passion of the Christ or some other gem along those lines. If you even have any credentials that you didn't have to obtain via mail.

5/20/2009 11:06:04 PM

name

Mao advocated killing anyone with a college degree and starting a peasant revolution. I doubt the college professors would agree with his ideology.

5/21/2009 12:44:50 AM

Swedish Pagan

Excellent grammar and spelling, rather well constructed argument. So, you are the product of a leftist education? Poor you... I agree with your professor, your excellence is wasted in a Christian kind of college.

Every -ism that says that our race is better than others, or that race is below us, is definitely racist. That is sort of the basis of racism...
I don't know if you can say that the Palestinians were "right", but they were living in Palestine, and the WWII "winners" told the Jews that they could go live there. Nice way of giving away something that does not belong to you.

5/21/2009 1:02:15 AM