Brainwashed at ECSU
As every busy student at Eastern Connecticut State University knows, we are regularly inundated with highly annoying junk emails from the university itself every single day. The subjects span from gonorrhea to not-so-subtle hints about whom we should be voting for in the elections.On a particularly exasperating day I imprudently fired back an angry email using words I should not have used. The subject was a state-sponsored propaganda lecture series about “Peace and Human Rights”. What set off my fuse was among the list of all-liberal speakers was State Rep. Denise Merrill (D-Storrs). For Merrill of all people to preach human rights is mockery of the term. Merrill spent this last session in the general assembly taking away the expressly enumerated First Amendment rights of workers in Catholic hospitals. Merrill delights in the knowledge that her new law forces practicing Catholic caregivers to violate their faith -- or violate the law.
The reason for this is plain. Merrill is intolerant of practicing Catholics. Their very existence offends her. Merrill thinks Catholics should not be Catholic. And yet she is held up as an authority by our university on the subject of peace and human rights?
Freedom of Religion isn't a human right now a days?
My responding email which again included a few inappropriate four letter words was swiftly followed by a call from one of the Deans scolding me not to respond in that way to a man who is only doing his job.
Fair enough. The larger point however is that ECSU should not be using the taxpayer and student funded email system to push their Nanny State agenda. Despite their claims to the contrary ECSU does not subject students to diverse viewpoints.
When was the last time a conservative speaker spoke here?
In my three years I have yet to see a single one.
What I do see is the monthly featured reading list outside the library’s café and not one single time has a conservative writer been featured. Lots of liberals though!
Republican Rob Simmons was this district’s congressman for 6 years yet I don’t recall ever getting an email inviting me to some function where he would be in attendance much less delivering an important speech. If Congresman Simmons was ever here, I curiously missed the invitation.
I was informed however in the same email in question that liberal Democrat Congressman Joe Courtney will be giving his “The Nation and Peace” speech at 5:45 November 15th in the Student Center Theatre.
I am sure ECSU's paid staff will be repeatedly reminding me by email so I won’t forget.
The only Republican I know of that has ever been invited – and I was made aware of – is liberal Republican Jodi Rell for a strictly ceremonial function.
Next door at UCONN best selling conservative author Ann Coulter got as far as the podium but a crowd of liberal thugs was allowed to make sure she was not heard. UCONN can at least say they tried.
ECSU can not say the same.
As Ben Shapiro correctly observes in his book Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth: "Universities accept into their waiting clutches young open-minded students ready to learn. They turn out mainstream liberals spouting the Democratic Party line”. The cover of the book illustrates the point even better – Cloned Stepford Students appear in lock step with roboticly dead stares.
Why can’t ECSU have a lecture series with conservative thinkers instead of just liberals all the time? Why is it so unthinkable to invite Coulter or some other noted conservative to speak, inform us by email
-- and then actually let her speak?
Labels: Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, Coulter, Eastern, First Amendment, McCommas, spam, UCONN
posted by mccommas at 3:27 PM
12 Comments:
You're gay?!
Yup :)
Oh, interesting! But there goes our date. (LOL) It must be hard being a gay Republican, especially on a university campus. You're smack dab in the lions' den. But that just makes you a stronger warrior for the cause! Keep fighting the good fight, Mac, and dont' let those liberal Stalinists get you down.
PS
You don't hold it against me that I don't support gay marriage, do you?
I think you are wrong but No.
No its not hard. Not at all. People like me or don't for who I am. Not for who I sleep next to.
No, I meant hard politically. You know, like people accusing you of selling out and things like that. Or people just being shocked that a gay person would/could be a Republican/conservative. But maybe I'm just projecting some of my experiences onto you. Anyway, I'm glad things are ok for you, Mac. You're a good egg, dude!
PS
Thanks for not holding my position on gay marriage against me.
PS Again
What are you doing up at 4 in the morning?!
I work! What else?
We are currently working 10 hour days. I got that, college and campaigning.
I get no sleep these days.
Tomorrow is the one day off I got this week and I may not have next Sunday off.
I am running out of tricks to keep up the pace. Lordy!
And actually the subject just never comes up. Its personal.
People back off.
Oh, you work 10 hours at night then? Poor baby! Try to get some sleep. I've gone without sleep too and it's HELL!!! And good luck on your campaign, Mac, even though I'm totally ignorant of Connecticut politics and have no idea exactly what position you're running for. Just win!!!!!
The following is a smart response I got from this same article which I had run in the Campus Lantern way back in 2007. I just happened upon it.
http://www.campuslantern.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=696&Itemid=43
"Interesting opinion. I wrote the following piece printed below shortly after I graduated from law school in Massachusetts and I think it is relevant to this discussion. I do believe the Lantern should consider printing news stories from The Fire (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) which is a campus watchdog group that deals especially with speech and freedom issues on campuses nationwide.
College Campuses have become something out of Orwell's 1984 where terms like Diversity are used but really mean close minded. Given the Lantern's history and its speech challenges in the past, it's editors should consider covering The Fire's activities or at least printing its press releases.
The Dirty Secret of Academia
By Wyatt Kopp
As a former student of WNEC, I have several observations on academics that are highly valuable. First, the academics who teach in our colleges and universities positively contribute to the nation because they challenge the assumptions we take for granted. Conversely, the academics contribute negatively because they don’t challenge their own assumptions.
Academics Promote “Hate Speech” and Undignified Debate
Specifically, I have noticed that many of the guests that are invited to WNEC appear to be of one political persuasion, usually “left-leaning.”
The negative impact of this is that those students who come from a different perspective are not provided the intellectual tools and examples that they need in order to defend their point of view in a dignified way. The result is that the academics promote the kind of undignified debate and speech they consider “hate speech” because they only provide voices to articulate views that comport with their political ideology at the expense of providing all others with the tools and examples they need to refine their views and expand their horizons in the most intellectual way possible.
Academia Hides Just How Politicized It Really Is
Many academics are political ideologues, and, what’s tragic is that their positions in academia give the impression that they have credibility. The reality is that their positions only hide who they really are.
At least Bob Jones University has the courage to advertise what it really is, and, it is because of the fact that Bob Jones University is a politicized “right-leaning” conservative institution that I chose not to go there.
Yet, I can say, based on what I have seen, that other equally politicized colleges and universities, coming from the opposite perspective, do not have the courage to advertise the fact that their professors are nothing more than self-serving political ideologues who wish to direct the debate, and thereby debase it, in order to serve their own views rather than comprehensively educate. Instead, the catalogues and recruiting materials falsely make it seem as if these institutions provide a diverse education.
Diversity Is A Smoke Screen
There is great concern among academics in promoting diversity. However, “diversity” is only a smoke screen because underneath it all, the academics are just as close-minded and shallow as anyone else and sadly these characteristics are well reflected in our institutions of higher learning. The reality is that in their efforts to promote diversity the colleges and universities have become so diverse that they stifle and discourage the kind of debate and discussion that usually results in an educational synthesis.
The Hiring of Activist Professors Stifles Debate Because There Is No Balance
Our institutions of higher learning stifle learning because they seek out persons who have publicly challenged social assumptions because these institutions want to gain a name for themselves, and thereby make more money, by hiring well-known activists.
Thus, because they are hiring activists, usually almost exclusively politically liberal ones, they are perpetuating a slanted educational discussion and debate. Specifically, many of the activists that are hired have dedicated their lives to seeking change and altering the social order. These activists are usually among the most active and ardent in bringing speakers to the school and disseminating their viewpoints simply because they have dedicated their lives to certain issues.
Many of the institutions of higher learning seem to make no effort to balance the points of view that are brought to the institutions of higher learning, by the activists and political ideologues, in the interests of providing students a comprehensive educational experience in viewpoints that are most definitely underrepresented on campus.
I believe they have a duty to do so and what I have seen calls into question whether they are fulfilling that duty.
The Secret of Academia
The reality is that many of our institutions of higher learning are more similar to Ministry’s of Propaganda than dynamic educational environments because the administrators perpetuate a decidedly one-sided dialogue and because the activists and political ideologues, often coming one perspective, have taken control and have run our institutions in a way that would be very offensive to them, and me, if the academic climate were in reverse.
What’s more, unlike Bob Jones University, many of our institutions of higher learning don’t have the courage to advertise just what it is they actually are. Few students, if any, are aware that the secret of academia is that it is shallow, superficial, hypocritical, closed-minded and filled with political ideologues and activists instead of true intellectuals.
What’s worse is that academia challenges society’s assumptions, but they fail to look inward and challenge their own because they can’t see past the blue smoke and mirrors that shrouds just how narrow-minded they really are. The inmates are truly running the asylum of higher education and, in so doing, are cheating the students and society in general because they really are not diverse at all; they just simply think they are.
Wyatt Kopp"
Thank Wyatt!
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