...if you so much as cause your liberal students a second of complication or doubt you face the risk of demonstrations, public call-outs, and severe professional consequences.

Demonstrations? Public call-outs? That's called "free speech," and if you can't handle that, you need to move to another country. A professor should be encouraging that sort of thing, not be afraid of it.

On the other hand, I agree with the author's objections to "professional consequences." There should be none, not for reasonably instilling doubt in a person's deeply held beliefs.

"I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican, so long as I did so respectfully,..."

Actually, treating a republican with respect is what might get him fired.

Demonstrations? Public call-outs? That's called "free speech," and if you can't handle that, you need to move to another country. A professor should be encouraging that sort of thing, not be afraid of it.

Yes, but 75% of classes are taught by fire-at-will adjuncts and college admins are going after tenure to get at those who remain, and they will not have your back. Admins are motivated by a desire to CYA and if that means firing you, so be it. Championing free speech is well and good (and I do so) but it's naive not to take into account the balance of power on college campuses these days.

Patrick and Astra both nailed it... most teaching, especially at the undergrad level, is done by adjuncts and grad students who do not have tenure (and don't get paid worth a damn either). Universities make themselves out to be bastions of free speech, but today they just aren't, and if you're an adjunct you had better mind your P's and Q's if you want to keep your job. The institutions are now dominated by what they call in Germany the "68'ers", and in their minds their power is self-justifying, even if no one else's is.

Demonstrations? Public call-outs? That's called "free speech," and if you can't handle that, you need to move to another country. A professor should be encouraging that sort of thing, not be afraid of it.

That's true, but as Astra says, only if you're fairly confident that your employer will protect you. That said, I'd be interested in finding out a couple of things:

- Is the anonymous professor's paranoia really that widespread? And,

- Is there any data, such as professors being fired due to the efforts of angry liberal students, to justify it?

Saw a news clip about an incident at UVA (black student take down by cops resulting in facial injury w/blood).

A black female student was in tears, tears, and said she had a hard time studying now and getting things done on time.

She emotionally cried out about the injustice of the university treating its founder (good 'ole Tom Jefferson) w/respect.

IT WAS SO UNFAIR!

That's a fascinating blog, but maybe for different reasons than the author thinks. I wonder where she perceives herself on the political spectrum? From her writings I have the impression that she is pretty far herself. If she has to worry about offending her liberal students - are they so far "left" that they risk falling off the flat earth?

Just to name one example, consider her article "Politics of envy?". In this article, she writes: "Obama has overseen huge cuts to government spending... the continued rollback of the state’s regulatory apparatus...by all accounts...libertarians should be pleased."

From the White House itself, we have https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/hist.pdf pages 24-25). Obama took office in 2008, when total outlays were around $3 trillion, now they are $3.5 trillion and expected to rise to $4.7 trillion in the next few years.

The same for regulations. Obamacare represents a huge increase of government involvement in people's day-to-day lives. The Internet is now due to be regulated by the FCC like a monopolistic phone company. In the world of education, the federal government now demands that colleges run their own kangaroo courts that punish sexually-oriented crimes by students.

Libertarians are crying, not rejoicing, because the behemoth of government continues to grow apace. What kind of echo chamber does the author live in, that she thinks this is not the case?

Now, it's probably obvious enough that I disagree with her position, but this comment really is about the question I posed at the beginning: where does she perceive herself on the political spectrum of American academia? Have colleges and universities become such a liberal echo chamber that someone with her views really thinks that she is in the center, or even on the right? I am genuinely curious - I would ask her, but saw no link for contact.

This is, of course, all of only secondary importance. Most important is that the US education system has lost its way - that instructors are essentially forbidden from posing hard questions, from presenting alternate viewpoints, from having an actual dialog and debate about important topics. Has American liberalism has become so fragile - that opposition can no longer be faced?

Read Harry Stein's "Will Tripp: Pissed off Attorney at Law" http://www.amazon.com/Will-Tripp-Pissed-Off-Attorney/dp/1492737623/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1427127865&sr=8-4&keywords=harry+stein

I second the recommendation by Spartacus.

Lovely little book, quite entertaining, in addition to teaching some lessons about diversity.

"Obama has overseen huge cuts to government spending... the continued rollback of the state’s regulatory apparatus...by all accounts...libertarians should be pleased."

AGW advocates: "We have to make it scary, because if we tell people the truth, they'll ignore us."

I see Cousin Dave still has a problem with heat transfer & fluid flow fundamentals... a good community college can fix that.

On topic, I wonder what would happen if I asked an instructor, "Since you brought up this reference, do you agree with it?"

I see Cousin Dave still has a problem with heat transfer & fluid flow fundamentals... a good community college can fix that.

On topic, I wonder what would happen if I asked an instructor, "Since you brought up this reference, do you agree with it?"

Posted by: Radwaste at March 23, 2015 1:40 PM

I guess I had forgotten that *climate change* is one of those topics that Radwaste is bat shit crazy on.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2015/03/20/why-i-am-climate-change-skeptic

I wonder where she perceives herself on the political spectrum? ~ Posted by: a_random_guy at March 23, 2015 8:59 AM

I'm going to guess that, like many leftists, she perceives herself as a political independent.

I know many people who have never voted anything but the straight Democratic ticket who maintain (and actually believe) that they are political "independents."

Witness the part of her statement where she says, "I know how to get conservative students to question their beliefs and confront awful truths." As if the conservative students need to question their beliefs and confront awful truths - so much that she's developed a specific technique to use; but she hasn't developed a specific technique to use on liberal students since it is less necessary and in fact she is scared of the professional consequences when she uses any technique that might cause them a second of complication or doubt.

...if you so much as cause your liberal students a second of complication or doubt you face the risk of demonstrations, public call-outs, and severe professional consequences.

She couldn't get fired from a modern American university if she started a Facebook page that alleged Republicans fry and eat puppies while engaging in human sacrifice.

Mostly, because no on in authority at a modern American university thinks this is wrong or even a risible claim.

But also because conservatives will engage their opponents in debate more than modern liberals will.

So many people I've met who advocate a liberal political position tend to be emotionally fragile if you claim to disagree with them.

For example, during the 2008 election, one self-declared "independent" coworker lectured me, uninvited, on why the rich should pay higher taxes and that I should vote for Obama. When I told him I didn't agree with him and started to enunciate why, he walked away saying "I can't listen to this."

If your political belief system requires being defended by the application of public censure and professional consequences rather than in open debate, you might not have as strong a political philosophy as you think you do.

"I guess I had forgotten that *climate change* is one of those topics that Radwaste is bat shit crazy on."

Apparently, THIS is "bat shit crazy".

I wonder what abject ignorance of the laws of thermodynamics - indeed, active denial that such things exist - qualifies as?

If you doubt me, you can look up many of the principles at engineeringtoolbox.com.

I know you don't want to rely on secondhand reports and opinion pieces.

I wonder what abject ignorance of the laws of thermodynamics - indeed, active denial that such things exist - qualifies as?

The laws of thermodynamics apply to a closed system.

The earth's atmosphere isn't a closed system.

I would suggest a college course in physics or thermodynamics but:

Everyone needs some religion, and you have found yours.....

I don't deny that the earth is warming. The earth's climate is cyclical, and unfortunately rather than continued warming, it seems we might be due for another ice age.

"I see Cousin Dave still has a problem with heat transfer & fluid flow fundamentals... a good community college can fix that."

J'accuse... My points: (1) Satellite data shows that no warming is occurring, and hasn't for about twenty years. (2) The East Anglia and GISS models consisitent fail to predict current conditions when given 1990 conditions as a starting point. (3) You can't get the East Anglia data sets. They won't give them to anyone who won't sign a very restrictive non-discloseure agreement. (4) We know from the East Anglia email leaks that their data has been manipulated six ways to Sunday, and has managed to "disappear" well known and accepted past events such as the Medevial Warming Period and the Little Ice Age.

Sorry, not feeling any sympathy - liberals have created this monster; they can die by this monster.

"I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican, so long as I did so respectfully, and so long as it happened in the course of legitimate classroom instruction."

See, right there's the problem; this teacher is fooling only himself - I never met a teacher who pissed off a Republican. They are usually too busy pissing on Republicans.

And they assume that is how it should be; And now their students are doing the same to them. Why are they surprised?

"The laws of thermodynamics apply to a closed system."

Wow. You have some SERIOUS learning to do. You have just claimed that heat cannot leave anywhere unless the "system" is closed. That's so far wrong, you can't even SEE wrong from there!

"(1) Satellite data shows that no warming is occurring, and hasn't for about twenty years."

Right there with Ted Cruz, you set aside data that doesn't agree with your preconceived notion AND which doesn't agree with surface temperature measurements. For you two (and others) "satellite" is a magical word lending some sort of ability to trump anything else.

Nope.

That is why I start with simple observations in the link I posted. You CANNOT deny that when you burn something, the fire is the hot place; you CANNOT deny that the emission of energy and fossil plant gases occurs directly into our lving environment.

Of course, you CAN deny any responsibility to consider the physics, and favor nice neat answers supplied by others if they sound right.

Here's a simple test to see if it is me or YOU engaging in a religious rite:

Tell me what the product of burning one pound of gasoline or coal is. Include assumptions. You will have to consider molarity.

Your turn.

After essentially claiming that the Sun isn't a heat source because it's not in a closed system, you may want some well-backed data, including infographics with your crow. Do you realize you agree with Rush Limbaugh?

But this is not you vs. me - it never has been. It's about public ignorance of basic physics making them susceptible to people with good stories.

Don't be one of the mob.