Holocaust study: Two-thirds of millennials don�t know what Auschwitz is

[Cow Poke]

Well of course intelligent and informed people would hold a position that is correct.

No, I'm talking about college professors.

I'm being serious here, not sarcastic.

I don't doubt for one second you're being serious -- but seriously wrong.

So, for the record, you don't dispute that most of them are liberals, eh?

It's this part where you lose me. Do you imagine half way through a computer science lecture... "Now students there are 8 bits in a byte, oh and by the way you should all love LGBT people! Now the CPU connects to the RAM via the bridge..."

Now you're being seriously goofy.

[Sparko]

The colleges are more than just professors teaching classes too. They are businesses run by committees who make policies and are very much social entities. My professor friend, who is a republican, says he has to hide his political views at work for fear of being ostracized by the faculty. They impose various rules and regulations on the professors on how to speak to students, what can and can't be said, etc. They are run like little governments. Liberal governments.

[Starlight]

So, for the record, you don't dispute that most of them are liberals, eh?

Polling data shows in the US that the more educated a person is the more likely they are to identify as liberal. The same trends are seen in other countries. I think there are several reasons for this, but the most basic one is that intelligent and informed people are more likely to be correct in their views than unintelligent and uneducated people.

[RumTumTugger]

Sure, those are some of my expertise.

[Bill the Cat]

Are these classes compulsory at institutions you are familiar with?

Yes. Part of the prerequisites for degree.

How many hours of compulsory courses on these topics are you talking about?

Usually just 2 or 3 in the Freshman year. But in more liberal arts or humanities classes, they are reinforced at an alarming rate. My daughter got kicked out of a class session for arguing that a conservative viewpoint was not being given equal weight in her "Women's' Studies" class. She learned to shut up and just regurgitate what the professor was teaching on her tests.

I'm unfamiliar with the idea of universities having compulsory courses and I'm seeing nothing relevant googling "University Life 101".

They are called "Gen-Eds" by my girls.

[Cow Poke]

Polling data shows in the US that the more educated a person is the more likely they are to identify as liberal. The same trends are seen in other countries. I think there are several reasons for this, but the most basic one is that intelligent and informed people are more likely to be correct in their views than unintelligent and uneducated people.

So, there was a boy scout, a priest and a genius in an airplane, and the plane's single engine burst into flames at 9,000 feet altitude. To their horror, the pilot grabbed a parachute and jumped from the plane.

Looking around, there were only two parachutes, yet three occupants.

The genius, named Starlight, grabbed a parachute and declared "the world needs intelligent people and I'm one of the smartest in the world, so I must save myself for humanity". He grabbed a parachute and jumped out the door.

The priest looked at the boy scout, and said, "son, I've lived a good long life, and I know where I'm going when I die, so YOU take the remaining parachute".

The boy scout said, "oh, relax, Padre - the genius jumped with my back pack".

[Sparko]

Polling data shows in the US that the more educated a person is the more likely they are to identify as liberal. The same trends are seen in other countries. I think there are several reasons for this, but the most basic one is that intelligent and informed people are more likely to be correct in their views than unintelligent and uneducated people.

then why are most of the poor and uneducated people living in slums democrats?

[Starlight]

They are run like little governments.

Any organisation has rules and internal bureaucracy. That is just how organisations work. As such there will always be a certain level of personal conflicts and disagreements and even scandals.

But you seem to imagine that these amount to some sort of systemic imposition of Liberal Views on everyone, rather than just your average run of the mill slightly inept slightly chaotic slightly bungling slightly silly policies and personal conflicts that vary hugely from one institution to another. And to me that just comes across as bananas conspiracy mongering.

The one US study I've seen that analyzed over all of the US who is and isn't actually prevented from sharing their views on college campuses found that the answer was, by far and away, academics who held pro-Palestinian views. It found multiple cases of academics losing their jobs for having pro-Palestinian views. So that would seem to indicate a conservative / pro-Israel bias on average as the dominant political bias across college campuses to the extent that such a large group of disparate organisations each with its own slightly bumbling internal politics has any shared bias.

[Starlight]

then why are most of the poor and uneducated people living in slums democrats?

The views of unintelligent and uneducated people might be right or they might be wrong, but they aren't a particularly good guide to truth.

The poor usually vote left-wing because left-wing policies are more financially beneficial to the poor than right-wing policies. So, self-interest. Likewise a lot of rich people vote right-wing because they don't like to be taxed - similar self-interest.

The demographic least likely to vote out of self-interest and most likely to vote based on their accurate understanding of what policies would most benefit society as a whole, are intelligent educated people who have decent jobs and aren't hard-up for cash but whom aren't super-wealthy business owners. e.g. college professors, journalists, etc.

[Starlight]

CP, I've heard that joke dozens of times with different people interchanged in it. It doesn't get funnier or relevant with repetition.

[Cow Poke]

Any organisation has rules and internal bureaucracy. That is just how organisations work. As such there will always be a certain level of personal conflicts and disagreements and even scandals.

But you seem to imagine that these amount to some sort of systemic imposition of Liberal Views on everyone, rather than just your average run of the mill slightly inept slightly chaotic slightly bungling slightly silly policies and personal conflicts that vary hugely from one institution to another. And to me that just comes across as bananas conspiracy mongering.

The one US study I've seen that analyzed over all of the US who is and isn't actually prevented from sharing their views on college campuses found that the answer was, by far and away, academics who held pro-Palestinian views. It found multiple cases of academics losing their jobs for having pro-Palestinian views. So that would seem to indicate a conservative / pro-Israel bias on average as the dominant political bias across college campuses to the extent that such a large group of disparate organisations each with its own slightly bumbling internal politics has any shared bias.

Or it COULD actually be that Israel is a Democracy who is constantly being blasted by "Palestinians" as needing to be "wiped off the face of the earth"!

But, tell you what --- how bout posting three examples of these "Palestinians" attempting to express their views, ok? And, while you're at it, how bout posting this "one US study".

[Cow Poke]

CP, I've heard that joke dozens of times with different people interchanged in it. It doesn't get funnier or relevant with repetition.

What joke DOES "get funnier or relevant with repetition"?

[Bill the Cat]

Polling data shows in the US that the more educated a person is the more likely they are to identify as liberal. The same trends are seen in other countries. I think there are several reasons for this, but the most basic one is that intelligent and informed people are more likely to be correct in their views than unintelligent and uneducated people.

Polling data also shows that high school dropouts are more liberal. Being college-educated does not mean you are more intelligence, successful, or make better choices. Remember... the Unabomber has a university degree. Mark Zuckerberg does not.

[Sparko]

The views of unintelligent and uneducated people might be right or they might be wrong, but they aren't a particularly good guide to truth.

The poor usually vote left-wing because left-wing policies are more financially beneficial to the poor than right-wing policies. So, self-interest. Likewise a lot of rich people vote right-wing because they don't like to be taxed - similar self-interest.

The demographic least likely to vote out of self-interest and most likely to vote based on their accurate understanding of what policies would most benefit society as a whole, are intelligent educated people who have decent jobs and aren't hard-up for cash but whom aren't super-wealthy business owners. e.g. college professors, journalists, etc.

So smart people are liberal because it is the right thing, and poor people are liberal because they are stupid and greedy?

So where do conservatives fit into your paradigm? Rich and stupid?

[Cow Poke]

Polling data also shows that high school dropouts are more liberal. Being college-educated does not mean you are more intelligence, successful, or make better choices. Remember... the Unabomber has a university degree. Mark Zuckerberg does not.

And my wife works with PhD people all the time -- many of them don't have the common sense God gave a piss-ant.

Some of the PhD Pastors I know have a ton of book learning, but they simply can't relate to people. They end up being college professors teaching other PhD candidates how to fail at Pastoring.