Liberal Bias on College Campuses?

[Arch Enemy]

Very few courses in college are affected by political persuasion. For example, Math, any Science class, language, or literature.

In my experience, a language course (French, to be exact) has of political persuasion. My teacher babbled on how America sucks and how France was the cream of the crop when it comes to a "Good" nation. She'd speak of some very true issues, including, the fact that Americans, in general, don't get enough exercise. Alot of what she talked about would be how America doesn't have a good sense of nationalism and that since we're Americans we're too stupid to learn like a French student (the reason why she left America and is moving to France, Merci Dieu).

Indirectly, Literature classes can turn into political blood baths, or at least have the potential too. This starts when we start a debate on the book Red Scarf Girl (which talks about the Cultural Revolution in China and Chairman Mao) we start up having a decent conversation when one (of many) unintelligent Republicans say a racist comment like "That's all them Chins are good for, killing each other" he gets his despicable moment of fame when the low-lifes of the class begin their laughing. Though what he really does, is trigger the Democratic people in our class to respond to his absurd comment, the teacher, not really caring, starts asking party biased questions. Then I get pissed off and it turns into a blood bath, I may not be a strong debater among-st you fellas, but against my colleagues at school, I'm the master.

 

[aquapub]

The explanation is simple. The reason such a huge number of professors and journalists vote and spin liberal is that they live in an academic world where ideas don't actually have to work, and where flighty, childish, hippy-socialism can still be taken seriously.

They don't live in the real world or face real problems, so they can get away with pushing for assinine policies that screw over the little guy-who they seem so eager to pander to. (cost of living hikes from illegal immigration, health care crises and small business collapse from frivolous lawsuits, outsourcing to other countries because of the always liberal labor unions raping workers, companies, and the government with impunity/making it unaffordable to hire Americans, etc.)

They are nearly the only people (statistically demonstrable) who don't mature into conservatives once they have real jobs, families, duties, and/or purpose- i.e. once they have somebody to think about besides themselves.

There have been entire groups created just to expose atrocious left-wing, TAXPAYER FUNDED university bias. My Media Research Methods teacher showed us obscenely dishonest, widely discredited garbage like, OutFoxed, 3 M.Moore movies, Anti-Bush commercials and cartoons...Nothing conservative or even moderate.

Universities have become little more than DNC sentiment factories producing politically correct hysterics mindlessly regurgitating bogus left-wing hype.

 

[shuamort]

They are nearly the only people (statistically demonstrable) who don't mature into conservatives once they have real jobs, families, duties, and/or purpose- i.e. once they have somebody to think about besides themselves.

Snerk. Alright, go ahead. Prove that the preponderance of people mature into conservatives. It sure would explain all of the really young democrats who later turn into conservatives.

 

[RightinNYC]

They are nearly the only people (statistically demonstrable) who don't mature into conservatives once they have real jobs, families, duties, and/or purpose- i.e. once they have somebody to think about besides themselves.

Yea...I might agree with you in theory and practice, but it's going to be hard to prove something like that...

 

[stsburns]

Much like Bin Laden works, recruit young childern. Also many 3rd party organizations work in the same way. Recruit college or younger kids to believe what you want them to believe, cause kids don't know better!

 

[Bluefire]

I go to the University of Texas, and I'm a political science major.

I find that here at UT, there are a decently large number of liberal professors, but there are also a smaller, yet substansial amount of conservative professors.
They pretty much all let you know their opinions too. But they tell you when its their opinions, and they do a good job of getting students from opposing viewopints to share their opinions, or countering their opinions with opinions from the other side.

There is inherently a bias to opinions that teachers give in the classroom, and thats because its an opinion. At UT, they do a good job of telling each side of the story when they offer an opinion.

They also do a good job of letting you know when something is an opinion, and when something is fact/theory.

Therefore, I don't think this bias in the college classroom is a problem. Most professors, at least here at UT, do a good job discussing all opinions of a given issue.

 

[Comrade Brian]

Much like Bin Laden works, recruit young childern. Also many 3rd party organizations work in the same way. Recruit college or younger kids to believe what you want them to believe, cause kids don't know better!

Also larger parties have more money for mass media so they can lie better.

 

[edb19]

Very few courses in college are affected by political persuasion. For example, Math, any Science class, language, or literature. Perhaps in history, poli-sci or perhaps religion would lend itself to opinion....

My daughter just finished her freshman year at Univ. of Toledo. In talking with her (and some of her classmates) there is no question that there is a college professors/graduate assistants have a liberal persuasion. In her comp class they had to review a movie - the GA wanted them to watch the same movie for obvious reasons. The class was allowed to choose which movie they saw. Several of the students suggested "Passion of the Christ". The teacher refused on the grounds that it was too controversial. Ultimately she chose the movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11". No controversy there :roll:

I have a good friend who has been a prof @ UT for longer than I've known him (13 years). Bill says that liberal profs far outnumber conservative ones, that the conservatives are few and far between. In general he says that the average college student is more conservative than the average college professor. He believes that in many respects the professors are out of touch with society in general and their students specifically.

 

[FiremanRyan]

ive found that when you go to college in Northern California, it doesnt matter what class youre taking, the professor will try and push their political agenda on you. in a statistics class the instructor took time out for about a half hour to tell us why we should vote for Kerry and voting for Bush would mean that 'we supported the slaughter of normally innocent and happy Iraqis for the sake of oil'. also in a communications class we did a connotation exercise where we had to think of different words to call president Bush crazy. i refused to do it and walked out. another teacher at my school (i wasnt in her class but my friend was) gave extra credit to people who wrote letters to Arnold (the gov), i cant remember why but it wasnt for a good reason. my human physiology prefessor had liberal propaganda hanging all over her classroom and a nice big elephant with an x through it on the door....i could go on forever.

 

[ALiberalModerate]

Not necessarily true.

I had a Natural Science professor who spent days talking about how Bush was destroying the environment. I had a Journalism professor who talked for days about how Bush was producing propaganda. I had a Spanish professor who talked for days about how Bush was lying to Hispanics. I had a Calculus professor who talked for days about how Bush was cutting funding for education and making it harder for him to attend grad school.

No matter what the class, professors will find a way to insert their biases into the subject matter.

More to the subject at hand, those numbers don't surprise me in the slightest.

There was a recent study showing that the ratio of democrats to republicans in certain departments such as politics, journalism, public policy, history, and sociology were in the range of 14:1 to 35:1 at top universities nationwide.

Here at NYU, in the 2004 election, 87% of the student body voted Kerry, 7% voted NADER, and 6% voted Bush. For the professors they could only find ONE who admitted voting for Bush. One.

Maybe it has more to do with intelligence than just plain bias. Don't you remember the old saying: "Vote Republican, it's easier than thinking!" Really though, don't we want our kids getting a broader world view than Joe Redneck conservative has? Once they start working and paying taxes, the conservative views will certainly hold some sway.

 

[FiremanRyan]

Maybe it has more to do with intelligence than just plain bias. Don't you remember the old saying: "Vote Republican, it's easier than thinking!" Really though, don't we want our kids getting a broader world view than Joe Redneck conservative has? Once they start working and paying taxes, the conservative views will certainly hold some sway.

as a young guy who just graduated college, i have to admit that what you are saying is very naive and also wrong. first of all, kids are not getting a "broader view" by being in classes with liberal teachers, they blantantly impress their agenda on students and bias their teaching, leaving little to be left up to their own devices. this is something ive seen first hand, as im sure many others have. they outright lie and spin everything. our school paper did a survey (with the help of the College Democrats of all people) to see which professors were the best, and of the most popular professors in the school, most of them were openly conservative. although they make up the vast minority on campus, students said they enjoy their classes because they get to hear a different point of view. so yes, some kids like listeing to "Joe Redneck" every once in a while as opposed to sitting in class while "Sally Treehugger" vomits her liberal rhetoric all over their lap.

and dont think that every college student is so open minded. most are pretty braindead and will believe anything theyre told.

 

[ALiberalModerate]

as a young guy who just graduated college, i have to admit that what you are saying is very naive and also wrong. first of all, kids are not getting a "broader view" by being in classes with liberal teachers, they blantantly impress their agenda on students and bias their teaching, leaving little to be left up to their own devices. this is something ive seen first hand, as im sure many others have. they outright lie and spin everything. our school paper did a survey (with the help of the College Democrats of all people) to see which professors were the best, and of the most popular professors in the school, most of them were openly conservative. although they make up the vast minority on campus, students said they enjoy their classes because they get to hear a different point of view. so yes, some kids like listeing to "Joe Redneck" every once in a while as opposed to sitting in class while "Sally Treehugger" vomits her liberal rhetoric all over their lap.

and dont think that every college student is so open minded. most are pretty braindead and will believe anything theyre told.

I was being rather tongue and cheek you know. At any rate, the zealots from both sides are very intellectually dishonest at times. If you think Limbaugh or Hannity are even remotely intellectually honest in their daily rants then I really feel for you. I agree, there probably should be some more balance in colleges. On some issues, the right is more right, on some the left is more right.

 

[MikeyC]

I wonder why the most educated places in our country have a liberal bias? Not that I agree with liberals on everything, but it's interesting.

 

[Kelzie]

as a young guy who just graduated college, i have to admit that what you are saying is very naive and also wrong. first of all, kids are not getting a "broader view" by being in classes with liberal teachers, they blantantly impress their agenda on students and bias their teaching, leaving little to be left up to their own devices. this is something ive seen first hand, as im sure many others have. they outright lie and spin everything. our school paper did a survey (with the help of the College Democrats of all people) to see which professors were the best, and of the most popular professors in the school, most of them were openly conservative. although they make up the vast minority on campus, students said they enjoy their classes because they get to hear a different point of view. so yes, some kids like listeing to "Joe Redneck" every once in a while as opposed to sitting in class while "Sally Treehugger" vomits her liberal rhetoric all over their lap.

and dont think that every college student is so open minded. most are pretty braindead and will believe anything theyre told.

As a young girl who is in college right now, I have to say that what you are saying is very naive and also wrong. And quite frankly, more than a little insulting. College students have brains. At this point in our education, we are expected to think for ourselves and to able to identify any bias our teachers have, because everyone has them. This type of "protect the poor college student" mentality might be necessary for younger kids, but if a college age student needs protection from the views of their teachers, maybe they should have taken the 5-year track in high school. They are obviously not mature enough to handle the real world.

 

[FiremanRyan]

I wonder why the most educated places in our country have a liberal bias? Not that I agree with liberals on everything, but it's interesting.

studies show that liberals are more interested in these jobs while conservatives tend to lean toward business after college.

SouthernDemocrat- youre right on two things, talk radio shouldnt be taken seriously...ever, and we need a little more input from both sides on college campuses.

Kelzie- i disagree. you can speak for youself that youre smart enough to come up with your own conclusions. i dont doubt that. and you're right that kids that age should be able to think for themeselves but the sad part is that a lot of them arent. its not that i dont like the way teachers show liberal bias, i honestly dont mind if they openly lean right or left, as long as they dont distort facts and not show the other side of the issues. if this didnt happen, liberal bias wouldnt be the problem that it is.

 

[Kelzie]

Kelzie- i disagree. you can speak for youself that youre smart enough to come up with your own conclusions. i dont doubt that. and you're right that kids that age should be able to think for themeselves but the sad part is that a lot of them arent. its not that i dont like the way teachers show liberal bias, i honestly dont mind if they openly lean right or left, as long as they dont distort facts and not show the other side of the issues. if this didnt happen, liberal bias wouldnt be the problem that it is.

After much thinking, I've decided that a majority of the people taking classes with me are also International Relations majors (or similar), and are probably more likely to form their own opinion. Therefore, I reserve judgement on the rest of the student body's ability to think for themselves. After all, one of them invented the beer bong :lol:

 

[Kelzie]

I dunno, the Fireman has a point. I go to a big 10 school, and I'm suprised half the kids can tie their own shoes, let alone form their own coherent opinion. A lot of them either randomly say what they've heard from adults, or just blindly follow the democratic party, but yeah, most of them are dumber than a box of rocks.

I go to CU Boulder (is it a top 10? regardless, it's pretty big), and my point was that the classes I take might entice the more independent thinkers. Not many morons will take American Foreign Policy. It just doesn't sound as fun as Underwater Basket Weaving. :mrgreen: I've had very good debates in many of my classes, and most of the people participated intelligently. Even my Intro to American Gov class which had more than 200 people in it.

 

[Kelzie]

Big 10, not top 10, lol. You give me too much credit, I'm really not that smart!
In my international relations class there were like 5 or 6 people who thought about things and formed their own opinions, but there were about 20 kids who didn't, when they showed up at least.

Sounds like all my community college courses :lol: My ethics class was me, one other guy from S. Africa who always tried to argue that there was nothing wrong with forcing a woman to marry (what that had to do with utilitarianism, I have no idea :roll: ), 15 people that came in and slept, and 20 people that never showed up in the first place. I don't understand why some people pay so much when they have no intention of learning.

 

[Kelzie]

The degree. So yeah, the good thing is that most of those people just don't care, so the bias doesn't effect them. It's only dumb people who try that worry me, or reasonably smart but not independent thinking people, because uninformed followers of any ethos benefits no one.

But your going to have that no matter what. There really is no solution. You can't ask professors to keep their bias out of the class. My first poli sci professor tried so hard, refused to tell us which way she leaned, but it was pretty obvious she was a liberal. I mean what's the solution? Round up all the republicans out of the business world and force them to teach? You'd still have the same problem of people blindly following an ethos. There's no solution to blind devotion, other than cold, hard reality once they graduate and get forced into the real world. If that makes them republican, so be it. I'm not complaining that most of the people in business are republican and forcing their ideas on young, impressionable graduates. That's life.

 

[ShamMol]

^Thank you. That is logical and honestly the best post in this thread.

 

[faminedynasty]

Very well educated people tend to be left-leaning, but perhaps it is not all the result of a mass conspiracy to indoctrinate. Perhaps to some extent it has to do with an effect of having a better understanding of the social, economic and political structure of the United States and the world. Perhaps this causes some of the outdated, religion-based stances of conservatism to look foolish. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

 

[FiremanRyan]

Very well educated people tend to be left-leaning, but perhaps it is not all the result of a mass conspiracy to indoctrinate. Perhaps to some extent it has to do with an effect of having a better understanding of the social, economic and political structure of the United States and the world. Perhaps this causes some of the outdated, religion-based stances of conservatism to look foolish. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

this really isnt true. most professors are left leaning but during the last election the majority of doctors, graduate students, and business executives voted Republican.

 

[edb19]

Very well educated people tend to be left-leaning, but perhaps it is not all the result of a mass conspiracy to indoctrinate. Perhaps to some extent it has to do with an effect of having a better understanding of the social, economic and political structure of the United States and the world. Perhaps this causes some of the outdated, religion-based stances of conservatism to look foolish. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Excuse me? That's one of the most ignorant statements I've ever heard.

I know many JD's, MBA's, PhD's, MDivs - all extremely intelligent and extremely well educated and more of them are conservative than liberal. And they are not conservative because of outdated "religion-based" stances, but because of their understanding of a free market economy and it's effect on our social and political structure.

One could as easily say uneducated people tend to be left-leaning because they have a better understanding of government handouts.

The fact of the matter is that people do better with a hand up than with a hand out. For the most part the people of the United States are not only capable of taking care of themselves, but they want to take care of themselves - as opposed to having the government take care of them.

 

[ALiberalModerate]

this really isnt true. most professors are left leaning but during the last election the majority of doctors, graduate students, and business executives voted Republican.

According to the CNN exit polls.

49% of College Grads voted for Bush and 49% for Kerry.

However, 55% of Post Grads voted for Kerry and 44% for Bush.

One other little tidbit. Of Bush voters, only 9% thought Intelligence was his strongest quality.

 

[LaMidRighter]

According to the CNN exit polls.

49% of College Grads voted for Bush and 49% for Kerry.

However, 55% of Post Grads voted for Kerry and 44% for Bush.

One other little tidbit. Of Bush voters, only 9% thought Intelligence was his strongest quality.

Yes, but exit polls also showed Kerry winning by a landslide in the afternoon, showing how well those worked out and how reliable.