It DOES have some cult-like attributes.

The Echo Chamber

In its insularity and single-mindedness, academe is also very similar to a fundamentalist religion (or, dare I say, cult), and thus those who abdicate often feel compelled to confess.-Rebecca Schuman

If fascism comes to America, it will be through our college and university system.

  The biggest cowards in our country today are many, if not most, of our college and university administrators followed closely by a fair amount of their faculty. They are allowing their institutions to be taken over by a monolithic world view that is increasingly totalitarian and antithetical to the diversity of opinion on which the search for truth depends. -Roger L Simon Go To Site

The Missouri story is indicative of the broader crisis at many American colleges. Increasingly, the evidence shows, they are places of strictly enforced intellectual, cultural and political homogeneity. That rigid conformity might be enforced from below by energetic activists, but it finds succor and rationalizations for its conduct from above. -Noah Rothman Go To Site

Can’t we be a bit more self-aware when we dismiss conservatives as so cocky and narrow-minded that they should be excluded from large swaths of higher education? Cocky? Narrow-minded? I suggest that we look in the mirror. -Nicholas Kristof, The Liberal Blind Spot Go To Site

But as I see it, the bigger problem is not that conservatives are infiltrating social science departments to spread hatred, but rather that liberals have turned departments into enclaves of ideological homogeneity. -Nicholas Kristof, The Liberal Blind Spot Go To Site

But liberals claim to be champions of inclusiveness — so why, in the academic turf that we control, aren’t we ourselves more inclusive? If we are alert to bias in other domains, why don’t we tackle our own liberal blind spot? -Nicholas Kristof, The Liberal Blind Spot Go To Site

Liberal, Character, Fascism, Academia

The outgoing University of Miami president tapped to head the Clinton Foundation once tried to block a conservative group founded by four female students from organizing on campus... It was the 2002-2003 school year when Shalala and her university administration rejected an upstart group, Advocates for Conservative Thought, on the grounds that it would be redundant since the school already had a College Republicans chapter.

Liberal, Character, Abortion, Tolerance, Diversity

A female student was threatened by feminist and LGBT organizations at the University of North Carolina - Wilmington after she invited them to attend a pro-life event... "We do not need, nor want, these invitations. If you continue to attempt to contact any of us, we will take further action.”... UNCW’s College Democrats also declined the invitation to attend the event as “our party’s views do not align with the views of the speaker.”

Liberal, Oops, Academia, Bias

The University of Michigan has settled a lawsuit brought by a student libertarian club after the university spent thousands supporting leftist campus groups while denying funding to campus conservative and libertarian clubs. The university agreed to pay the U-M Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) a sum of $5,000 plus attorney fees for denying the student group funding toward an event hosted by anti-affirmative action activist Jennifer Gratz.

Ideas They're Afraid Of...

Never Give Up

Liberal character on display.

Democrat, Liberal, Election, Incompetence, Obama, Character, Fascism, Academia, Corruption

A tenured professor who forced her students to sign pledges that they would vote for President Barack Obama last November should be fired, the college’s president recommended. Sharon Sweet, an associate professor of mathematics at Brevard Community College in Florida, is guilty of electioneering, harassment, and incompetence, according to a three-month investigation into her classroom behavior leading up to the November election.

Universities are the bedrock of progressive values, but the one kind of diversity that universities disregard is ideological and religious. We’re fine with people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us. -Nicholas Kristof, A Confession of Liberal Intolerance Go To Site

Liberal, Incompetence, Education, Academia, Tolerance, Pc

Young America’s Foundation has surveyed the required reading programs for incoming college freshmen nationwide and found that, over the past three years, none of the colleges have assigned a conservative-leaning book. None of them. Young America’s Foundation surveyed the top 50 schools as noted by Forbes, and “found that many of the ‘required’ books only offered left-wing perspectives on topics such as race, feminism, socialism, inequality, and wealth redistribution.”

Hypocrisy, Liberal, Character, Oops, Education, Politics, Academia, Tolerance, Corruption, Diversity, Bias, Bigotry

Administrators at Texas A&M this week settled a lawsuit filed by conservative students by agreeing to pay $1000 in damages and revise discriminatory funding policies for student organizations. The university agreed to make the payment to the Texas Aggie Conservatives (TAC) after the group filed a lawsuit in December 2011 alleging administrators had improperly refused to provide funding to help cover the costs for a speaking event for noted conservative Star Parker.

Hypocrisy, Liberal, Character, Oops, Education, Politics, Academia, Tolerance, Corruption, Diversity, Bias, Bigotry

A federal jury believed the University of Iowa’s law school illegally denied a promotion to a conservative Republican because of her politics, former jurors told The Des Moines Register. However, jurors said they felt conflicted about holding a former dean personally responsible for the bias. They wanted to hold the school itself accountable, but federal law does not recognize political discrimination by institutions. “I will say that everyone in that jury room believed that she had been discriminated against,” said Davenport resident Carol Tracy, the jury forewoman.

Academia, Diversity

The Daily Princetonian reports that 157 members of Princeton University’s faculty or staff have donated to the two presidential candidates. One hundred fifty-five donated to Obama; two donated to Romney.

More than a third of the respondents said they would discriminate against the conservative candidate. One respondent wrote in that if department members “could figure out who was a conservative, they would be sure not to hire them.” Go To Site

Hypocrisy, Character, Academia, Tolerance, Diversity

At the 2011 meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia polled the audience of some 1,000 in a convention center ballroom to ask how many were liberals (the vast majority of hands went up), how many were centrists or libertarians (he counted a couple dozen or so), and how many were conservatives (three hands went up).

  In his talk, he said that the conference reflected "a statistically impossible lack of diversity,” in a country where 40 percent of Americans are conservative and only 20 percent are liberal. He said he worried about the discipline becoming a "tribal-moral community" in ways that hurt the field's credibility.

Hypocrisy, Editorial, Liberal, Hate, Character, Academia, Jobs, Diversity

This study is troubling for a variety of reasons, and provides a unique glimpse into the mind of the average college professor. The first cause for concern is the open way in which professors said they would discriminate against a conservative colleague. If a professor admitted they would openly discriminate against a colleague who was a certain religion/ethnicity, they would be fired and black listed from academe. On the other hand, discriminating against someone with a different world view is seen as socially acceptable in the modern university.

Black Law Students Association Wants Viewpoint Discrimination...


"Although the law school recently released a statement regarding Professor Jacobson and his blog, we further urge the administration to critically examine the views of the individuals they intend to employ."

Liberal, Character, Fascism, Diversity

One question, according to the researchers, “asked whether, in choosing between two equally qualified job candidates for one job opening, they would be inclined to vote for the more liberal candidate (i.e., over the conservative).”

  More than a third of the respondents said they would discriminate against the conservative candidate. One respondent wrote in that if department members “could figure out who was a conservative, they would be sure not to hire them.”

Hypocrisy, Character, Politics, Academia, Jobs, Diversity, Bigotry

Fieweger said Wagner's candidacy was dismissed because of her conservative views, and he cited a 2007 email from Associate Dean Jonathan C. Carlson to Jones in which Carlson wrote: "Frankly, one thing that worries me is that some people may be opposed to Teresa serving in any role, in part at least because they so despise her politics (and especially her activism about it)."

“If you agree with them then that is your opinion. Just know that to the rest of us, you are a piece of worthless trash”

Liberal, Hate, Character, Narrative, Smears, Academia, Elitism, Ignorance

In the memorable words of Robert Brandon, chair of Duke's philosophy department, "We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire."

Democrat, Academia, Diversity, Bias

The then-chairman of Duke's history department, John Thompson, dismissed findings that his department had 32 registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans, on grounds that "the interesting thing about the United States is that the political spectrum is very narrow."

When universities are echo chambers, they become conservative punch lines... -Nicholas Kristof Go To Site

So why is Trump good for academia? Because he punched a hole in the liberal echo chamber of college campuses. He took us all by surprise and reminded us to not make ignorant presumptions about how others are feeling or thinking without even having a conversation with them. -Liz Swan Go To Site