Sneak Peek Documentary Review: Indoctrinate U, Academic bias on the American campus.

I personally find nothing more disturbing, then to visit this site and see
the attitude that "college is bad because they're all liberals and will indoctrinate you".

There seems to be an attitude amongst a lot of members here that between
talk radio, wikipedia, the bible, and the latest NRA alert, you have everything you need to know. Don't even bother looking at the other side of an issue, I disagree with their opinion so they must be naive, or stupid. Of course, it's not limited to this sight, I can go to DU.Org and see the same attitude from the other side of the fence.

Based on my own experience, higher education is where people learn
think about issues, look at more than one side of an issue, and form their own opinion.

I personally do not want my gun rights defended by someone whose only response is "they're a bunch of leftist/socialist anti-americans" (with 4th grade spelling skills) to any opinion that disagrees with their own.
Sorry if that makes me sound like a snob.
 
One point - as a professor, I sometimes shiver when I see someone post on the list for information about research on the RKBA for a college paper. They sometimes get lists of progun sites.

Such secondary sources are not really acceptable for the scholarly debate. I try to turn such a request to the scholarly works that exist. Also, I also tell the poster that one needs to read the legitimate scholarship that has negative implications for gun ownership and be aware of that.

Sometimes, gun owners just want political rants. However, you gave a paper just based on progun secondary web sites - then you flunk.

A nice starting point is a scholarly book edited by McClurg, Kope and Denning - Gun Control and Gun Rights : A reader's guide. New York Univeristy Press, 2002.

I also have no trouble mentioning that I'm a gun owner and shooter. I don't rant - that is inappropriate. I might mention to class that I shot a match. I once took my advanced class to the range at the end of the semester and we were written up in the school paper.

I'm also not a social conservative (as you might figure out from the article in my sig) and thus I don't bring that baggage to the progun posture.
 
I also have no trouble mentioning that I'm a gun owner and shooter. I don't rant - that is inappropriate. I might mention to class that I shot a match. I once took my advanced class to the range at the end of the semester and we were written up in the school paper.
Click to expand...
we've not been written up, but I've taken several classes to my range over the years. My university has been sponsoring CCW classes for as long as we ahve had them here in LA. I've been given official leave from classes to go train and shoot. No problems from the powers that be.
 
Depends also on the institution one's working at, or with. At some, no problem. At others, just to stay out of unneeded vexations, it has been necessary to code interest in weapons, as discrete as possible.
In my field, excepting study of say weapon as aesthetic, wouldn't get a lot of papers on RKBA's issues. But do get uneasy when the RKBA's is defended using sources like wikipedia, 'guns and ammo', or even some forums.
Not exactly a suitable response (as had been clearly noted), to either defending an academic paper, or defending a right in a heated discourse. Plus, it has been a tactic by those who dislike weapons (and alas an effective one) to paint gun owners as subliterates.
Certainly the men who wrote the consitution weren't in any sense, unlearned men, why would we defend it with less than a learned approach.
And as far as the concept that academics are unable or unwilling to step into the breach. Perhaps recalling such as Jos. Chamberlain, Thomas Jackson might be appropriate.
Anyway, incursions on the RKBA, will be done by those skilled in manipulation, be it legal or public rhetoric. Why would we defend it with lesser means. If we lose the fight of words, a closet full of cartridges won't matter. Social movements which lacked the ability to voice their ideals, do tend to lose
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top