Free Republic

To say that academic elites don’t like ordinary folks is to state the obvious. To them, Lanford, Illinois—the fictional, archetypal, working-class town, made famous by Roseanne and Dan Conner—is not to be listened to, but tamed.A well-functioning democracy depends on it.Taming Fishtown—Charles Murray’s version of Lanford—is the thread that seems to run through a new book, “The People vs. Democracy,” by one Yascha Mounk.You guessed it. Mr. Mounk is not an American from the prairies; he’s a German academic, ensconced at Harvard, and sitting in judgment of American and European populism.If only he were capable of advancing a decent argument.“The number...

A diagram, handed out in college course, labeling the president’s slogan, “Make American Great Again” as hate speech is at the center of controversy. It’s a picture that has ignited a slew of comments about college education in the area and the topic of hate speech but according to Rogue Community College, the diagram was taken out of context.

A recent academic journal article claims that "meritocratic ideology" and "depoliticized" classroom environments contribute to a sense of exclusion and isolation among female students. The professors argue that the emphasis on "meritocracy," "individualism," and "technical prowess" in engineering all contribute to a "masculine culture" that marginalizes women. Four professors are warning that the “hegemony of meritocratic ideology” and other manifestations of “masculine culture” in engineering courses are detrimental to women. Led by Carroll Serron, who teaches at the University of California-Irvine, the March 1 study contends that the sense of exclusion and isolation felt by female engineering students is exacerbated...

After the two-term presidency of Barack Obama - the first Black man to hold that office - was the election of Donald Trump a surprise? To many people, it was. The history of race in America is often told as a linear story of progress, beginning with the emancipation of slaves during the Civil War, continuing with the expansion of civil rights in the twentieth century, and culminating with the election (and re-election) of Obama. For people who believe in this story of consistent racial progress, Trump’s successful campaign, fueled as it was by white nationalist supporters, was very surprising....

Obviously travelling at warp speed isn't a natural state of existence for most terrestrial organisms, but we never knew just how harmful the effects of maximum warp velocities could be on human beings – until now. A new study published – yes, published – in an 'American' science journal (and accepted by three others) details how an experimental attempt to cross the transwarp barrier and achieve Warp 10 can have devastating and unforeseen consequences on human physiology. Wait… what?

And predictably put the blame somewhere else. "Also, the premium increases for health insurance they want from us will cost us about $600,000 every year," Martin Kich of Wright State University writes on the academe blog maintained by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in a broadside against his university's administration. "Right now, we pay about $1.8 million." "$600,000 more would be a 33% increase! On top of higher premiums, they want to cut health benefits via increased co-pays, increased out-of-pocket maximums, and increased coinsurance. Needless to say, cuts such as these harm people who are already sick, defeating...

“I’m not worried about a few dozen people with swastikas who want to replace the Jews, because they’re our past,” Dershowitz explained. “They have no resonance on university campuses today. “But the hard, hard left? Anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity, intolerance for speech. It’s the future. These are our leaders,” he lamented. “When I used to teach 150 students in my first year of criminal law, I’d look around and I’d say, ‘Future president. Future chief justice. Future editorial director of the New York Times. Future managing partner of Goldman Sachs. They’re our future. And that’s why we have to worry much more...

Two students at Columbia University are hosting a workshop later this month to encourage their peers to “redistribute our own wealth” to “marginalized people.” “Class Privilege and Radical Redistribution” is organized by Columbia University students Amy Wang and Claire Klinger, and will feature a roundtable discussion on “learning about our obligation to redistribute our own wealth.”

Kellogg Community College (KCC) has agreed to pay $55,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by two students who were arrested for handing out pocket Constitutions on campus. According to a press release from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented the students, KCC agreed to pay damages and attorneys’ fees, but will not admit to any wrongdoing. As Campus Reform reported just over one year ago, a KCC student and two other conservative activists were arrested by campus police after spending two to three hours recruiting for the school’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter, during which they handed out...

The arrogance of this man. He even knows by his "dare I say" how inflammatory a statement he is about to make. http://www.lastampa.it/2018/01/29/vaticaninsider/eng/the-vatican/the-pope-asks-catholic-universities-for-a-cultural-revolution-Yktf3rHxCR10bKNrbj9uyH/pagina.html“on the cultural level of academic training and scientific study, a broad and generous effort at a radical paradigm shift, or rather – dare I say – at “a bold cultural revolution”.   http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20171208_veritatis-gaudium.html Think that's it? Do you doubt the next requirement is for priests and bishops to sign-on and swear loyalty to the Magisterium of Francis? Since when is the teaching of the Roman Pontiff separate from the Magisterium of the Church? If the Roman Pontiff teaches...

Secret ballot votes rammed through in 11th hour The Undergraduate Student Government at Ohio State University has come under sharp criticism for a rushed, irregular secret ballot vote Wednesday night that rammed through a resolution in support of an anti-Israel boycott. A six-hour long meeting culminated in a half-hour of rapid-fire amendments to the "Resolution to Establish a Committee to Investigate OSU's Investments in Companies Complicit in Human Rights Violations." As the USG was being expelled from the room at midnight, two secret ballot votes were quickly cast within minutes—the first attempt returned more ballots than senators present—and it was...

Review: 'Industry of Lies: Media, Academia, and the Israeli-Arab Conflict' by Ben-Dror Yemini "Seventy years after the Holocaust, which saw Nazi Germany propaganda turn the entire Jewish people into a monster threatening the world, a new industry of lies has arisen. … But this time it is not the goose-stepping Nazis pushing the lies. It is liberal-minded academics, intellectuals, and human rights activists." So writes Ben-Dror Yemini, an Israeli journalist and former opinion page editor of Maariv, who thoroughly debunks these defamations in Industry of Lies. Israel has often been accused of forcibly evicting the Arabs from Palestine in 1948...

Professors want bookstore owners to rescind their Over 200 Columbia University faculty, students, and alumni have pledged to boycott a New York bookstore after its owners apologized for promoting and selling a children's book that praised Palestinian violence against Israel. The petition condemns Book Culture, an independent bookstore with a location near Columbia, for apologizing after Jewish and non-Jewish communities objected to its selling P is for Palestine by Golbarg Bashi, a book for young children that glorified the intifada. The petition, first reported by Campus Reform, includes a refusal to buy books from or order course materials through Book...

“I have had enough bullshit,” wrote Notre Dame sociology professor Christian Smith in a recent piece about the systemic problems of American Higher Education. “The manure has piled up so deep in the hallways, classrooms, and administration buildings of American higher education that I am not sure how much longer I can wade through it and retain my sanity and integrity.” This forward, in-your-face commentary on the state of today’s higher education caught the attention of many in the realm of the Ivory bell tower, but should also serve as a wake-up call to those who don’t follow higher ed...

Academia turns a blind eye to the reality of actual socialism, the ideology practiced by Marxists while they sought the perfection of communism...someday. Socialism is ruining Venezuela today, and the whitewash pervades elite culture, even when the evil strikes close to home for an elite American small college. I attended Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) in the mid-1970s. I enjoyed my time there, made some great lifelong friends, and graduated with a sincere appreciation of the benefits of having a liberal arts education as it was practiced at the time. Over the years, my political perspective has moved well away from...

The notion of academic rigor has fallen on evil times. In a typical instance of continuing epistemic degradation, Donna Riley, of Purdue University's School of Engineering Education, insists that rigor must be eliminated since rigor is a "dirty deed" fraught with "exclusionary implications for marginalized groups and marginalized ways of knowing." It matters little, apparently, if our bridges collapse so long as "men of color and women, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, first-generation and low-income students" are welcomed into the new holistic community defined by "other ways of knowing" – whatever these may be. Similarly, Rochelle Gutierrez, of the University...

In 2017, President Trump’s first year in the Oval Office brought academic rage to new heights as professors frequently blasted the Commander-in-Chief and berated his voters and anyone who does not embrace progressivism. Here are five things that professors actually said in 2017: 1) Prof suggests Texans deserve hurricane for supporting Trump A University of Tampa professor publicly suggested that Texans deserved Hurricane Harvey because the state voted Republican last year. “I don’t believe in instant Karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas,” Professor Ken Storey tweeted in August. “Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesn’t...

A Drexel University professor who asked for “White Genocide” for Christmas last year is finally resigning. George Ciccariello-Maher, now a former professor from Drexel, has a history of controversial tweets targeting conservatives and white people. “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide,” he tweeted, followed up by, “To clarify: When the whites were massacred during the Haitian Revolution, that was a good thing indeed.” In addition to targeting white people and conservatives, Ciccariello-Maher has also made controversial posts about soldiers. Ciccariello-Maher even went as far as blaming the “white supremacist patriarchy” for the Las Vegas shooting, going on to...

A Drexel University professor who received death threats after posting several controversial tweets said Thursday he is resigning because the year-long harassment has made his situation "unsustainable." George Ciccariello-Maher, a professor of politics and global studies, had been teaching his class remotely via video conference after being put on administrative leave, a move that Drexel said was for his own safety.

When academics look for male role models, you never know what they’re going to find. "For one thing, there is not much substantive evidence that male role models are decisive in healthy boys’ development," Michael Kimmel writes in the December 15, 2017 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. "They might be nice to have, but the male role model--the elementary-school teacher, the father, the stern but supportive coach--by himself, as a single variable, doesn’t really have much of an independent effect on a boys development." "And that's why single moms, lesbian moms, female teachers, and female coaches can provide...