It doesn’t make sense that we would have an inborn urge to have babies that is a separate thing from the urge to have sex—sex seems to be nature’s way to convince most of us, at least, to breed. – Amanda Marcotte What Amanda is saying is that the evolutionary imperative to reproduce doesn’t really […]
Also tagged Protein Wisdom, stupid conservative tricksI don’t want to make it a habit, or at least not a major preoccupation, to ridicule stupid people. In fact, I’ve been telling myself that in 2009 I’ll concentrate on smart people. But then I ran across this ridiculous thing written by a guy named Rich Galen. The name didn’t ring any bells, but […]
Also tagged Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Evan Sayet, Rich Galen, Roger Kimball, stupid conservative tricks, Thomas SowellThere’s another rhetorical crutch at work in the conservative critiques of academia that I’ve been going over—the golden age. KC Johnson’s commentary (see the last post—this one is a close offshoot of that one) refers to “the alarming decline in intellectual pluralism,” and—here’s a coincidence—the site that ran it, Minding the Campus is “a project […]
Also tagged Alan Kors, Duke lacrosse case, intellectual diversity, KC Johnson, Minding the CampusThere’s a simple question behind the things I’ve written over the past six months or so about the intersection between the Duke lacrosse case and the conservative critique of higher education. How can anyone who’s worried about the academic world’s low intellectual standards, who’s pushing to raise those standards, even, how can they not only […]
Also tagged Alan Kors, Duke lacrosse case, intellectual diversity, KC Johnson, Minding the Campus, thefire.orgIn this post and the one before I’m looking at a couple of recent episodes in KC Johnson’s ongoing crusade against left-wing extremists in academia. Last time I wrote about his attempt to pursue two narrow agendas at once. One, the academic-culture crusade, he pursues with the usual rhetoric and agenda-driven reasoning while the other […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse case, KC Johnson, Rashid Khalidi, Tim Tyson, tribalismUntil a couple of weeks ago we were supposed to be stocking up on information for “Decision 2008” (a lot of the best stuff seemed to be on “Indecision 2008”, though). According to columnist William Kristol, Sarah Palin was doing her part, “helping the American people understand ‘who the real Barack Obama is’” by raising […]
Also tagged Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, bullshit, David Thompson, intellectual diversity, KC Johnson, Rashid Khalidi, tribalismKevin Mattson says that his new book, Rebels All! A Short History of the Conservative Mind in Postwar America, ends with a look at …the rise of what I call “postmodern conservatism”—how an almost poststructuralist embrace of diversity and criticism of universal values informs the wars against “objectivity” and the mainstream media, the dominance of […]
Also tagged intellectual diversity, stupid conservative tricksA few posts ago, a reader suggested that I’d “squeezed all the available juice out of DIW” (KC Johnson’s blog Durham-in-Wonderland, that is) and I might find some fresh material on David Thompson’s blog. The first thing I read over there was on an old familiar theme—liberal academics and their uncontrollable urge to indoctrinate. Not […]
Also tagged David Thompson, intellectual diversity, KC JohnsonA few months ago I posted about the reactions when a Duke philosophy professor, interviewed in the campus paper, invoked a John Stuart Mill quote about stupidity and conservatives in order to explain the relative lack of conservative academics. More and more surfers have been finding that post with searches like this: js mill conservatives […]
Also tagged Barack Obama, John McCain, Politics, potbangers, stupid conservative tricks, tribalismAbout a week ago, Google dug up an odd little bit of satire in an Onion knock-off called Carbolic Smoke Ball. [The text is gone now—all that’s left is a picture of a goofy quarter.] North Carolina’s Commemorative Quarter to Honor Duke Lacrosse False Rape Case DURHAM - North Carolina officials proudly unveiled the state’s […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse case, Duke University, Michael Gustafson