Wednesday, April 29, 2009

You're a Professor, Really?

Without a doubt, the most frequent left-wing attack on me and my writing is some variation of, "I can't believe you're a professor."

The "I can't believe you're a professor" attack is not really a repudiation of ideas (the slur almost never comes with an actually rebuttal of the issues at hand), but is meant ultimately to excoriate, to harm, to indict, and to inflict pain against those who refuse the progressive party line. And Lenin forbid (not God, for they are atheist) a professor of political science deviate from the left's ongoing campaign to dominate all the institutions of cultural values and learning.

Note here that I am just reporting this, not complaining. Leftists have no power over me as an activist and thinker, since I don't let them.

Still, it's just extraordinary how the "I can't believe you're a professor" attack reveals how entrenched is the totalitarian mindset among secular progressives. The thought that someone who holds traditional views would actually be standing in front of a classroom filled with young people, debating issues with facts and reason, is simply horrifying to those marinated in an ideology of hated and intolerance. Leftists mean to intimidate. Their goal is to shout down, to repudiate, to scourge, and to demonize those who find reason in faith and values, and especially those who are best able to cut through the postmodernist clutter to reveal the left's project of nihilistic relativism and destruction of culture.

The left wants to obliterate right and wrong. What happens on my blog - the attacks and the endless trolling by the nihilist extremists - is a miniature version of the media establishment's campaign against Carrie Prejean. Just the thought that someone like Prejean could hold traditional values, and especially that she'd stand up for them in public, brings out the cultural barbarians of the left. They constantly attempt to beat down people like Carrie Prejean, and in so doing they only reveal the depths of their own depravity.

I wrote the other day on
Tristero at Hullabaloo, and his embarrassingly lame defense of atheistic culture (in his ignorance, Tristero attacked Sam Harris as an "asshole," although Harris' books are at the top of the pantheon of popular atheist radicalism).

In response, I get
this in the comments from "Anonymous":

It boggles the mind to think that you are employed at an institution of higher learning. The intelligence one finds in your writing is typical of a junior-high school student. A very sheltered and rather unimaginative one.
"Anonymous" makes absolutely no effort to defend Tristero's stupidity, nor does he make any argument of his own. "Anonyomous" just attacks. He rejects my intelligence and my standing as a professor. How dare you deviate of the prevailing ideological program!

As noted, these attacks are common. I saved a classic example of the "I can't believe you're a professor" slur from a post last year, "
Matt Yglesias, Jennifer Palmieri, and the Third Way." As some readers know, Matthew Yglesias is an American communist. There is no position that's too far to the left for that man. Thus my takedown of Yglesias at the post above brought out this attack from "chrsux," who took saw my "pro-victory" profile at the sidebar, and bared his fangs:

Re: "pro-victory Associate Professor of Political Science" ...

So, is this a tenure track position?

Perhaps if you taught at some place other than long beach community college, your vocation might carry some weight. As it stands, your position affords you the same amount of respect as someone whose profile reads: "pro-victory guy standing on a random street corner"

Note something about this one: It's not just the "I can't believe you're a professor" attack, but it's also the "you're not really a professor" variant, since I teach at a two-year college. The attack on my status as professor at community college is particularly informative. By attacking community colleges as "not real colleges," leftists provide the perfect signal of their alliance with nation's cultural elite (especially the tenured radicals who long ago infiltrated the universities, turning them into training grounds for the shock troops of the revolution). Leftists thus demonstrate the total hypocrisy of their ideology. Radicals care nothing about the lives and hardships of many in the classic community college demographic: the minorities, the poor, and those without even the basic reading skills to comprehend a Marxist tract.

It's not just in the comments either.

The appropriately-named
Deranged Left-Wing Baker wrote an entire post chronicling his disbelief and frustration at my rationalism: "A Professor, Really?":

The more I read American Power, the harder it is for me to believe that Donald Douglas is actually a professor. He has to be either intellectually dishonest or have severe comprehension problems. Either way, I pity the student who has to suffer under his tutelage.
The last sentence is especially key, the "pitying the student" who's not under the allegedly superior tutelage of some far left-wing professor ramming doctrines of anti-capitalist hatred and postmodern anti-rationalist epistemology down the throats of his students.

Deranged Left-Wing Baker links to one of the prominent antagonists of this blog, TBogg at Firedoglake.

TBogg's cultivated the "I can't believe you're a professor" slur to high art: I'm smeared as the "
JuCo Toynbee," which includes the snarky reference to "junior college," itself a term that's out of fashion in the community college academy as derograting the crucial role in education that two-year colleges serve.

But the resistance to me is clear from all of this: I stand up for moral clarity, reason, and truth. But we can't have that in the 21st century. Pretty soon, if leftists had their way, I'd be down on my knees
apologizing to the commissars at the gates of the gulag, repudiating my offenses to the high collectivist state as a capitalist roader and a traitor to his eminence, "The One."

As was true of
Carrie Prejean, leftists won't stop their campaign of villification until they control all of the institutions of the cultural superstructure.

This is why I fight. It's a battle for the soul of the nation, and every minute I'm engaged is worth the effort to preserve, what little I can, the exceptionalism that's made this country great, not to mention the liberty that allows the secular collectivists to mount their program of cultural extermination in the first place.

40 comments:

  1. Doug, I cannot count how many times I have been attacked in exactly that fashion. Or I get the "I sure hope your bias doesn't affect how you teach." I've gotten plenty of comments on my blog to such an effect. As if bias gets into Engineering curriculum somehow, versus the humanities with a gazillion courses that are 100% subjective. I'm not sure how I would put a conservative spin on the laws of science anyway...

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  2. Donald,
    You're a good man in my book no matter what the kooks try to say.

    Keep up the good work you do out there!

    AubreyJ.........

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  3. DD-

    As you well know, in the "academic" world you are an island in a sea of propoganda insanity and indoctrination.

    Keep up the good work as even young people can sometimes recognize common sense in the midst of all the nonsense. The smarter ones will be able to distinguish between being taught what to think versus being taught how to think. They are the future.

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  4. The inquisitors to Galileo

    "I can't believe you're really an Astronomer. You disagree with the rest of them on everything."

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  5. I would keep in mind too that

    The blogsphere is an arena, a coliseum

    not a classroom or lecture hall

    There will be points of civility, but for the most part folks come for the slaughter = )

    With that in mind, remember the great words of Larry Bird

    "They dont boo nobodys, pal"

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  6. Donald -- you teaching at a community college puts you at the forefront of higher education, since the census of students at community colleges dwarfs that at the so-called "elite universities". The truth is that there are many solid professors at the community colleges who teach fundamental subjects in an unbiased way -- preferring to impart real knowledge rather than the orthodoxy that the "publish or perish" system creates.

    You are doing a great job -- keep it up and know that the fact that you get so much attention means you are having an impact!

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  7. Hi Blog Prof:

    Actually, it's okay to have an opinion (bias) in the classroom. Indeed, students often ask for it. But what the radical left does in indoctrinate, and if you're not with the program, they literally want you dead.

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  8. For someone to say, "I can't believe that you're a professor," is to say, inter alia, that the speaker believes colleges to be so uniformly liberal as to admit no variation at all.

    I think this says a lot more about the writers, and our culture in general, than it does about you.

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  9. I stand by my post and the rest of the post explains why I made that statement. In it, I quote a part of one of your postings that just riffs on one of Tbogg's without really addressing the points in Tbogg's.

    You include a link "Obama and Ayers were palling around together." Rather than linking to anything that provides evidence for that statement. The link merely goes to a Commentary piece that quotes Sarah Palin as saying the same thing. Is that the sort of footnote you would accept on a term paper?

    You attacked Tbogg for making a moral equivalency between Wm Ayers and Rush Limbaugh that wasn't being made. The point was that Limbaugh has a greater capacity to damage the Republicans than Ayers did Obama.

    I realize that blog posts are not dissertations. But, if you are responding to what another blog author has posted and you are quoting him, then it would seem appropriate to actually address the point he is making. I would expect an educator to do that.

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  10. They only say this because they are insincere and don't have any real values. So when you write about yours, they have to attack. It's probably a jealousy thing, i.e. not having values but wishing they did.
    Well keep writing Donald, and they can keep up the mean spirited attacks, as is their MO.
    If they had anyhing nice to say, they'd be saying it over at the Daily Kos. Although most of what is written there, is not for the faint of heart.

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  11. Deranged Leftwing Baker, there is no moral equivalency whatsoever between Rush Limbaugh and William Ayers. Limbaugh is a highly successful talk show pundit who is generally well informed and correct; William Ayers is a non-repentant terrorist who set bombs and probably killed some people.

    Only in the fevered minds of the left could there be any "moral equivalency" between the two -- unless you equate conservative argumentation with leftist bombs.

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  12. Stogie, once again, I don't care about the relative morality of Limbaugh vs Ayers. Tbogg's post did not have compare the two in that way. Douglas' did. That is what my post was about, was the fact that Douglas cited and quoted Tbogg's post, but then attacked him on the basis of something that was not in it. And that seems to me to be not in the best tradition of academia or scholarship or whatever.

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  13. Thanks Historian.

    You are right. Young people do see through much of the baloney. I especially like it when I read their papers and they are indeed thinking for themselves.

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  14. Ken: Isn't it amazing how the "community college" slur just slides off tongues of leftists so frequently. Talk about unoriginal!

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  15. It indeed says more about the writers, Dana! LOL. Like I said at the post, they just can't stand it that a traditional professor is not up there indoctrinating kids!

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  16. Dr.D,
    The saying that you are judged by your enemies holds true in this case. If you have the audacity (can I use that word?) to against the grain you will suffer the attacks of those who are too gutless to go against their own orthodoxy. Revel in your brave position knowing you tower above those weaker than you.

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  17. At least with the blog we don't have to take a test at the end...
    do we??!

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  18. "I realize that blog posts are not dissertations."

    Duh.

    You wrote the post, DLB, mounting an "I can't believe you're a professor" attack.

    You have to eat it.

    If you're really all about ideas, you'd attack the ideas, duh, and not my qualifications or academic standing. Besides, nothing you've written here AT THIS POST rebuts MY thesis, which is that you, TBogg, and the rest of your henchmen are out to destroy the country.

    God, you people are awful, and let Him help you...

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  19. "If they had anyhing nice to say, they'd be saying it over at the Daily Kos."

    I love it, Trish!

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  20. I can't believe your a professor.....yet you devote the bulk of your post to complaints about the "attacks" you suffer, with only a momentary detour to reassure yourself and us that "leftists have no power over (you)".
    Are your classes open only to those who pledge to agree, or at least refrain from overpowering you?

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  21. Ottercliff:

    That would be "you're" a professor...

    You can't read either, buddy:

    "Note here that I am just reporting this, not complaining. Leftists have no power over me as an activist and thinker, since I don't let them."

    YOU'D be overpowered in my classes, obviously...

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  22. Donald: As I've said here in the past, your weakness is not your intellect, but how you apply it. You seem more concerned with personal put downs, and variations on how you can creatively refer to someone who does not side with you, rather than effective arguments.

    To me, someone in your position is ideally situated to teach both sides of an argument and shed some history and evenhanded truths on your subject. Not casual dismissals. I don't know about your classrooms, but at least here on your blog you are very black and white. Of course I don't buy the "moral clarity" argument, because I don't see it here. Your posts are very strident, with a Taliban-esque zeal to be found in your "moral" positions. This may shock you, but one can logically put forth this statement regarding your moral vision: You support rape as a legitimate form of procreation. As you do not support any form of birth control to end a possible conception once it has taken place, how else can you logically describe your stance? That is your moral clarity, good sir.

    These are things you have to consider.

    I've always said you are one of the smartest guys in the room.

    But it doesn't mean you are always right.

    And I will defend the good name of liberals everywhere! (By the way, will the last Republican to leave the party please remember to turn off the light. Have to save electricity you know. Al Gore might get upset.)

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  23. "I don't know about your classrooms, but at least here on your blog you are very black and white."

    Honestly, Tim, do you really think that what I do on the blog I'd take to the classroom? It's called being a professional. Taking "both sides" (and evaluating the evidence) is just how one should teach, duh. You're getting as bad as DLB!

    Sometimes students think I'm liberal and the conservative students give me lousy evaluations! Now that's a testimony to my neutrality in the classroom, LOL!

    If you read my post a couple of weeks ago on becoming a successful conservative blogger, I noted:

    "Sometimes folks have asked me, 'don't you worry about backlash as a conservative academic?' At first I did. For a year I held back my opinions, and I'm positive my blogging was worse for it..."

    I don't worry about it anymore, Tim. I don't hold back, and my blog is in no way affiliated with my college. At my college website I don't link back to American Power, and students don't have to read it. I rarely use the blog in class, unless it's a political science essay I've written, rather than a partisan one.

    And your critique here is that I take it too personal. Damn right! I take nihilist licentiousness seriously! I take pride in my country seriously!

    Freaking leftists will stab and bury you before you know it. They will kill you, don't you know? I take that personal, but not by whining and bitching, but by giving better than I get.

    It is indeed black and white, so thanks for the compliment!

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  24. DD, why should I respond to your "thesis" about leftists blah blah blah, when that was not the topic of your posting? Which, BTW, was what I was writing about in my post (i.e. you going off-topic on Tbogg's post).

    And what ideas was I supposed to attack, the BS about Ayers being less morally upright than the sainted Limbaugh? My posting was about you putting up a portion of Tbogg's posting and then not responding to the ideas in it.

    And, if you were so upset about it why didn't you respond at my blog rather than retreat to the safety of your own?

    BTW, my Bible says "Judge not, lest ye be judged." I'm willing to let God pass judgment on me. You, I'm not willing to give that right. You do seem to spend a lot of time trying to pass judgment on others, though. Maybe you ought to put down Mark Levin and pick the Good Book.

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  25. Yes, I've also experienced a few of those lame attacks -- no real substantial debate of the issue, but rather attacks on me as a person. "And you're a teacher?!? GASP!!!" Earlier this year a 20-something "millenialist" attacked my teaching abilities because I posted a commentary about today's young adults in the worplace. Just today someone replied to a post I wrote a while ago about Che Guevara. In it, the guy called me a fascist, called my parents' parenting skills into question, and some how managed to mix in social equality and my 'collaboration with my neighborhood church.' Nothing substantial addressing the issue at hand. But, they always end with something cheesy like "Kind regards! Have a good life."

    There is so much indoctrination going on in schools. I witness this quite frequently on the job from colleagues and occasionally in textbooks, as well as when I returned to school a few years ago and earned my Master's degree.

    I guess it's like they say: "A fish doesn't know it's in water." A liberal doesn't know they're awash in liberalism.

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  26. DLB:

    You're non-responsive, so I'll repeat:

    "If you're really all about ideas, you'd attack the ideas, duh, and not my qualifications or academic standing."

    Hello? You attacked me at your post, in a most personal way. And now you slink back to "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

    Man, that is hypocritical. I mean, you really are a piece of work!

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  27. " ...the guy called me a fascist, called my parents' parenting skills into question, and some how managed to mix in social equality and my 'collaboration with my neighborhood church.' Nothing substantial addressing the issue at hand."

    Thank you, MacGinn!

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  28. What specific ideas are you talking about? Left and right? Good and evil? Chicken and egg? I'm trying to respond to 3 different posts.

    BTW, I did make 2 comments at the original post you made with the Tbogg material stating the problems I saw with it and there was no response. That was before I put my posting up.

    And I'll repeat, if you had a problem with my post, why didn't you leave a comment at my blog? It would have been a lot easier to debate it with the post at hand than debate it like this. But then, that's the idea, isn't it?

    You've called me and others atheist (sic) nihilists, depraved vermin and, I'm sure, other schoolyard taunts. And now, your panties are in a bunch over this. But hey, you're morally superior to me, so no prob.

    I believe that should be atheistic nihilists. I know you guys on the right have a problem with adjectives.

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  29. Oh come on. "JuCo Toynbee" is awesome.

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  30. "And now, your panties are in a bunch over this..."

    Pure narcissism, DLB. This post is not about you. It's about leftist anti-intellectualism. You began YOUR post with an ad hominem attack against me, and now you're crying foul because I ignored you?

    That is rich! Waaaa!

    God, I love this man! Cry me a river, dude!

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  31. "JuCo Toynbee"...

    I knew you'd feel left out if I omitted you from the roundup, TBogg...

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  32. Dr. Douglas,

    You are doing an excellent job, and the attention you have attracted from the unhinged among us proves it.

    The left's real enemy isn't conservatives or conservatism, but cold, hard reality.

    As I see it, Obama will be able to get away with the blaming the current economic slide on Mr. Bush for about another 2.5 to 3 months.

    At that point, all but the dullest among us will start to figure out that something is woefully amiss with Obama.

    If you think the lefties that troll about here are unhinged now, wait until you see what they will be like three months from now.

    Its going to be big fun to watch.

    Carry on, Sir.

    -Dave

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  33. DD, you win. I'm going back to the other side of the looking glass now. It's been fun playing. Next time, I'll remember to bring psychedelics.

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  34. Embarassingly lame my posts may be, but I neither defend nor disparage "atheistic culture" for the very simple reason that I have no idea what such a culture could be.

    I have no interest in defending atheism except to the point that I would defend anyone's right to hold unpopular beliefs. Needless to say, the right to hold whatever beliefs you like does not give you the right to preach religion in a public school or waste a child's time with nonsense like intelligent design creationism. But you can believe whatever you want.

    As for Sam Harris being an asshole, I would call that a contentious remark, not an ignorant one. I certainly know that Harris is a best-selling author. His defense of torture is repulsive.

    love,

    t

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