I doubt that's a strong enough condemnation, but hey, there's no anti-Semitism on the left, right? There are two links, at Beltway Confidential, "Prof calls fellow academics ‘sanctimonious bigots’," and FrontPage Mag, "Leftist Professors and Double Standards."
After Dr. Fred Gottheil found an anti-Israel petition signed by "900 Academics" he decided to conduct a similar project: launching a " Statement of Concern," an academic petition "expressing concern about human rights violations in the Muslim Middle East, such as honor killing, wife-beating, female genital mutilation, and violence against gays and lesbians ..." Professor Gottheil, who teaches economics at the University of Illinois, was completely ignored. He didn't hear from anyone. He chalks up the double-standard to the usual suspects: anti-imperialism and not a little bit of anti-Semitism. And he concludes at the FrontPage interview:
The academic leftists are caught in an ideologically discriminatory trap of their own making. It turns out that with all their professing of principle, they are sanctimonious bigots at heart. And some are so obsessed about Israel that they would undermine their own self interest. Witness the faculty in gender studies who signed the anti-Israel petition but didn’t sign my “Statement of Concern” which is about discrimination of women, gays, and lesbians in the Muslim Middle East. Sort of pathetic, actually.
Why does the left always embrace the bad guys, while claiming to be the most empathetic and caring group of people?
ReplyDeleteWhen you take positions based on emotion rather than using facts and reason, I quess you fall into that trap.
One thing I really can't understand is this: For decades we've wanted to build defensive weapons against nuclear attack. Yet the left-wing in this country have fought this tooth and nail. I don't understand this. It seems to be insanity to me.
Keep up the good fight in exposing these people for what they really are.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteIf you want to know why those in academe always seem to be on the wrong side of any analysis of this country's needs just go in and spend some time reading their resumes. Most universities have them on line. It really is too bad most parents don't go in and check these resumes out before they let their children go to these institutions.
I will leave it to you to guess the items of importance that are missing if one is going to have the wherewithal to solve real world problems. Suffice it to say it is an eye opening experience and makes one wonder why people spend so little time in this area when their children are going to be affected in so many ways.
Dennis,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in grad school at the University of Oklahoma in the late 1980s, I was surprised to find out that so many of my PhD professors had so little real-world experience. Some who where in their 30s had never left campus.
It's no wonder that a college education is more like an introduction to ideology than a course in critical thinking.
I think I was fortunate, as my advisor taught me that in many cases asking the right question is just as -- or more -- important than what the answer may be. I hope that makes sense, because of all the things I took away with me, was that one comment still is with me.