Gee, I have so much to look forward to. But I see where you're coming from and I respect your analysis. Keep up the goodwork, E.

So very true.

One time, one of my professors assigned us an essay entitled: "Compare and Contrast Adolf Hitler and George W. Bush" so I know exactly what you mean. I openly stood up for my views, but I was the only one. (A few people came up to me after class and told me how much they admired me for what I did... And that they were too ashamed to say those things themselves.)

Interesting. I'm liberal, and will make jokes about conservatives, but when it comes down to it, politics don't matter when you're playing video games, studying, etc. And when I'm talking to a conservative, we just agree to disagree and talk about something other than politics. Some people I don't understand why they're conservative (like my half-black bisexual ex-girlfriend) but I'll befriend - or in her case, date - them anyway.

I do think part of the reason that there aren't that many conservative professors is just because a larger proportion of conservatives wouldn't want to teach anyway. The idea of being the lone conservative in the face of a bunch of liberals, and in many cases getting discriminated for it skews the proportions even further, but I doubt the professor proportion would ever stop being left of the population as a whole.

Wonderful essay, and unfortunately...true.

Discrimination is institutionalized. This article makes no attempt to show how the institutions of college are set up to prevent conservatives from having a valuable educational experience, but rather talks about dickheads and morons--which any thinking person will encounter.

Anyone who espouses a strong belief is going to get challenged on it, especially in educational institutions where information is currency. In high school, I was a very liberal person living in a very liberal place, and yet there were still certain people who couldn't give me enough ** for it. I think the fact of life is: some people are dickheads, other people will want to argue/discuss intelligently. I think that goes for any ideology.

Instead of complaining about it, perhaps it's worth using the opportunity of being in the minority to strengthen your position and your arguments. There is no feeling more empowering than delivering a slam that leaves your opponent speechless in front of people who once ridiculed your ideas. And, as with anything, it's worth picking your battles; some people simply aren't worth arguing with, others are even if you know you'll never change your mind.

This new wave of concern about discrimination, which only began to be discussed after the news people (who have been bought off by politicians before, for example in the fake drug warning scandal of a few months back) brought it up, strikes me as ridiculous and as partisanship. If conservative students can't take a few challenges to their ideas, what does that show about the strength of their ideas? I have been challenged endless times, have won and lost debates, have even been confronted in the halls by aggressive strangers for voicing my liberal viewpoints. This, like anyone who voices a strong opinion. What that shows, to me, is that my ideas are strong enough to hold water and important enough to be noticed--not that I'm being discriminated against.

You’ve seen nothing yet. The University of California managed to work in a class titled "The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance" that of course taught that old liberal virtue of destroying Israel. They changed their 1933 rules of academic freedom to put this indoctrination class in the school.

According to Leila Beckwith the “original course description went so far as to encourage conservative thinkers to seek other classes.”

When campus conservatives at Duke took out an ad challenging the bias of their faculty, the chairman of the philosophy department responded by saying "If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire…” Let’s not forget that a conservative of the 1880s no longer exists when quoting Mill.

On a paper about institutionalized bias within the intelligentsia, citing the existence of such pogroms- I mean programs!- as the one bent on destroying Israel may get you more traction than pointing to comparative grades. Monev11235 already covered why going with that method is shaky.

There’s far more than enough evidence to glean from local news paper accounts nationwide to prove conclusively that all the old embittered '68'ers are out in force muzzling anyone right of Chomsky. You’d do well to mention the string of custard pie attacks that accompany speakers like William Krystal. These kind of attacks are becoming more common and more openly sanctioned by radical wing-nut professors on campus.

I could point toward more, but if I gave into the temptation to cover everything, I’d never finish. You wrote a fine paper. I’m not sure starting with your TV habits was the best way to go, but this is fine work. You didn’t properly punctuate the final sentence (the period is missing), but you put ample work into it.

Very interesting. I wonder what grade you received for it?

I think you're right in stating that the prevailing liberal attitudes of most universities are enough to discourage conservative students (me) from pursuing academic/teaching careers.

I recently had the unpleasant experience of sitting in a classroom and biting my toungue while the students and professor engaged in a bit of Bush bashing. I'm not looking forward to a whole semester of it.

It heartens me to discover that I'm not entirely alone.

yes, I agree. I am a conservative and I know what it's like. Being from Rhode Island, where 90% of the population is Liberal, I get teased a lot.

~*Toni*~

Having experienced this first hand I can say that it is one of the distinct pleasures in my life to say that I not only stood up to a crowd of politically drunk hypocrites but got them to shut there fat pompus heads and walk away with there tails between there legs. I live and go to school in santa Cruz California, Berkleys bastard child, where I was one of the seven tokin comservatives. Thank you for this essay.

w00t.

Someone can actually write a decent essay!

Oh, and about Foothill college... where exactly is it? Because there is a Foothill college less than a mile from my house.

The sad bitter truth is that everyone (well, most) gets discrimnated against sometimes. It's really awful that conservative students get this kind of treatment. I, myself, identify as "liberal", but that doesn't mean I think any less of you for being conservative.

The polarization of this country is a terrible, terrible thing. It only helps to spread discrimnation to all people be them conservative, gay, liberal, christian, atheist, whatever. It really just makes me sad that we can't all at least try to coexist in peace.

Good job on this.

Finally, somebody has the gall to speak about this. But what's shocking is that the behaviour isn't new: I was publicly scorned for my beliefs back in high school, which was back in the ninties before Bush Jr. I'm very happy you wrote this.

You know, it could be that your sources are simply picking specific cases, such as a well-written paper on socialism and a poorly written capitalism paper, while another student may have gotten a D or an F on a socialism paper, and another capitalism paper could've gotten an excellent grade. Besides, extremists (on both sides) are annoying, so, meh... *leaning towards liberal but usually fairly moderate, in case you're wondering*

Although I am a liberal, and disagree on almost all points with conservatives, this essay really made me think. You have an excellent point, and I need to remember it. As a ** girl in highschool, I completely understand what it is like to be beat down and harrassed, and there is little difference between that kind of discrimintaion and politicalism. You have proved a very good point. Thank you.

You rock.