A new study finds leftist bias all too real in academic hiring. Campus radicals not only run colleges but admit they discriminate against conservatives. So much for “tolerance.” Why should voters foot the bill for this?
Looking at just one branch of social science, researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands found that almost a third of social psychologists — nearly all of whom are leftists — admitted in a survey they’d discriminate against conservatives in hiring decisions and grant proposals.
“The more liberal the respondents, the more likely they were to admit bias,” reported the Daily Caller, which came across the study.
This isn’t exactly earth-shaking news, of course. Everyone knows leftists control universities with no accountability. It does raise questions, however, because higher education has grown bloated and the public is picking up an ever more onerous tab.
Costs aside, the Heritage Foundation points out that an ideological monolith creates a contented atmosphere of groupthink. The result: scientific stagnation based on the lack of give and take. Admitted discrimination in hiring also spreads an intolerance of dissent.
The firing by UCLA this summer of a 35-year professor, James Enstrom, for exposing junk science concerning air quality in the California’s Central Valley, revealed nothing short of inquisitional hostility to science and the free flow of ideas, based on leftist intolerance.
It was the constant and omnipresent liberalism of my professors, the school administration, and the student newspaper that hastened my shift to conservatism during my adult college days. Nothing like hearing nonstop propaganda, when you already suspect its illegitimacy, to drive you into the opposing camp.
When I was 30 years old in college, I gave an informative speech for Speech Class about the Ozone/CFC connection (it was the alarmist scare of the moment and very timely). After much research it was apparent that CFC’s do destroy ozone. But if you are anywhere north of Antarctica, solar radiation tearing apart O2 in the upper atmosphere creates it far faster than it is destroyed. For my open-minded, well researched, and well delivered speech, I was given a D (presumably for coming to the wrong conclusion).
My cousin received a similar response to his analysis that concluded that Northern Factory workers had worse lives than Southern Slaves before the Civil war. When he asked his professor about the near-failing grade, she responded “Slavery was wrong you racist pig”.
Thankfully, I was part of the engineering school at UH. My professors were quite free to speak their minds. I only got in trouble in my “social science” class “Family science 101″ (it was the only one that fit my schedule) when I said the professor had no evidence to back her claims of a “rape culture” in hip-hop music.
I am sure that this is a bad time to mention this but I have written my own Children’s Book to help combat the rampant ignorance that is found all to often, not only by the left but by those being instructed by the left. If you care to check it out it can be found at http://www.ConservativeBedtimeStories.com.
That being said many people would say I am the propagandist in this. Maybe so but at least I am honest about it and label my book what it is so that people can REALIZE it has a point of view. Liberals simply take you into their arms and tell you their way of thinking is TRUTH.
P.S. Doubting Thomas, a healthy dose of skepticism is one of the best things I think you can have. I love people who argue over points that I hold as a belief as it allows me to explore the reasons for my believing them. This is a good thing.