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Professors worried students will share lectures with 'right wing sites'
Jon Street
Managing Editor
@JonStreet
on Mar 19, 2020 at 12:42 PM EDTProfessors across the country are expressing concern over courses being moved online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
One professor expressed concern that "right wing sites" could expose what is being taught in college courses.Professors across the country are taking to social media to express their concern over being forced to deliver their course lectures online amid the coronavirus outbreak, sharing with each other tips on how to limit the number of people who are able to see what they're teaching students, and criticizing "right wing sites" and even Campus Reform, specifically.
Texas Christian University Associate Professor of Political Science Emily Farris tweeted Thursday, "if you are recording a lecture on anything controversial, be prepared for right wing sites to ask students to share it." Campus Reform reached out to Farris via Twitter Direct Messaging to allow her the opportunity to further explain her comments or to clarify. She later blocked the author of this article on Twitter.
LaSalle University Assistant Professor of Public Health Christen Rexing replied to Farris' tweet, asking why others could find topics such as "gun safety, women's health, elections, etc." to be "controversial, as they are "evidence-based."
"Seems like the flood gates could open," Rexing commented in response to courses moving online.
University of North Carolina political science graduate student Stephanie Shady also weighed in, saying, "Annnnd I just realized that the second half of my course focuses on public opinion towards and politicization of immigration. This will be interesting." Another user with the Twitter name "Prof CWO" replied "Sigh, I teach about white nationalism and this has been my biggest fear since we began transitioning to online instruction."
Columbia University political science professor Jeffrey Lax said he has been "thinking about" how students would be able to record classes.
Trinity College Associate Professor of Political Science Isaac Kamola who, as Campus Reform previously reported sought to hire a "Campus Reform Early Responder," specifically mentioned Campus Reform in his reply to Farris.
"If Campus Reform harasses you or someone you know, the best response is to 'follow the money.' Campus Reform receives $1.4 million from the Leadership Institute, a Koch-funded organization designed to delegitimize academics they consider too left. They are not a new [sic] source," Kamola tweeted.
A user whose website says they are a history professor at a "community college in North Texas" wrote, "I'm taking steps to limit this but nothing is foolproof."
Farris asked how Gunter was working to ensure her lectures are not made public, to which Gunter responded with one tip for her colleague.
"Instead of posting videos direct to LMS (which would then own them) I'm posting links to the videos on youtube. The videos themselves are 'unlisted' meaning you can't find them in a search or if you go to my page-only if you have the direct link. Doesn't stop link sharing though," Gunter said.
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14563
So, here I am, trying to wrap my head around the fact that liberals FEAR the possibility of the public learning what they are teaching. Does that make any sense at all? If I want to shape the world, wouldn't I WANT more people to hear the word, to understand my thoughts and goals, and hopefully to get on board with my agenda?
Instead, we have liberals who FEAR the idea that their thoughts might go viral.
Imagine that. We might suspect that liberal college professors are actually just propaganda indoctrination technicians. Brainwash the kids while they are young, before they develop critical thinking skills, right?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Sunday March 22 2020, @09:41AM (11 children)
No, because they aren't liberals. Nothing liberal about them. These are, in bulk if not in total, regressive reactionaries, quite the opposite of liberals.
"Brainwash the kids while they are young, before they develop critical thinking skills, right?"
And whenever possible prevent them from ever developing such skills, yep. That's why public schools were invented.
Other posters have pointed out already some more 'legit' concerns that *might* be in play, and that may not be entirely wrong. But I doubt it amounts to much more than rounding error.
Actual liberals are happy to see their lectures distributed as widely as possible, and happy to engage in dialogue with their critics.
Faux liberals prefer to speak in secret, and punish their critics rather than engaging them.
Which do you think this article was actually describing?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Sunday March 22 2020, @10:22AM (6 children)
I'd be very surprised if there was anything being taught in her syllabi that Alan Sokal or Peter Boghossian couldn't shit on from a great height. Does their political "science" have any testable hypotheses? The only question in my mind is whether it's more wrong, or more not even wrong.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Sunday March 22 2020, @08:18PM (5 children)
Alan Sokal - science, mathematics, physics?? What kind of cult worshipers are these people? Thank goodness there's not very many of them. Why do people want to learn things anyway? Curiosity should be regarded suspiciously. Just put the Ramen in the microwave and push the button.
Political science... A most obvious contradiction.. Animal Planet is more educational. I can easily understand why they don't want these "courses" getting out.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday March 23 2020, @12:14AM (4 children)
It's just a specialisation inside of Ethology. Granted it's difficult for humans to attain the neutral point of view required to do it honestly, and most academics don't even try.
Animal planet can be quite educational, but it intentionally avoids treating humans directly. And we aren't identical even to our closest cousins, let alone to say crocodiles.
Although their presence in central africa certainly shaped our own evolution.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday March 23 2020, @12:39AM (2 children)
The only "science" in politics peaked with Edward Bernays. It is the science of propaganda/advertising. That would be the correct label for the course. On the other hand, politics is synonymous with propaganda So, okay, I can dig
And we aren't identical even to our closest cousins
We only have less hair. We do the whole alpha thing just as extremely as all other complex lifeforms, and even the simple ones. Proximity to power is a real thing. Our nature is very identical. Our political and economic systems are pure native savagery. Just look at DC. Even better, Ankara [youtube.com]. It couldn't be more animal, made worse by the psychopathy.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday March 23 2020, @07:30AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 05 2020, @05:41PM
I can figure out how to make something more or less similar. But more or less identical?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday March 23 2020, @01:26AM
Oh, damn, I completely missed it, sorry 'bout that!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 22 2020, @12:35PM (3 children)
We run into that, time and again. In the US, our liberals are not liberal, our conservatives are not conservative, left ain't left, right ain't right, and anything in the middle is just ground zero for all the destructive SOB's who hate America. And, yet, Dem, left, socialist, and liberal remain near-synonyms for the same group of people who are left of republicans in the US. Would it suffice to say that I understand all of that, and yet, I don't understand a bit of it?
Once again, I despise the R's, and I despise the D's at least a hundred times as much. They all suck!
And, I keep wondering when the common man, Joe the plumber, and Andy the auto plant worker, and all the rest of us are going to revolt from the two parties, and vote in some real people. It's been a near thing, last two elections, but it still hasn't happened. All we hear are rumors of revolt, but the nearest thing so far was when Wasserman-Schultz was booted from her chairmanship at the DNC. The other near thing, was the defeat of Clinton. Trump? Sort of a revolt - we dodged several bullets with that huge field of potentials offered by the R's.
So, here we are, with a laundry list of higher education "authorities" who fear that the common man might hear and understand their subversive propaganda.
Personally, I love knowing that they fear all of us Americans who still love our nation. Let them quake in fear, wondering when we are coming to get them.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @05:22PM
Ugh, you're the worst.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday March 22 2020, @05:53PM (1 child)
That's understandable. It's been deliberately done to render thought difficult.
"And, yet, Dem, left, socialist, and liberal remain near-synonyms for the same group of people who are left of republicans in the US."
But in what way are they to the left of republicans in the US?
The party power structure, and many of its officeholders, have spent the last 4 years consistently attacking a republican president *from the right* so how can they be to the left of the republicans?
We have two right-wing parties right now, and BOTH of them have worked for decades to make liberal a dirty word. Because liberalism is what they both fear and loathe.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Sunday March 22 2020, @08:28PM
We have two right-wing parties right now
Not really, it is one party grazing on the bourgeoisie
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..