Academic Crybabies

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Hat tip Campus Watch

In the world of academia, academic freedom is a concept that professors only apply to themselves and their particular beliefs not to the beliefs of those with whom they disagree. In the world of academia, to disagree with a professor and criticize what they “profess” is an attack, a threat, something that puts their jobs and their very lives in danger. As an example, we now have what I will call the “Gang of 63″. When they learned recently that there was a group compiling a list of names of professors students should avoid (if they don’t want to be exposed to what PW calls “a radical agenda in lecture halls”), they cried foul-then publicly requested their names be added as some sort of badge of honor. They are accusing Campus Watch of slandering them and threatening them with violence.

http://www.campus-watch.org/correction/115

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not an employee of Campus Watch though some of my articles have been cross-posted there on occasion. Nor am I affiliated with Professor Watch. Nor did I have any part in putting that list together. Having said that, I am familiar with several of the professors whose names appear on the list and have interacted with some of them. Hell, Mark LeVine even accused me of being “slanderous” when I called him an anti-Israel activist to his face in front of an audience. Talk about trying to have it both ways!

The reason you see the image above with the Palestinian flag attached to the crybaby’s face is that virtually all of the names I recognize are anti-Israel activists. Here is an example of these “scholars” hysterical language:

“The newly inaugurated U.S. administration has created an atmosphere of violence, racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. A less discussed aspect of these attacks is on academic freedom. The 2016 election has taken to new extremes the threats to academic freedom. We can see a preview of what this administration intends in their response to the recent cancellations of “talks” by professional provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who engages in public, cruel harassment of students who are critical of his extremist views, from the lectern through trigger cameras that project students’ images without their consent. He then proceeds to taunt them and incite actions against them on the basis of their physical appearance, race, sexuality, and gender. Instead of condemning this kind of incitement, President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from UC Berkeley after Yiannopoulos’ “talk” was cancelled at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses.”

In the interest of full disclosure, they might have said that Yiannopoulos’ “talk” at Berkeley was cancelled due to a riot. 

Then there is this scholarly gem:

“This watchlist echoes Horowitz’s project, Campus Watch.”

As pointed out very effectively by CW, they are not affiliated with David Horowitz or his Freedom Center. If they can’t get that right, what does that say about their scholarship in the classroom?

But I am going to put this “California Scholars for Academic Freedom” on my own list. In fact, I am going to give them their own link  at Fousesquawk. Henceforth, you will find them under the heading: Fiction Section.