I expect that most of us have heard by now of a few notorious “professor watchlists” where a student or parent can go and look to see which professors (and the universities that hire them) have a tendency to “advance radical agendas in lecture halls.” Now on the surface, these might seem like a good idea, at least in theory. But there’s one big, glaring problem...Nearly all of these “professor watchlists” have an agenda of their own that they don’t even try to hide: they only document and expose liberal professors!
So let’s define the word “indoctrinate” and see if this fits what these liberal professors were doing, shall we?
From Merriam-Webster:
1: to instruct especially in fundamentals or rudiments : teach
2: to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle
So even now we see that this is a complex word with two somewhat vague, different meanings. In one case, “to indoctrinate” simply means “to teach.” To imbue with doctrine. And in the other case, it seems to signify to imbue with a biased or limited viewpoint or opinion. By these vague definitions alone, any and all professors and teachers would seem to be guilty of “indoctrination!”
Now I tend to define and interpret “indoctrination” as the second definition which I take to mean that the teacher or professor must be actively and at that moment teaching or imbuing his/her students with biased, sectarian, or limited opinions or ideology. But now here’s where this gets tricky and where most of the misunderstandings of “indoctrination” comes into play. Many of the listed liberal professors were cited for their opinions and ideologies themselves and not for what the professor was actually teaching their students. For instance, quite a few professors’ tweets or interviews have been used as proof of their supposed “indoctrination and discrimination of students.”
From the unabashedly biased conservative “Professor Watchlist:” which is a project of Turning Point USA, a non-profit organization whose supposed mission is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.” (Their bold, not mine). In a picture on their “About Us” section, you can even see students holding up signs like “Socialism Sucks!” “Free Markets, Free People,” and “They hate U.S. ‘cuz they ain’t U.S.” But that’s not “indoctrination,” right? *rolls eyes*
(Edit: Out of respect for my fellow professors, I removed their names, although their full information is still used on conservative-based sites like “Professor Watchlist”.)
__________is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Cooper stated that white racism is to blame for Brexit. She tweeted “White nationalism gone be the death of all of us. #Brexit” and went on to say “The only thing I know that makes white folks vote against their own economic interest is racism. #Brexit.” In another interview with Salon she stated that white people need to start recognizing that they are “the face of the oppressor.” Cooper has also stated that Christian conservatives worship a “white supremacist Jesus.”
____________is a Professor of Media Studies as well as Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. She argued on Twitter that the U.S. military is worse than ISIS. Kumar wrote on Twitter, "Yes ISIS is brutal, but US is more so, 1.3 million killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
_____________is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Zasloff was caught on social media in January of 2015 stating that Republicans were catering to their KKK core of old, angry, white Southern men with reactionary views on race.
______________is an Associate Professor at the University of California-Berkeley. In the beginning of Hendel’s class, titled “Jewish Civilization I: The Biblical Period,” he told students not to take his class if they think the Bible is infallible. After one student started questioning and challenging him, Hendel told the student “If you disagree with the approach we use, that’s an F.”
Now this last one is a special case. Why did I include it? Because all too often students (especially conservative students) forget the intent and purpose of the course they’re signing up for. On the surface (and I’m sure as the conservative “Professor’s Watchlist” intended), it might seem that this professor callously discriminated against a religious student. End of story, right? But on closer look we find that actually the aforementioned student published an op-ed in the Daily Californian that not only accused religious studies professors of hypocrisy for daring to study religious texts for historical, literary, or academic purposes, but then (at least according to the professor) claimed that religious doctrine itself should be taught in the class!
Notice that the professor did not ban religious people from his course. He simply said that if they believe the Bible is infallible, they should not take it. Why? Because looking at the course again we find that it seems to be a history or anthropology course. Notice it has the word “civilization” in it. You can probably surmise that any reading of scripture would be used for a historical or literary and not to promote any theological perspective. And while I have no doubt that had the professor the time, he could easily debate this student to his heart’s content, it’s not this professor’s job in this case to debate theology itself nor should he take useful time away from actually teaching his “civilization” course to rest of the class just to satisfy the sensitive religious ego of this one student.
For those that still have some problems understanding why the student got the harsh reply he got, let me put it to you this way: Would a hardcore evolutionist be getting a passing grade if he were to take a course on creationism or creationist theology? Probably not, unless he put his own personal beliefs (and evidence) aside and followed the rules and completed the assignments of the course in the way the professor would expect. Same thing with any other course. If it’s a science course, expect to learn science. If it’s a “civilization” course, expect to learn about the civilization.
But I think I made my point. There a dozens more examples on “Professor Watchlist” (and those like it) similar to these in which liberal professors are being documented and exposed for merely stating their beliefs and opinions (and often, even facts!) even when they’re stated outside the classroom and in other contexts! Yet somehow having a different opinion from conservatives is “indoctrination?!”
Well then...Let’s go the other way. What about all the private and religious colleges and universities out there that also indoctrinate liberal students and have a theological, free-market, right-wing agenda? These religious institutions are actively using indoctrination because they’re already slating themselves as “religious, conservative, private, etc.” schools! How’s THAT not “indoctrination?” Some required courses at these colleges (including the infamous Liberty University) include “Creation Studies 209: History of Life.”
Or that by finding dinosaur “soft tissue” (terms that most young earth creationists use when really most scientists have used “red blood cell residue” and “protein residue”) automatically means the young earth theory must be correct? Is that not “indoctrination?”
Are these growing creationist museums (some even associated or owned by conservative universities and colleges) that defy 90% (if not more) of mainstream scientists’ academic findings by deliberately misinforming the public by claiming actual fossils from millions of years ago are only about 6,000 years old also not “indoctrination?!”
What about the viewpoint in conservative colleges about all the positives of the “free-market” (often worryingly and conveniently backed and funded by the Koch Brothers and other billionaires) to the detriment in understanding of how socialist principles also greatly contributed and helped build the USA?
The only good news seems to be that at least the old conservative/Republican denial of climate change thankfully seems to be changing (although they have to catch up quickly now if we’re expected to do anything about it in time).
Also, these people do NOT get to determine what’s “pro-American” and what’s not! Acknowledging our flaws and wanting to better and improve our country for ALL of its citizens (not just the white middle class Christian males!) makes us liberals even more patriotic than the misguided belief that taking us back to the “good ol’ days” of the 50s and 60s when blacks were being lynched in the streets and women knew their place is somehow going to make this country “great again.”
And for those that don’t think liberal pro-evolution Christian professors don’t suffer discrimination from their more conservative brethren who misguidedly believe that liberalism and Christianity are mutually exclusive, think again:
As a Christian professor who has tangled with evangelical institutions over evolution, I am often invited to don the mantle of “heretic.” The invitation typically comes in the form of an interview in which I am asked to respond to questions that will identify me as a liberal-throw-the-bible-under-the-bus lost soul who has no business calling himself a Christian.
Aren’t ALL of these CONSERVATIVE examples forms of “indoctrination” as well?! So I say it’s time to fight fire with fire! We liberals ought to have our OWN “watchlists” (professor/academic/scientist/etc.) to protect ourselves from overt conservative indoctrination and propaganda in the classroom and pseudo-museums, especially in today’s national and global political climate with the rise of neo-nationalism.
If according to sites like “Professor’s Watchlist,” conservatives have the supposed “right to know the specific incidents and names of professors that advance a radical agenda in lecture halls,” then so do we liberals have the right to know as well which conservative scientists or professors are flying in the face of actual fact-based science and expect us to ignore it as well.
I already know of some conservatives that we can begin with:
Dinesh D’Souza (former president of The King’s College). Here’s a hilarious Youtube video of him attempting to defend white privilege in the first few minutes by claiming that “the Native Americans didn’t own the country, had a great advantage over the white immigrants, and then tries to use the story of Cain and Abel” to somehow tie it altogether. Yup. He tried to use the story of Cain and Abel to justify the white man’s taking of Native American land. Go figure. But a quick look at the comments below that video and you’ll laugh even more at how those conservatives practically label him a “genius” and insult the boy who to his credit is actually trying to ask critical, common sense questions respectfully.
Ben Shapiro (conservative political commentator, author [one of his many anti-left books include Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth], editor-at-large at notorious white supremacist Breitbart from 2012-2016, and attorney who’s spoken and given lectures at many colleges including University of Missouri, CSULA, and De Paul University.
Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University since 2007 upon his father’s death. From Wiki, some of his outrageous comments include:
So if any liberal out there reads this and knows how to set up a “watchlist,” please, please, PLEASE feel free to do so or SHARE some info with us in the comments or messages on how we can do it ourselves. It’s high time we also start holding these conservatives accountable for what THEY say and do in the classroom and in academia.
Thanks for reading!
Edit: For those confused at to what I’m suggesting, it’s this: that liberals either need their own “watchlist” to monitor extreme (notice I said “extreme”) conservative teaching OR we need to band together and try to get the conservative watchlists shut down. But sitting idly by while conservatives warp the media into thinking that higher education = “liberal indoctrination” is also NOT the way to go. We could be losing future generations to those tactics and those future generations are often what the Democratic Party relies on in their elections. But doing nothing (as we almost always seem to do) is just helping the conservative agenda even more. But these double-standards need to stop. We have the SAME rights the conservatives have and should make active USE of them.