Evil Pundit of Doom II

May 08, 2008

Food for thought

A commenter at The Volokh Conspiracy makes an excellent academic analogy:

Imagine if there were a Department of Firearm Studies. All the professors were a card-carrying member of GOA, NRA, etc. The professors' resumes consisted mostly of shooting competitions and lobbying on behalf of the NRA and little, if any, scholarship. The only reading materials were those supporting an absolute right to own Stinger missles. Nothing was assigned supporting a mitia-centric view or a more limited individual rights view. Any student who dissented from the professors' orthodoxy would get a failing grade or be ridiculed and ostracized. Students who wrote elected officials to oppose gun control would get bonus points toward their grade and class credit would be given for wearing an empty holster to support guns on campus. The professors would also be de facto employees of the NRA, albeit paid get paid by the university, who spent as least as much time lobbying and organizing rallies as teaching or researching.

That would be the right-wing equivilent of the typical Womens' Studies Department and the like. Don't hold your breath waiting for this to happen. Nor should it happen. There should be a line between the political and the scholarly.

Posted by: Evil Pundit at 11:41 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 204 words, total size 1 kb.

1 ... Except, of course, that the people who are in the Womens' Studies Department were born as women, didn't choose to be women and have been women 24/7 throughout their lives, while guns are machines that are manufactured by factories and are lethal.

Only a conservative could explicitly compare women to guns and not realize what an ass he is making of himself.

Posted by: Adam Stanhope at May 18, 2008 01:18 PM (MKUwj)

"people who are in the Womens' Studies Department were born as women"

Rules out men?

How inclusive, "what an ass he is making of himself": definitely.

Posted by: egg at May 18, 2008 03:02 PM (qbCFd)

3 "... while guns are machines that are manufactured by factories and are lethal." Good points; now for the down side ...? Cheers

Posted by: J.M. Heinrichs at May 19, 2008 01:21 AM (YOWJs)

4 Rather than a specimen .... isn't this a sample of the how academia in the Anglosphere has sunk to its nadir in 2008?

After all, it has bias, bigotry and the rigid closed mind. It has approved plagiarism. It has dumbing-down. It gives a sinecure to someone whose career is built on plundering the good ideas of his/her/its student - without a word of acknowlegement. It has misinformation, dysinformation, ridiculous references and thoroughly dodgy primary sources. Probably pass marks for dropping your pants too. It has the unethical waste of the students' time, effort, enthusiasm, curiosity, reputation, money and other resources. In the end, the credential so gained will cost a hell of a lot more that it could ever be worth.

The good news is .... this is as low as it gets .... either that - or another King Henry VIII will rock up on the scene and "close the abbeys".

Posted by: Graham Bell at May 27, 2008 11:13 AM (6hppB)

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