Political Views on College Campuses

[SparkyKid3000]

So a little while ago, I was flipping through the channels to find something to watch when I came across the "Watter's World" segment of the O'Reilly factor. Now I know Fox News is extremely biased and hardly ever report straight facts, but I could help tuning in when Mr. O'Reilly stated colleges were mostly liberal with liberal professors teaching dopey college students about liberal ideas. (He says the word liberal a lot.) As the segment continued, the guy called Watter went around interviewing students on Spring Break. The kids would say things like, "My professors are always trying to force their liberal agenda on me." "My professor gave me a B+ instead of an A because I'm conservative." "People are surprised when I tell them I'm conservative." Watter also asked some of the kids about their intelligence to which they admitted to not being very bright. So basically, O'Reilly and his friends at Fox News portrayed a bunch of conservative college students as idiots even though the purpose (I assume) was to bash liberal colleges, professors, and students. Due to this just airing, I do not have a video clip to show you. I will try my best to find one tomorrow (though if anyone beats me to it by all means post it).

All of that being said, I laughed while watching this. My experience in college is nothing like this. My professors don't even discuss politics unless it's related to the class, and even then they don't give their opinions on anything. But again, that's just my experience. For any of you who are in or have been in college, what is/was your college experience like dealing with politics. Was it close to what Watter's World showed or was it entirely different? If your situation is/was like the kids shown in the segment, please explain how your professors mistreated you for being conservative. (I have serious doubts about the kids who were interviewed.)

EDIT: Please ignore my statements that have been crossed out. They were not direct quotes and I shouldn't not have presented them as such.

Here is a link to what I believe is the video clip of the segment from last night.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2277964495001/how-liberal-are-americas-college-campuses/

If the link doesn't work or if it is the wrong video please let me know because for some reason my computer won't let me watch.

[azulmagia]

People who don't believe in evolution or global warming are hardly going to be able to grasp that trickle down doesn't ******** work (for example).

[Wendigo]

Conservatives often say that their ideas are being discriminated against in the classroom, but a well-thought-out argument in a position paper will be graded higher than a poorly-thought-out argument in a position paper. Although the very worst professors can be biased politically, or along racial or gender lines (happens), even in subjects like women's studies, you can argue with your professors and still get good grades, if you're an intelligent person, do your work, and are polite with your professor and fellow students.

I've had really, really political professors, but most of them are still pretty fair about conflicting ideologies, because being a professor kind of requires you to interact with lots of different kinds of people daily.

I'd say you're really the most likely to be ostracized by your fellow students rather than treated unfairly by professors, because students aren't paid to be nice to you and aren't obliged to spend time with you.

[Tarquin Aluclaire]

My women's literature, gender and literature, and sociology of deviance courses were all pretty liberal in that they were feminist, supported lgbt rights, and were anti-drug war respectively. I also live in Canada, a bastion of godless liberalism.

Since I am liberal I didn't mind this very much. I'm pretty sure conservatives don't take those courses anyway.

[The Herald of War]

I always wonder if we did a study of who thought they were the most persecuted and for what reason how many conservatives would say they feel persecuted for their opinions.

[Tarquin Aluclaire]

The Herald of War

I always wonder if we did a study of who thought they were the most persecuted and for what reason how many conservatives would say they feel persecuted for their opinions.

Probably most of them. They're just as bad as Tumblr feminists.

Both need to get their privledge examined by a trained professional who can prescribe them something to keep the swelling down.

[The Herald of War]

Tarquin Aluclaire

The Herald of War

I always wonder if we did a study of who thought they were the most persecuted and for what reason how many conservatives would say they feel persecuted for their opinions.

Probably most of them. They're just as bad as Tumblr feminists.

Both need to get their privledge examined by a trained professional who can prescribe them something to keep the swelling down.

I don't even want to go look at Tumblr feminists, though it can't be as headache inducing as some of the other stuff I've seen that can't even be linked to a legitimate cause by sometimes tries to use the language... As far as I'm concerned tumblr is good for someone sometimes sending me funny links.

[N3bu]

It depends on what school your looking at within the university. The Liberal Arts schools tend to promote ideas of social justice but delve little into specifics since it has little to do with what they learn. The business schools leans a mixture between moderate conservatives and moderate liberals based on what the professors collectively see to work in their fields at the time. Engineers and scientists tend to give little ******** about anything unless it's development related investment.

[Agent Thrax]

SparkyKid3000

All of that being said, I laughed while watching this. My experience in college is nothing like this. My professors don't even discuss politics unless it's related to the class, and even then they don't give their opinions on anything. But again, that's just my experience.

TV usually lies.



Except for that one show, Hack the Planet I think it's called? They told me all about weather control, and how we've been doing it for yeaaaaars.

[Agent Thrax]

Tarquin Aluclaire

My women's literature, gender and literature, and sociology of deviance courses were all pretty liberal in that they were feminist, supported lgbt rights, and were anti-drug war respectively. I also live in Canada, a bastion of godless liberalism.

Since I am liberal I didn't mind this very much. I'm pretty sure conservatives don't take those courses anyway.

There is no such thing as liberal or conservative.

[Christien Chalfant]

Sparky, I actually watched this segment last night and I have to say you're doing a very poor job at properly describing what the segment covered. You shouldn't quote the kids statements incorrectly like that or paraphrase them incorrectly.
And Polls and Surveys have mixed results on Fox News. For instance Pew Research Center, UCLA, and USC studies call that Fox actually is the most fair and balanced in comparison to the other networks. But there are other studies that call Fox is very biased or the most biased.
And I have to tell you that you're very lucky to not experience professors like this. All throughout Elementary School, High School, and now in College I have had teachers and professors who talk about Politics and give their opinions multitudinously. Also, all of those teachers and professors were liberal or left-leaning on the issues they discussed.
I can tell you that currently in my Sociology class I am being attacked aggressively by the students and the professor encourages it because it's "constructive disagreements," and the professor even goes to openly disagree or argue with me because of my socioeconomic background except when he has no counter to my points.
I have doubts about the kids in the interview as well, but it would've have been better to post the clip from Watters' World and then ask do your OP, in my opinion.

[SparkyKid3000]

Christien Chalfant

Sparky, I actually watched this segment last night and I have to say you're doing a very poor job at properly describing what the segment covered. You shouldn't quote the kids statements incorrectly like that or paraphrase them incorrectly.
And Polls and Surveys have mixed results on Fox News. For instance Pew Research Center, UCLA, and USC studies call that Fox actually is the most fair and balanced in comparison to the other networks. But there are other studies that call Fox is very biased or the most biased.
And I have to tell you that you're very lucky to not experience professors like this. All throughout Elementary School, High School, and now in College I have had teachers and professors who talk about Politics and give their opinions multitudinously. Also, all of those teachers and professors were liberal or left-leaning on the issues they discussed.
I can tell you that currently in my Sociology class I am being attacked aggressively by the students and the professor encourages it because it's "constructive disagreements," and the professor even goes to openly disagree or argue with me because of my socioeconomic background except when he has no counter to my points.
I have doubts about the kids in the interview as well, but it would've have been better to post the clip from Watters' World and then ask do your OP, in my opinion.

Thank you for your take on this, but I already stated in my original post that I couldn't find the video at the time. I think I may have found the video clip, but it said something like Error: Source not supported. (I have no clue what that means gonk ) It was incorrect for me to place quotation marks around what I thought the students said so thank you for pointing that out. (I will edit my first post and add the link to see if the video will work for anyone else. Hopefully it plays and it will be the correct one.)

Your teachers in elementary school expressed political views? I've heard people complain at the high school and college level, but never about elementary school. If you don't mind, could you explain exactly what they said to you?

[Christien Chalfant]

SparkyKid3000

Thank you for your take on this, but I already stated in my original post that I couldn't find the video at the time. I think I may have found the video clip, but it said something like Error: Source not supported. (I have no clue what that means gonk ) It was incorrect for me to place quotation marks around what I thought the students said so thank you for pointing that out. (I will edit my first post and add the link to see if the video will work for anyone else. Hopefully it plays and it will be the correct one.)

Your teachers in elementary school expressed political views? I've heard people complain at the high school and college level, but never about elementary school. If you don't mind, could you explain exactly what they said to you?

Thank you smile
Did you find it on O'Reilly or Fox's website? I know O'Reilly has his own site and then a little part of Fox's site as well.
Oh yeah. I remember during the Baby Bush/Kerry election what happened. I was in my 5th grade classes and both homeroom teachers talked about why Kerry was better than Bush and even tried to get a class discussion on why Kerry was better! Now, I mean, we were freaking little kids!
My Science and Math teacher held me back during recess once so I could "work on a project" that was due at the end of the year, and she talked to me while I did my work about why Kerry's views on Foreign, Domestic, policy were better than Bush's.
I can't remember the exact words of the time because it's been so long. But I can remember just saying to her, "well I think people choose candidates that they think will be the best for the country at a certain point in time," and she just said something about Kerry being the President we needed.
My other homeroom teacher was the one who tried to get a classroom discussion going. She brought up why she thought Kerry was better and then asked the students to say why they thought Kerry was better and then mentioned Baby Bush as a side thought. All the kids who raised their hands and said something were basically just reiterating things they heard their parents say (I know this because they would say "well my mom/dad said..." wink or they would agree with something that our teacher said.
I've been in a very liberal learning environment since as long as I can remember. When I was in 3rd grade and 9/11 happened my teacher and student teacher wanted to talk about why it happened and how Bush failed us and a lot of things like that.

[SparkyKid3000]

Christien Chalfant

Thank you smile
Did you find it on O'Reilly or Fox's website? I know O'Reilly has his own site and then a little part of Fox's site as well.
Oh yeah. I remember during the Baby Bush/Kerry election what happened. I was in my 5th grade classes and both homeroom teachers talked about why Kerry was better than Bush and even tried to get a class discussion on why Kerry was better! Now, I mean, we were freaking little kids!
My Science and Math teacher held me back during recess once so I could "work on a project" that was due at the end of the year, and she talked to me while I did my work about why Kerry's views on Foreign, Domestic, policy were better than Bush's.
I can't remember the exact words of the time because it's been so long. But I can remember just saying to her, "well I think people choose candidates that they think will be the best for the country at a certain point in time," and she just said something about Kerry being the President we needed.
My other homeroom teacher was the one who tried to get a classroom discussion going. She brought up why she thought Kerry was better and then asked the students to say why they thought Kerry was better and then mentioned Baby Bush as a side thought. All the kids who raised their hands and said something were basically just reiterating things they heard their parents say (I know this because they would say "well my mom/dad said..." wink or they would agree with something that our teacher said.
I've been in a very liberal learning environment since as long as I can remember. When I was in 3rd grade and 9/11 happened my teacher and student teacher wanted to talk about why it happened and how Bush failed us and a lot of things like that.

I found the link on Fox New's site. O'Reilly only had a summary with a few quotes on his site.

Jesse Watters took his crew to spring break in Florida, where he asked some sun-drenched young folks about liberal indoctrination at their colleges. Some of the responses: "I had a professor freshman year who introduced himself as the most raging liberal you'll ever meet" ... "Rick Santorum came to speak at our school and our professor ripped him apart in class" ... "Our professor passed around voter registration cards" ... "At the United States Air Force Academy there are still very many liberal individuals who get offended when you're conservative" ... "They tried to convert the entire class to the Muslim religion." Jesse also ran into one student, presumably not an Ivy Leaguer, who posed this pithy question: "What does liberal mean?"

http://www.billoreilly.com/show?action=latestTVShow&noPlaceholder=true#6

I'd like to examine these quotes. I can believe the first three, but I don't see what's wrong with them.
1. A professor claiming to be a raging liberal is nothing bad.
2. There were conservatives who also spoke out against Santorum so I don't see how a college professor doing the same is anything surprising.
3. Passing out voter registration cards? Is that not a good thing? At my school we had both political sides doing that at the center of the campus.
4. How exactly do people get offended by someone being conservative/liberal. The guy who said that didn't make any sense to me.
5. Converting the entire class to the Muslim religion...really...? This is the claim I doubt the most. My guess is he took a religion class and thought the teacher was "forcing" him to accept Islam when they covered that unit.
6. I pity the girl who didn't know what liberal meant but not everyone cares about politics...

Your experience at school is interesting. Never heard anything quite like it. I actually recall having "elections" in school for the 2004 and 2008 elections. If you ask me, I thought they were pointless since most, if not all, of the younger kids voted for whoever their parents liked.

[King Shining Heaven]

I get so tired of conservatives whining about campuses being liberal. I;m a college student and none of my professors are like that