Even those who aren’t surprised by the simple fact of Donald Trump’s assault on America’s universities must be shocked by the full frontal magnitude of it all, belated attempts to walk back parts of it, notwithstanding. (Harvard is putting up a courageous, clever, and effective defense.)
Republicans have literally been attacking public education for the entire 3+ decades of my life.
It was the inciting incident for the “moral majority.” The integration of schools really triggered the reactionaries.
Of course, having to teach science instead of their myth really upsets them too.
Also, showing kids different perspectives on history other than the manifest destiny of white men really offends them.
Oh, and treating every student with dignity really lights them up.
Turns out there’s a lot of reasons why reactionaries hate education, and they mostly reduce down to the fact that education makes one far less likely to be a backwards antisocial goon.
Of course, having to teach science instead of their myth really upsets them too.
In my experience, it was in addition to. My high school biology teacher was a creationist who “taught the controversy”.
biology teacher was a creationist
A very rare breed indeed
Depending on the state, getting teaching credentials is not challenging at all.
All 5 of mine too.
Republicans have literally been attacking
publiceducation for the entire3+ decades of mylife.I mean Republicans were the party of federally funded higher education, just … under Lincoln.
Texas is about to defund public schools
They need everyone to be sick, stupid, and scared.
A healthy and broadly educated population which feels safe and secure is incompatible with, and toxic to, conservative and authoritarian ideologies.
This is nothing new for the GOP. The Texas GOP accidentally said the quiet part out loud in 2012.
From the Texas 2012 GOP Platform
We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
This is why educational outcomes in red states are so bad, particularly in the south where the GOP often controls legislative and executive branches. People are scared of things they don’t understand so undermining education makes people easier to scare. Why do they want to scare people, you might ask? Because scared people tend to vote conservative.
Over the past few years, a number of experiments have begun to shed light on the relationship between emotion and political inclinations. “There’s empirical research that suggests that when people are primed with images of mortality—graveyards, hospitals, the elderly—this can move them to the right,” said John Hibbing, who directs the political physiology lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Some studies suggest that people who are already conservative may be extra-sensitive to these images.
They’ve been attacking universities for a while. Or see the insanity of the University of Austin.
Chasing people out of STEM is a well documented current phenomenon - they’ve been doing it to history departments for a while…
It’s all about damn control.
Turns out “thought police” was just another projection of the GQP
The way I see is that the left is not for thought control but rather for not being an asshole or spreading assholery.
If one wants to think certain people are not people, whatever. Thoughts don’t hurt people and they aren’t contagious. It’s the moment one speaks or acts on their thoughts there is a problem.
It’s been the goal of the oligarchs and their pet politicians to dismantle any attempt to educate and maintain the system of indoctrination that exists. The system was designed to produce obedient factory workers who do what they are told. Once the Robber Barons were gone the new generation of oligarchs did not see a reason to replace the system. As it obviously benefited them to keep a mindless populace around. Colleges and universities have had to deprogram students to be able to think for themselves. Now that so many people are getting college and university degrees, the oligarchs want to dismantle the system so that it goes back to only being a privileged few are able to see what is actually happening.
It has always been the oligarchs fault for how shit our education system has been. We have always been an oligarchic third world country that has been draped in a disguise of being better than it was.
They want public education to be North Korea style and private education to be only for the wealthy.
Feel bad for my friends who have kids not yet at the age of reason.
They pretend education is dogmatic indoctrination when it’s really learning scientific and philosophical methods and methodologies to think critically and evaluate arguments and evidence for yourself, and pretend their childhood religious dogma indoctrination with an unquestionable clergy authority isn’t damaging their ability to evaluate truth by lowering the bar of evidence to faith and personal experience when they deny those same garbage methods for every other religion but their own.
Dad said colleges ruined his relationship with his kids… no dumbass your kids dont like you because you are a child and college gave them chance to be independent
Does this mean I won’t have to get higher education to get that high paying job that requires a degree? Oh man this is awesome. /s
They’ve been doing a great job. They even have regular folks burning g and banning books on their behalf.
The Real Reason They’re Attacking Universities: Trying to intellectually neuter the populace.
Anyone who thought otherwise have sadly already fallen victim to their ongong actions into crippling eductation and spreading propaganda.
why bother? the populace is already there, and educated people either leave or won’t act
Trump and the Republican party does love the poorly educated.
