What Does Bias Look Like?
Megan McArdle has had a very interesting couple of posts on bias as practiced by liberals. I have a large contingent of family members who are professors and I, because of my work, have spent a good amount of time guest speaking at high schools and colleges. The arrogance, especially ideological arrogance, is really quite astounding.
I was once informed that my speaking to a senior civics class was so Neanderthal-like that it took the teacher a week to undo the damage I had done. It seemed that some of the students had never heard that the Civil War was not, as they had been taught, really just the "war to free the slaves" nor was there a constitutional authority to create a hyper-equal citizen that should or does receive extra special consideration under the law.
The second time I spoke at that school other teachers attended the class I was speaking with to "correct" me when I spoke heretical thoughts. It was quite a lot of fun as they had no real basic knowledge of history, law and the constitution. They just had relative outta-be thoughts and their thoughts of what people such as the Founding Fathers were really thinking as they formed our nation (think the dead white rich guy scthtick). Now they just avoid me when I speak. Well, I should say mostly they avoid me because I have become friendly with some, who while still disagreeing with me, like to speak or debate with me outside of the classroom setting. We have fun and I have learned from them. I hope I have imparted so thoughts that they have thought more about.
McArdle focused on the academic world, but it made think of life in general and specifically politics. I believe her list of points could be a liberal list of what is wrong with conservative voters.
Those people offered their own alternate theories, which boiled down to:
- Smart people are almost always liberal
- Curiosity and interest in ideas is a liberal trait
- Conservatives are too rigid and authoritarian to maintain the open mind required of a professor
- Education erases false conservative ideas and turns people into liberals
- Conservatives don't want to be professors because they're more interested in something else (money, the military)
- Conservatives don't want to be professors because they're anti-intellectual
- Conservatives hold false beliefs that make them ineligible to be professors
I was once informed that my speaking to a senior civics class was so Neanderthal-like that it took the teacher a week to undo the damage I had done. It seemed that some of the students had never heard that the Civil War was not, as they had been taught, really just the "war to free the slaves" nor was there a constitutional authority to create a hyper-equal citizen that should or does receive extra special consideration under the law.
The second time I spoke at that school other teachers attended the class I was speaking with to "correct" me when I spoke heretical thoughts. It was quite a lot of fun as they had no real basic knowledge of history, law and the constitution. They just had relative outta-be thoughts and their thoughts of what people such as the Founding Fathers were really thinking as they formed our nation (think the dead white rich guy scthtick). Now they just avoid me when I speak. Well, I should say mostly they avoid me because I have become friendly with some, who while still disagreeing with me, like to speak or debate with me outside of the classroom setting. We have fun and I have learned from them. I hope I have imparted so thoughts that they have thought more about.
McArdle focused on the academic world, but it made think of life in general and specifically politics. I believe her list of points could be a liberal list of what is wrong with conservative voters.
•Smart people are almost always liberal
•Curiosity and interest in ideas is a liberal trait
•Conservatives are too rigid and authoritarian to maintain the open mind
required of a voter
•Education can erase false conservative ideas and turn good people into liberals
•Conservatives shouldn’t be voters because they’re more interested in something
else (money, the military) that is detrimental to democracy
•Conservatives are anti-intellectual voters
•Conservatives hold false beliefs that make them ineligible to be voters
•Curiosity and interest in ideas is a liberal trait
•Conservatives are too rigid and authoritarian to maintain the open mind
required of a voter
•Education can erase false conservative ideas and turn good people into liberals
•Conservatives shouldn’t be voters because they’re more interested in something
else (money, the military) that is detrimental to democracy
•Conservatives are anti-intellectual voters
•Conservatives hold false beliefs that make them ineligible to be voters
