Big Government vs, Small Government

If it was only that simple, but now it is anti-Abortion vs. Abortion, it is anti-LGBTQ+ vs. pro-LGBTQ+, it is illegal aliens vs. undocumented aliens, and anti-Woke vs. Woke.

Few Americans say conservatives can speak freely on college campuses, an AP-NORC/UChicago poll shows
AP News
By Collin Binkley, Jocelyn Gecker and Emily Swanson
October 2, 2023

Americans view college campuses as far friendlier to liberals than to conservatives when it comes to free speech, with adults across the political spectrum seeing less tolerance for those on the right, according to a new poll.

Overall, 47% of adults say liberals have “a lot” of freedom to express their views on college campuses, while just 20% said the same of conservatives, according to polling from the University of Chicago and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Republicans perceive a stronger bias on campuses against conservatives, but Democrats see a difference too — about 4 in 10 Democrats say liberals can speak their minds freely on campuses, while about 3 in 10 Democrats say conservatives can do so.

I agree, campuses are tend to be liberal, where you have a free exchange of ideas they tend to be liberal. Where you have strict dogma they then to be conservatives.

But…

At the same time, Republican lawmakers in dozens of states have proposed bills aiming to limit public colleges from teaching topics considered divisive or liberal. Just 30% of Americans say states should be able to restrict what professors at state universities teach, the poll found, though support was higher among Republicans.

Just look at New College down in Florida, they shut down anything that had to do with gender studies, black studies, pulled “liberal” books from library shelves, and other classes that they deem “liberal.”

“The reality is that there’s free speech for everyone on college campuses,” said Fleisher, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “In conversations within classrooms, people are free to speak their minds. And they do.”

I believe in what James Baldwin said,

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

When conservatives bash trans people, gays, and lesbians, when they tell woman what they can do with their own bodies I believe that they have crossed the line.

“Over-the-top, overtly racist, hateful stuff — no. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that freely,” he said.

Big Government vs. Small Government bring on the debate!

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Book Banning!

For the Republicans critical thinking is like a wild fire, they try to stamp it out wherever it pops up.

Susan Campbell (opinion): By the numbers, book bans tell a different story

CT Post

By Susan Campbell

October 3, 2023

At first glance, the statistics for this year’s Banned Books Week, which began Sunday, look pretty disheartening.

In the first eight months of this year, the American Library Association counted 3,923 titles people have targeted for censorship around the country. That includes 1,915 challenges to unique titles (some books are challenged more than once), and 695 attempts to ban or restrict library resources and services.

It is telling that the vast bulk of books targeted for banning are written by, according to the American Library Association, authors of color, or authors who belong to the LGBTQ community. This can be considered just another skirmish in the fake culture war launched by people who believe they can explain critical race theory, and would ban it from schools where it already isn’t taught.

Lets face it. For the Republicans anything LGBTQ+ is open season. We are their scapegoats.

This is not a record to be proud of. In blue state Connecticut, the association counted 14 attempts so far this year. Such attempts to remove books have been launched in Newtown, Westport, Darien, Brookfield, Fairfield, and Guilford. Those are just the challenges that made the news, and for the most part, when the challenges were filed against books found in school libraries, local school boards voted to keep the books in circulation.

It is a war on education and the control of children's minds! We need to indoctrinate our children with conservative values like: bigotry and hating people who are different from themselves.

Credit: Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
CTNewsJunkie via Cagle Cartoons / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

OP-ED | Academic Freedom Is Under Assault In America

CT NewsJunkie

By Elwood Watson, Ph.D

October 3, 2023

Those of us who work in academia understand that academic freedom represents the cornerstone of successful colleges and universities. It epitomizes the right of freedom to teach, discuss, engage in research and freely publish your findings. It also means the ability to dictate one’s own teaching and scholarship agenda, the security of academic positions and shared governance to ensure independence.

Despite such facts, the mission of academic freedom is under severe attack from varied quarters, resulting in ominous and potentially dangerous threats for both students and professors.

[…]

Academic freedom was established by the founders of the American Association of University Professors following the firing of Darwinists by autocratic college presidents in the 1880s and 1890s, coupled with the dismissal of social reformers and activists by conservative boards disproportionately dominated by businessmen in the early 1900s. Flash forward more than a century later, and the fiery pace of legislation introduced over the past few years is broader and potentially more consequential than the few initial incidents that spawned the principle of academic freedom as it was articulated in 1915.

While it has not rivaled the damage to academic freedom that occurred during the McCarthy/Red Scare era of the mid-20th century, when approximately 100 professors were fired and hundreds more were harassed and silenced, it is certainly moving in such a direction. The horrific events of September 11, 2001, provided proponents of such censorship the opportunity to flex their regressive, reactionary muscles to attack academic institutions.

To be sure, there are cases where left-wing activists have aggressively imposed their ideologically imposed beliefs in ways that have intruded upon academic freedom. But the reality is the overwhelming amount of hostility toward academic freedom is flourishing from the right. Republican lawmakers around the country are moving quickly to remake higher education in their conservative vision. Passage of bills in states including Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Ohio have alarmed proponents of academic freedom, who say that the efforts to limit or mandate certain courses or the teaching of certain topics, restrict or end faculty tenure, and defund and ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs will damage higher education.

Is this the beginning of the death of public education, will we see only the teaching of "reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic" and only the upper classes can afford to send their children to private schools?

RIP

Public Education

1776 to 2024