"I don't know much about history don't know much about biology ..."
At least our modern leftards don’t. Reducing everything through the lens of post-modernism Marxism is a recipe for cultural and literal suicide. As Black Sabbath once put it, “I’ve seen the western world go down in the east”. When it takes a PhD in history to equate the contribution of George Washington to that of George Washington Carver to the development of the United States, then there is no point in “learning” history at a politically correct American university. Not one leftard on this board can explain how the adoption of socialism will end well for the US. Of course, ending well really isn’t the point of socialism. Just ask a North Korean, a Cuban or a Venezuelan. Scratch a leftist find a fascist.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Liberal Arts Weren’t Murdered — They Committed Suicide.
The tragedy, then, is not just that a campus of the University of Wisconsin would drop the history major but that the custodians of history in the 21st century lost the ability to teach and write about history in a way that sustains a hallowed 2,500-year tradition. In other words, what is being jettisoned is likely not just history as we once understood it but rather de facto poorly taught “-studies” courses — which sadly become snapshots of particular (and often small) eras of history — designed to offer enough historical proof of preconceived theories about contemporary modern society. The students then are assumed by the course’s end to be outraged, persuaded, galvanized, and shocked in politically acceptable ways. Usually they are just bored, as supposedly with-it professors endlessly regurgitate the esoterica picked up in graduate schools.
Of course, not all historians see the past as an orthodox way of fixing the present, but enough do to discourage students, especially when younger faculty members draw on their rather specialized doctoral theses or narrow journal-article expertise to drive home an agenda that seems preachy or proselytizing to naturally resistant young spirits. To the Millennial mind, calcified Sixties-era radicalism is about as edgy as once was the Stalinist 1930s Old Left sermonizing to the Woodstock crowd. Trendiness that once pleased faculty committees and careerist deans did not always please students, and therefore the result is now not so pleasing to faculty committees and careerist deans.
As I’ve written here before about the Left: They’ll destroy or smear what they cannot seize.
Anyway, it’s Victor Davis Hanson so read the whole thing.
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As I've been saying, everything the left touches it eventually turns to shit.
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Christ. My entire family has at least undergraduate degrees, most have gone to grad school, and a good % of them w/in the last 10 years. This is not our experience at all, and as Miami Cubans in the main, we are not a rainbow coalition bunch by any measure.WestlinnDuck said:
At least our modern leftards don’t. Reducing everything through the lens of post-modernism Marxism is a recipe for cultural and literal suicide. As Black Sabbath once put it, “I’ve seen the western world go down in the east”. When it takes a PhD in history to equate the contribution of George Washington to that of George Washington Carver to the development of the United States, then there is no point in “learning” history at a politically correct American university. Not one leftard on this board can explain how the adoption of socialism will end well for the US. Of course, ending well really isn’t the point of socialism. Just ask a North Korean, a Cuban or a Venezuelan. Scratch a leftist find a fascist.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Liberal Arts Weren’t Murdered — They Committed Suicide.
The tragedy, then, is not just that a campus of the University of Wisconsin would drop the history major but that the custodians of history in the 21st century lost the ability to teach and write about history in a way that sustains a hallowed 2,500-year tradition. In other words, what is being jettisoned is likely not just history as we once understood it but rather de facto poorly taught “-studies” courses — which sadly become snapshots of particular (and often small) eras of history — designed to offer enough historical proof of preconceived theories about contemporary modern society. The students then are assumed by the course’s end to be outraged, persuaded, galvanized, and shocked in politically acceptable ways. Usually they are just bored, as supposedly with-it professors endlessly regurgitate the esoterica picked up in graduate schools.
Of course, not all historians see the past as an orthodox way of fixing the present, but enough do to discourage students, especially when younger faculty members draw on their rather specialized doctoral theses or narrow journal-article expertise to drive home an agenda that seems preachy or proselytizing to naturally resistant young spirits. To the Millennial mind, calcified Sixties-era radicalism is about as edgy as once was the Stalinist 1930s Old Left sermonizing to the Woodstock crowd. Trendiness that once pleased faculty committees and careerist deans did not always please students, and therefore the result is now not so pleasing to faculty committees and careerist deans.
As I’ve written here before about the Left: They’ll destroy or smear what they cannot seize.
Anyway, it’s Victor Davis Hanson so read the whole thing.
The country will do worse over time if we eliminate areas of study like history in favor of vocational studies. The average person has lost the meaning and sense of importance of what it is to be educated.
The very idea of a school like Wisconsin not offering a history major or have a robust history department is just ludicrous, but practical people will cheer. FS
Whatever. Congratulations. More winning. -
You need a college course on reading and comprehension. I have a history degree. A degree that largely taught classic Western Civilization and US history. A degree that taught me how we got to be where we are. The wealthiest and freest culture in the history of the planet. A degree that about the fall of Rome. A degree that taught me about the economic and human misery caused by communism. A degree that celebrated the western concepts of equality of opportunity, liberty, reason and freedom and the rule of law.
The failure of the current post-modernistic approach teaches none of this. Hence we get the morons that support Bernie Sanders and Cortez. Illiterates who know nothing of history and economics. I’m happy to see the failure of post-modernism. I’m unhappy that a great liberal arts major like history has become so corrupted as to constitute negative education. Hope that clears it up for you. If you knew who Victor Davis Hanson is then this wouldn’t have been confusing to you at all.
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Would that also include dumbfucks who believe that Social Security and Medicare don't add to our deficit spending?
Behold the dumbfuckery that is Hondo.
The debt isn't growing because of SS or Medicare.
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oldmanyellsatcloud.gif
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Embarrassing.SFGbob said:Would that also include dumbfucks who believe that Social Security and Medicare don't add to our deficit spending?
Behold the dumbfuckery that is Hondo.
The debt isn't growing because of SS or Medicare. -
You're right, an adult who believes that SS and Medicare don't cause the debt to grow is fucking embarrassing. Even more embarrassing when they run and hide like a Kunt after their stupidity has been exposed.
Medicare is projected to bring in $275B in revenue to the Federal Government this fiscal year. Total Federal payments for Medicare in 2017 were over $700 Billion. But according to Hondo the stupid Kunt our debt isn't growing because of SS or Medicare.
In 2017, Medicare benefit payments totaled $702 billion, up from $425 billion in 2007.
https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/the-facts-on-medicare-spending-and-financing/
So where does the federal government's revenue come from? Individual taxpayers like you provide most of it. Income taxes contribute $1.688 trillion, half of the total. Another third, $1.238 trillion, comes from your payroll taxes. This includes $905 billion for Social Security, $275 billion for Medicare, and $47 billion for unemployment insurance.
https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-tax-revenue-3305762
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So you want a history curriculum that produces people who think like you. Got it.WestlinnDuck said:
You need a college course on reading and comprehension. I have a history degree. A degree that largely taught classic Western Civilization and US history. A degree that taught me how we got to be where we are. The wealthiest and freest culture in the history of the planet. A degree that about the fall of Rome. A degree that taught me about the economic and human misery caused by communism. A degree that celebrated the western concepts of equality of opportunity, liberty, reason and freedom and the rule of law.
The failure of the current post-modernistic approach teaches none of this. Hence we get the morons that support Bernie Sanders and Cortez. Illiterates who know nothing of history and economics. I’m happy to see the failure of post-modernism. I’m unhappy that a great liberal arts major like history has become so corrupted as to constitute negative education. Hope that clears it up for you. If you knew who Victor Davis Hanson is then this wouldn’t have been confusing to you at all.
So, btw, we've had commie dumb fucks around forever. It's not a new problem. The point of a classically liberal education is to produce people who can think critically and on their own. It's not generate a bunch of bots who you find acceptable.
And, apparently you need some reading comprehension classes yourself, because the point of my post was that with all the kids and young adults and others in my immediate familial circle, I don't get any of this "sky is falling" shit from our current system of higher ed. People pursue their political leanings for all kinds of reasons; I think the role of faculty is overstated and their influence fades dramatically each day that follows the course's conclusion. That's what I was saying asshole.
They do, still, in fact, teach all of the things you listed, and those are good things to learn. But the point of learning them is not to generate good little people who fit your bill. The world changed over time and it will continue to change over time. Sure, today, I'm in lock step with a lot of people here as it relates to political philosophy: liberty, freedom to succeed, freedom to fail, rule of law, free and trustworthy markets. My family fled a communist revolution and lost almost everything that wasn't in between their ears. I hardly need a lesson in it. It's pretty hard-wired at this point.
But, the smartest guy I had at Washington was in Savery Hall. A fellow by the name of Ken Clatterbaugh. Ken was chair of the philo department and a card-carrying commie. He taught how to think and how to write. He taught me a lot of history, economics and political science. We argued and he put me to my paces. THAT is an education. Not an indoctrination. And, again, the guy was a bright red communist of the first order. But a brilliant one.
Post-modernism is a word that is thrown around a lot, often by people who barely understand it. Again, I can guarantee you from empirical experience that kids attending university today are still getting a great education and are learning the things you mentioned, and more.
I don't care if you disagree with me. I see it. My kids come home from college and argue with me about shit all the time. Only thing that has changed is that they're better at it than they were before they left.
We don't need to overreact to this shit. And part of that overreaction is this almost white-hot hatred of anything intellectual, and that sentiment is becoming very fashionable in our culture. And anything with the word "liberal" in it. The liberal arts are, in fact, under assault, not just by the political right and their constant refrain about "indoctrination camps", but also by the world that wants college to be practical and vocational and consist of glorified job training. Some of this is the fault of the system, which has made it unreasonably expensive. But some of it ... a lot of it ... is a shift in culture. A shift that is suspicious of intellectualism.
I'm an M&A lawyer and a Corp. Fin guy. I've never been sympathetic to socialist views, and my philosophy degree from UW serves me very well at my office every single day.
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So, btw, we've had commie dumb fucks around forever. It's not a new problem. The point of a classically liberal education is to produce people who can think critically and on their own. It's not generate a bunch of bots who you find acceptable.
Of course not its to make bots who are dumb enough to think socialism can work
Socialism and communism should get the same treatment that Nazism gets in academia
Never a fucking again
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The liberal arts are under attack from the political right?
Remind me again of the political affiliation of those who are attacking the teaching of the writings of “dead white male?”



