The Off Topic Topic

[The Larch]

This has to be satire, right?

EDIT: Apparently it is. *phew*

A satire version less than 24h after being announced must be some kind of record. 

Did you see the "Big Naturals" one? 

[Josquius]

This left wing university stuff is painful.
I've no idea how true it is in the US. But it definitely isn't true in the UK. Quite the opposite if anything.
Doesn't stop the paint drinkers copying and pasting the American stuff though.

[celedhring]

My uni was definitely very lefty. It was a major contributor to me becoming a lefty myself... 

Nowadays Catalan unis I'd say are still very lefty, although there's a large component of nationalist left which is a bit suspicious on my eyes (how can you claim to be a socialist and be against redistribution of wealth?). There are some very salient private unis that are quite conservative, though.

[Josquius]

My uni was definitely very lefty. It was a major contributor to me becoming a lefty myself... 

Nowadays Catalan unis I'd say are still very lefty, although there's a large component of nationalist left which is a bit suspicious on my eyes (how can you claim to be a socialist and be against redistribution of wealth?). There are some very salient private unis that are quite conservative, though.

It was seriously a huge culture shock for me to meet actual real Tories.
My bachellors uni, as well as being shit, was very Conservative. Loads of public school kids. I still remember one trying to start a fight with me over fox hunting- he felt very strongly that if you didn't support it you were the devil.
Basically its a typical Oxbridge reject place.
Though due to this I ended up hanging with the international students and thus my life was set.

The most left wing unis are likely the ones many would say aren't real unis, the post 91 ex-polys. And I guess artsy places.

[celedhring]

FWIW, Columbia was overwhelmingly liberal too (I wouldn't say lefty).

[celedhring]

My uni was definitely very lefty. It was a major contributor to me becoming a lefty myself... 

Nowadays Catalan unis I'd say are still very lefty, although there's a large component of nationalist left which is a bit suspicious on my eyes (how can you claim to be a socialist and be against redistribution of wealth?). There are some very salient private unis that are quite conservative, though.

It was seriously a huge culture shock for me to meet actual real Tories.
My bachellors uni, as well as being shit, was very Conservative. Loads of public school kids. I still remember one trying to start a fight with me over fox hunting- he felt very strongly that if you didn't support it you were the devil.
Basically its a typical Oxbridge reject place.
Though due to this I ended up hanging with the international students and thus my life was set.

The most left wing unis are likely the ones many would say aren't real unis, the post 91 ex-polys. And I guess artsy places.

I think you'd have appreciated my history teacher calling Tatcher "that bitch" in class 

Both history teachers I had in college were commies. Real commies, with a Marxist approach to teaching history. Given that my history teacher in high school was extremely conservative it was night and day.

I'm also old enough that some of my uni professors had spent time in jail under Franco, which gave them huge street cred.

[Syt]

53 year old Lower Austrian with connections into the neo-nazi scene seems to have been an avid collector of weapons and 1200 kg of ammo.

[FunkMonk]

Reserve Racism,
White Genocide,
And the Protestant Reformation

Feminists,
Communism,
And the Battle of Hastings

Homosexuals and Homosexuality:
How Gays Have Controlled Western Civilization Since the French Revolution

[Josquius]

That last one actually sounds potentially interesting. I love wacky theories about how various historic figures were actually gay.

[Duque de Bragança]

The late Roman Empire, known for its proud democratic tradition. The "cancellation of Julius Caesar" - do they mean him being killed, or that his writings might be culled from curriculums (honestly, how widely read is he outside of classics studies these days)?



The course title gave me a good though, thanks for that.

Yeah, to be precise, the Roman Empire does not start until Augustus, not Caesar.
The latter's republic was a dictatorship, with Caesar a dictator for life, so beyond the Roman sense, already challenged by Sylla. 

PS: Evergreen would be a pretty dire example of leftist university.
PPS: I suppose.

[grumbler]

There are a fair number of names associated with the new university that are not at all wacko.

[The Minsky Moment]

The numbers tell the story as well as any anecdote you've read in the headlines or heard within your own circles. Nearly a quarter of American academics in the social sciences or humanities endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences. Over a third of conservative academics and PhD students say they had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views. Four out of five American PhD students are willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology.

News story: hammer does investigation of thing in front of it; after careful study, declares it to be a kind of nail.

[grumbler]

The numbers tell the story as well as any anecdote you've read in the headlines or heard within your own circles. Nearly a quarter of American academics in the social sciences or humanities endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences. Over a third of conservative academics and PhD students say they had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views. Four out of five American PhD students are willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology.

News story: hammer does investigation of thing in front of it; after careful study, declares it to be a kind of nail.

Yeah, that's almost as dumb as reading reports by The Centre for Law and Democracy regarding law and democracy.

[Sheilbh]

Favourite story/image combo:

New Zealand's Sea Lions Are Back, and Crashing Golf Courses and Soccer Matches
After their populations were decimated by hunters, New Zealand's sea lions are returning to the coasts — sometimes surprising locals by turning up in unexpected places.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/science/new-zealand-sea-lions.html

[Josquius]

Straight outta christchurch