CAMPUS HETEROPHOBIA
by Rush's Dumber Brother
Does anybody really think homosexual activists aren't trying to push their lifestyle on America -- as opposed to merely striving to avoid discrimination? A few recent news items shed some light on the subject. Scott Savage, a librarian at Ohio State University at Mansfield, got a quick lesson in "tolerance" while serving on a committee responsible for selecting books for incoming OSU students to read as part of their "First Year Reading Experience."
Savage, a devout Quaker, recommended that a number of conservative-oriented books be added to the list, to balance other books on the list, many of which reportedly had a liberal slant.Savage recommended four books, "The Marketing of Evil," by David Kupelian, "The Professors," by David Horowitz, "Eurabia: the Euro-Arab Axis," by Bat Ye'or, and "It Takes a Family," by Sen. Rick Santorum. How dare he? Won't he ever learn the proper lessons of selective censorship? The school had earlier investigated him for recommending other forbidden conservative books to freshmen students.
But I guess the request to place these dread screeds on a formal school list was just way too rebellious for anyone employed by an institution of higher learning priding itself in maintaining an environment of academic freedom and open inquiry. Three professors strenuously objected to Savage's suggestions, describing the Kupelian book as "hate literature," and "homophobic tripe." The professors, two of whom are homosexual, said the inclusion of these books on the list made them feel threatened and unsafe on campus.
This one is remarkable, even for Rush's Dumber Brother. First of all, you notice in the above and in the rest of the screed that nowhere does he mention what the books were with the "liberal slant?" How's that for intellectual honesty?
But beyond that--look at who the freakshow librarian wanted to include on the list. David Kupelian? Editor of the WorldNetDaily, and author of wonderful little tomes like this? Why, he's a wonderful man, I would love for him to be required reading for college students. And Santorum and Horowitz, they were unanimous inductees into the Unhinged Rightwing Moonbat Hall of Fame. (I admit to not being familiar with Bat Ye'or, but a quick Google search certainly isn't promising--she is an Egyptian-born, virulently anti-Muslim Jewish historian and darling of the right wing).
So this is what passes for conservative "thought" these days. How pathetic.
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3 comments:
Well, I'm split on issues like this. While I don't think ideologies should be balanced in the classroom - they are what they are, liberals have for way too long been loathe to really embrace the first amendment. As much as the right wing wants to censor speech they don't like, the left wing is just as guilty. Hate speech, while distasteful and offensive, is still speech, and as such, the speaker (author) has just as much right to say it as someone you completely agree with. I am frightfully ashamed of professors like this - they are just as guilty as those who wish to push a conservative agenda onto students. College, especially, is supposed to be a place of open inquiry and debate, and if someone hates everything I stand for and wants to say it, well, they get to do so. I get to say what I will in return. Being offended is a pathetic excuse for censorship, and that's what this is.
I think the professors were over the top with the sexual harrassment approach. I also wouldn't object if instructors wanted to use these "books" in a class dealing with American political culture, sociology, race/sex/ethnicity relations, etc. but I see plenty of reasons why these vile screeds, devoid of any academic or literary value, should not be included as part of a campus-wide reading project.
I'd need to see the whole list, I think, before I could judge the worth too much.
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