So-called liberal "indoctrination"

[scottcsmith]

In the midst of some bored channel-surfing I stopped on CNBC, where a repeat (I guess) of Dennis Miller's show was on. The guest was David Horowitz. I listened for a couple of minutes. Like many a conservative talk show guest, Horowitz was attempting to illustrate how schools (I didn't catch if these schools were middle-school, high-school, college, etc) "indoctrinate" students. Horowitz gave an example: some school, somewhere, had required a student (or students) to write an essay, "George W. Bush is a war criminal." Horowitz then said that at some other school, a student got a F for writing a paper about Saddam Hussein being a war criminal. Or that at some colleges, professors were calling ROTC students "baby killers." And like all right-wing talk-show hosts, Miller didn't challenge Horowitz on anything. No context is ever given when some conservative makes these sorts of claims. It's intellectually dishonest, yet is a staple of right-wing media. I just find it hard to believe that any professor would get away with calling a ROTC student a "baby killer." And why? Why would a student be assigned an essay on the topic of George Bush being a war criminal? Was the school doing a sort of debate format, where students were given topics to write about that may have been provocative. Could it be that, along with the topic (which I seriously doubt was given to anyone) of "George W. Bush is a war criminal," that another student was assigned an essay with the topic "George W. Bush is a great president"? Regardless, I have a hard time believing that kids in America are being brainwashed into liberal thought.

[lolly]

1. Urban Legends?

Like the "spitting on soldiers" stories. Everybody "knew" this was happening, but no one ever produced any specifics.

[toddzilla]

2. More bullshit

Just typical RW talking points. Repeat often enough and people will believe it.

[ProudGerman]

3. Or it could be

That Horowitz is talking out his ass and just making shit up. Did you hear him give any references of where he got this information? And of course Miller didn't challenge him, conservatives talk show hosts use their shows as a place for other conservatives to spew bullshit unchallenge.


Talk about irony, a show about indoctrination......doing just that.

[scottcsmith]

4. No, no references at all

I've heard these stories before, but no one ever says which school, which students were involved, or give any other details. They do sound like urban legends, don't they? The scary part is that there are many right-wingers who will take these stories at face-value and not bother to do any research on the claims. I spent some time looking through news archives and could not find any recent stories of any ROTC cadet being called a baby-killer by a professor.

[scottcsmith]

5. I did find one "baby-killer" reference

The way Horowitz was telling the story, many ROTC cadets have been called "baby-killer" by professors. The best I could come up with was an episode from 2002. An Air Force cadet named Robert Kurpiel had sent out an e-mail to a number of professors and other members of the academic community, inviting them to participate in an Air Force Academy function, apparently an event that's held every year. A professor from Saint Xavier University named Peter Kirstein replied to the cadet and did indeed call him a "baby-killer."

The whole episode is documented at Snopes, naturally.

[Kat45]

6. My mother thinks I was 'brainwashed' in college into liberal thinking