Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Startling bias on U.S. campuses

Yes, we all know that the left managed to march through the institutions and capture them, including the universities. But it is still staggering to read the research regarding the left-wing bias of academics. The following is from an article by Australian journalist Paul Kelly:
Haidt has produced staggering figures on the revolution of the past 20 years in the US university system. It is basic to the culture war now raging in America.

Haidt (not a conservative) says “very few people” in the US know the extent of left-wing conformity entrenched in the humanities and social sciences in the US academy. As late as the 1990s the left-right ratio in the academy was only 2:1 but 15 years later there has been a “transformation” with the ratio now 5:1, with “almost everybody on the left” — and this includes professors from dental, engineering and agricultural schools.

The bias is much worse in the humanities. Taking his own field of social psychology, Haidt found the most recent data was 17:1. He quoted one survey with 291 respondents showing 85 per cent left-liberal and 6 per cent identifying as conservative, a ratio of 14:1.

He then followed a more extensive survey (William von Hippel and David M. Buss) involving members of the academic body of social psychologists. Of the 326 respondents, 291 identified as left of centre, which was 89 per cent, and only 2.5 per cent identified as right of centre. This gives a left-right ratio of 36:1.

Asked who they voted for or would have voted for at the 2012 presidential election, 305 out of 322 said Barack Obama (94.7 per cent), four said Mitt Romney (1.2 per cent) and 13 said another candidate (4 per cent). This meant a Democrat-Republican ratio of 76:1. When a series of political questions were put and scaled the result was a left-right ratio of 314:1.

The campuses are becoming increasingly left-liberal. The chances of a student encountering even a right-liberal academic, let alone a traditionalist one, are slight.

At some point in time, this will have to be challenged. I doubt if it is the next step, though. It seems more likely to me that gains will be made in building up an alternative media, as this is more readily achievable than trying to crack the leftist orthodoxy amongst academics.

11 comments:

  1. I've just spent my time refreshing my memory on the Khmer Rouge and also Mao's Great Leap Forward and it really brought home to me how Leftism today is very different from Leftism back then. Back then it was stern stuff. Killing millions to implement a project was calmly discussed and contemplated by Leftist leaders whereas today the death of a single person can influence policy.

    I am beginning to see that the core philosophy of modern Leftism is a sort of secular Christianity -- Jesus's morality without the religious trappings. Since a major component of this philosophy is non-judgmentalism, it makes it hard to do social science because analyzing is a sort of judging.

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  2. Dear Mark,
    You say, “It seems more likely to me that gains will be made in building up an alternative media, as this is more readily achievable than trying to crack the leftist orthodoxy amongst academics”.
    But can we rely on the permanence of such an alternative media?
    As far as I know, Google runs most of the infrastructure of the web upon which almost all alternative media relies. At present there is already a mild, but ever increasing pruning, persecution and belittling under the pretext of removing ‘fake news’. If Google/Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and the rest should decide on a drastic root and branch censorship, or even total extinguishing, of the alternative media, is there an alternative platform upon which they could be based and which is free from the threat of corporate interference?
    I fear there is no such refuge, and soon we shall stand at a point where ‘Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter’ (Isaiah 59/14).
    The voice of truth will be silenced in our lands.
    What then? And how shall we prepare for such a day, which is surely coming?
    PS: This is a genuine question and I would very much like to hear from anyone who knows better than I do about the scenario I have sketched out above. Is there any protection from such a disaster?

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    1. But can we rely on the permanence of such an alternative media?

      The alternative media is tolerated at the moment because it gives the masses the illusion that they still have some political freedom. If the alternative media ever presented a genuine threat it would be shut down overnight.

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    2. "I would very much like to hear from anyone who knows better than I do about the scenario I have sketched out above."

      Well, I fully expect that there will be some inspiration coming in that regard from Sweden. Aside from being somewhat ahead in the general western suicide race, it is also a VERY high tech place.

      Next year is a general election and the MSM and the state are sure to go all out against alternative media. At the same time, you have many world class IT guys with almost anarchistic views. Some of them are also seriously rich.

      As just one example, they guy that created Minecraft has been involved in some heated twitter debates on the anti-feminist side. He sold his company for 2.5 billon USD not that long ago, so he has the money to fund just about anything.

      Unlike in the US, the tech guys are not really part of the establishment in Sweden, even if they are billionaires. They are more basement dwelling nerds and gamers. And often they have fanatical views about freedom on the net.

      Time will tell, but I do think that there will be interesting tech developments coming relatively soon, that will counteract the spreading censorship that is happening now.


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  3. I'm also skeptical of the permanence of 'alt' media. I don't know there is much we can do except point out the hypocrisy and naked will to power of these moloch worshipping corporates.

    To get 'Zucked' means to be censored by the Facebook overlords. There is surely an analogous word for being summarily dismissed from Twitter for angering the wrong people. I guess Google will be next to FACT CHECK! their opponents into silence.

    Governments also realise the power of censorship in this sphere, as the French discovered recently when Facebook shut down 30,000 "fake news" accounts on demand in preparation for national elections. This reminds of me something I learnt about Iran. Satellite television is ostensibly forbidden, but not much is done about breach of this rule, and people buy satellite dishes and watch satellite television without much fuss. Come election time this changes, and the rule is rigorously enforced (so I'm told), and many satellite dishes are confiscated. Once elections are over people simply buy a new dish and 'normality' is restored.

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  4. O.K., so I think we are agreed, we face an immanent and fatal threat to the continuity of our getting certain very important views heard and of working together to counter the lies of the establishment, even if, as EuroSwede implies, some new and surprising development may work in our favour.
    Let’s get closer to this problem and its possible/probable consequences with a mindgame.
    Try to imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and find that the alt media have suddenly been taken down; all our favourite blogs, YouTube channels, news-hubs, etc..
    Will we not suddenly become like the blind, wandering round, disconsolate and confused, unable to contact our fellow warriors, not knowing what is happening? For if we look at the mainstream media we will find only lies.
    In that situation to what do we turn?
    How do we continue to fight?
    Meanwhile, be in no doubt, they will be watching, and if we look like we might cause trouble and obstruct their plans in any way, they will pick us off, one by one, and no one will know.
    Or have I missed something?
    Tell me I have!

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    1. Print stuff out & leave it in libraries, coffee shops, bus stops...

      Pamphlets have sparked revolutions before.

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  5. "Or have I missed something?"

    If "something" means being negative and defeatist, you haven't missed anything at all.

    You've missed a lot, however, if "something" means estimating the likelihood of a terrible outcome happening, and proposing ways to minimize its worst consequences if it actually does happen.

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  6. My dear friend,
    Outside of your cocoon, its already happening.
    Sleep well!

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  7. It's important to sleep well and have a positive attitude. And I do a lot of work in a local nationalist group.

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  8. Ironic - to me, anyway - that I can't open the Paul Kelly article linked above, without using Facebook (happens all of the time) and/or allowing anyone to install cookies in my computer (I block everything that I can). How does melding with them, submitting to their rules and protocols - under their technical thumb - as our new media powerhouses (Facebook and Google); fit into any scheme seeking to be an alternative?
    Are there any traditionalist conservative, or simply non-modern liberal modern media companies? TradCons are everywhere, in almost every realm, on the outside trying to regain a foothold in a civilization in which they were more generally once the norm.
    Academia is the incubator where most of modern liberalism's strategies, tactics and expertise was fertilized and nurtured. Academia seems to be the ground zero where traditional conservatives appear at their weakest.

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