In this Portland State University instructor’s resignation letter regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will recognize echoes of my own disgust with the way the American Left and especially the Democrat Party are now the most intolerant and fascistic elements of American life. Peter Boghossian is the assistant professor of philosophy in question.
Below is his published letter of resignation. None of it will seem new to those of us who have watched the Democrats distort the educational process over the years. I have published literally dozens of these accounts, but here is the latest one for any people who have not yet accepted that American colleges and universities have become “churches” of irrational thought and fascistic political intolerance. For more such articles click HERE. For my look at how American universities parallel Aristophanes’ comedy The Birds click HERE. Original article below HERE.
PETER BOGHOSSIAN: MY UNIVERSITY SACRIFICED IDEAS FOR IDEOLOGY. SO TODAY I QUIT.
Peter Boghossian has taught philosophy at Portland State University for the past decade. In the letter below, sent this morning to the university’s provost, he explains why he is resigning.
“Dear Provost Susan Jeffords,
I’m writing to you today to resign as assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University.
Over the last decade, it has been my privilege to teach at the university. My specialties are critical thinking, ethics and the Socratic method, and I teach classes like Science and Pseudoscience and The Philosophy of Education. But in addition to exploring classic philosophers and traditional texts, I’ve invited a wide range of guest lecturers to address my classes, from Flat-Earthers to Christian apologists to global climate skeptics to Occupy Wall Street advocates. I’m proud of my work.
I invited those speakers not because I agreed with their worldviews, but primarily because I didn’t. From those messy and difficult conversations, I’ve seen the best of what our students can achieve: questioning beliefs while respecting believers; staying even-tempered in challenging circumstances; and even changing their minds.
I never once believed — nor do I now — that the purpose of instruction was to lead my students to a particular conclusion. Rather, I sought to create the conditions for rigorous thought; to help them gain the tools to hunt and furrow for their own conclusions. This is why I became a teacher and why I love teaching.
But brick by brick, the university has made this kind of intellectual exploration impossible. It has transformed a bastion of free inquiry into a Social Justice factory whose only inputs were race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division.
Students at Portland State are not being taught to think. Rather, they are being trained to mimic the moral certainty of ideologues. Faculty and administrators have abdicated the university’s truth-seeking mission and instead drive intolerance of divergent beliefs and opinions. This has created a culture of offense where students are now afraid to speak openly and honestly.
I noticed signs of the illiberalism that has now fully swallowed the academy quite early during my time at Portland State. I witnessed students refusing to engage with different points of view. Questions from faculty at diversity trainings that challenged approved narratives were instantly dismissed. Those who asked for evidence to justify new institutional policies were accused of microaggressions. And professors were accused of bigotry for assigning canonical texts written by philosophers who happened to have been European and male.
At first, I didn’t realize how systemic this was and I believed I could question this new culture. So I began asking questions. What is the evidence that trigger warnings and safe spaces contribute to student learning? Why should racial consciousness be the lens through which we view our role as educators? How did we decide that “cultural appropriation” is immoral?
Unlike my colleagues, I asked these questions out loud and in public.
I decided to study the new values that were engulfing Portland State and so many other educational institutions — values that sound wonderful, like diversity, equity, and inclusion, but might actually be just the opposite. The more I read the primary source material produced by critical theorists, the more I suspected that their conclusions reflected the postulates of an ideology, not insights based on evidence.
I began networking with student groups who had similar concerns and brought in speakers to explore these subjects from a critical perspective. And it became increasingly clear to me that the incidents of illiberalism I had witnessed over the years were not just isolated events, but part of an institution-wide problem.
The more I spoke out about these issues, the more retaliation I faced. Continue reading
WE NEED THIRD PARTIES! Here is the latest edition of items from the Democrats’ ongoing war against the rest of us.
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Back in January a “mostly peaceful protest” (as Democrats described the MONTHS-LONG Antifa riots which terrorized the country) at the Capitol turned into a chaotic mass-trespassing incident with the Democrats of the Capitol Police even killing an unarmed woman. Suddenly, Democrat pretensions that they revered the Capitol poured from the mouths of the demagogues of the Democrat Party. 
Anyway, Democrats felt that their OWN storming of the Capitol was fine back on 
Hell, Democrats even act like THEY are the official judges of who is an “authentic” voice for women and non-whites and LGBT people. Women, non-whites and LGBT people who express disagreement with Democrat Party talking points are as unlikely to be hired – and VERY likely to be fired – as any white people would be in Democrat dominated professions. 
Nobody can control their skin color or the country in which they’re born, but they CAN control what political party they belong to. Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at the Democrats’ ongoing, rabid attacks on the rest of us. 
In my opinion Joe Biden is the new George W Bush in so many ways. Both men brought disaster upon the U.S. while enriching themselves and their cronies, and both men were selected, rather than elected, joining Rutherford B Hayes as the three presidents who – as the evidence indicates – did not really win their elections. (Links below) 
For the umpteenth time I will remind Biden supporters that they need to relax – it is far too late to remove Creepy Joe and replace him with Trump, no matter how much talk they hear about that happening. But corrupt and senile Joe Biden will wear an eternal taint like Bush from the contested 2000 election and Hayes from the contested 1876 election. And needless to say, many Republicans resent reasonable people for pointing this out about George W Bush and many Democrats resent reasonable people for pointing this out about Joe Biden. Grow up, partisan fanatics. 
George W Bush was being contained until the 9-11 attacks were exploited by him in atrocious ways that continue to scar the country. Joe Biden, as head of the Biden Crime Family, hasn’t hesitated in the least in unleashing disaster on the nation. And, by the way
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog welcomes you! It’s fascinating to see how the Biden Regime, the Cuban Regime and the Chinese Regime all unite in hatred of people who a) Protest for freedom and b) Wave American flags. Dissidents from Hong Kong to Cuba to Washington DC this past January 6th show courageous commitment to human rights and dignity, all while waving American flags. Biden and the others also have an ugly, fascistic way of labeling protestors “insurrectionists” too. 
Who’s afraid of Lego models of the U.S. Capitol building? Democrats are. Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog has watched the intolerant fascists called Democrats go from their absurd “Russian Collusion” nonsense to their even more absurd “Ukrainegate” gibberish to their utterly brainless “Insurrection” drivel about the protests at the Capitol. You remember the Capitol, where mobs of Democrat protestors have in the past barged into offices and even set off explosives in restrooms, yet which Democrats now pretend to revere for its “symbolism.” Maybe they need to tell their attack dogs/ fellow Democrats at the National Archives, who love to decide what aspects of the Capitol represent alleged White Supremacy each week. 
Before becoming an Independent Voter I spent most of my life as a Democrat and believe me, Democrats despise the Capitol and its “symbolism” and regard people who DO revere it as patriotic hicks and rednecks. The protest at the Capitol earlier this year is being used as a political stick just like the “Kids in Cages” which Democrats treated like an atrocity under Trump but which they apparently support under Biden. “Silence is consent” Democrats tell us, and Biden has far more Kids in Cages than either Trump OR Obama had. 
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