Network Aims to Help Harassed Campus Conservatives
Network of College Conservatives
Pity the poor, downtrodden College Republicans, carriers of the Sword of Righteousness and Purity of Thought and Deed. Though they may slay the dragons of ignorance and reaction, they are, sadly, the target of much insidious persecution and ridicule. Yes, it can’t be easy carrying that damn sword, eh?
WTF??
What is it about Conservatives, most of whom have no problem with ridiculing and belittling Liberals, and their inability to withstand a taste of their own medicine? Now they have their own support group, their own collective shoulder upon which to cry when the big Leftist bully comes and takes their lunch money. What a load of crap….
Memo to College Republicans: if you’re going to identify and align yourself with a specific ideological viewpoint, you have to expect that you’re going to take some fire from those intolerant sorts who think that their point of view is the Alpha and the Omega of politics and ideology. I get the same crap from Conservative trolls; why should you be immune simply because you’re Conservatives? Get over it, stop your whining, or take up macrame. Lose the crocodile tears, willya?? They just make y’all look silly….
WASHINGTON - Though Christopher Flickinger calls himself “dean” and poses in parodistic photos waving a small American flag and looking stern, he says he’s never been more serious about eliminating what he claims is pervasive anti-conservatism on college campuses today.
“When I was on campus, I had no help,” the recent Ohio State University graduate told FOXNews.com. “I was harassed, intimidated, shouted down.”
Flickinger, schooled in broadcast journalism, said he wants to provide the support he never had as a lonely conservative in college. That’s why in November he launched the Network of College Conservatives to act in part as “a link for these conservative students, to let them know they are not alone.”
OK…wait…here it comes…wait for it….
Flickinger added that his group plans on “exposing and letting people know what is going on” on campuses by creating a clearinghouse on the Web site for students to pass along information about individual schools and professors.
Man, you just had to know that rating the ideological leanings of professors wasn’t far behind, eh? While Flickinger may make the case that this is about protecting the poor, downtrodden College Republicans, in reality this seems like just another way for Conservatives to make noise about the alleged Liberal bias infesting our institutions of higher learning. Whatever….
“By exposing left-wing educators, providing information on liberal and conservative activities on campus and educating students on conservative thoughts, views and opinions, the NCC will counter the liberal bias throughout America’s institutions of higher learning,” reads the network’s mission statement.
Right. And these folks will only be happy when college professors all reliably parrot the Republican party line. Look, if you don’t like the ideas presented, try engaging in an intelligent, reasoned debate. Support your arguments with facts and evidence. Whining and moaning about how Liberals “persecute” Conservatives is beyond pitiful…and if that’s the best you can do, y’all are truly even more bereft than I’d imagined.
But not everyone believes that conservative students are as harassed or marginalized as they say they are or might have been in the past. Megan Fitzgerald is director of the Center for Campus Free Speech , described on its Web site as an organization “dedicated to preserving the marketplace of ideas on college campuses across the country.”
Fitzgerald said her center defends speech by liberals and conservatives alike, and her own experience at the University of Wisconsin found that conservatives were vocal, organized and enjoyed the same platform as any other ideological movement on campus….
Other critics add that plenty of examples can be offered of anti-liberal attacks on campuses, most of them tacitly permitted by college administrators.
“There is a real blind spot on the part of conservatives, where they think conservatives are the only ones being repressed,” said John K. Wilson, a graduate student in Chicago and author of “The Myth of Political Correctness: the Conservative Attack on Higher Education.”
He noted several recent incidents of anti-Iraq war protesters being shut down and penalized across the country, including a group of Hampton College students who barely avoided expulsion this month for handing out “unapproved” fliers critical of the Bush administration. He also cited numerous examples of thwarted protests and students being manhandled by campus security for questioning the presence of military recruiters on campus.
“Conservatives have been very effective in promoting their own victimization,” Wilson added.
Indeed. And I, for one, am sick and tired of Conservatives perpetuating their own victimization even as they attempt to stifle free speech. It’s perhaps the most tired example of ideologues too damn lazy to do the hard work of promoting their political vision and ideology. No, it apparently is a whole lot easier to assume the mantle of the persecuted and to use that as a pretext to stifle free speech and expression. Then again, if you have nothing to offer, what else is a tired, inept, and pitiful ideologue to do?
