Santorum says conservative students are 'singled out' and ‘ridiculed’ at colleges

[Cali_Democrat]

<...>
Asked by Stephanopoulos on Sunday about the “indoctrination” comment, Santorum defended the remark, arguing that conservatives are “singled out” and “ridiculed” at most American colleges.

“I mean, you look at the colleges and universities,” Santorum said. “This is not something that’s new for most Americans, is how liberal our colleges and universities are and how many children in fact are – look, I’ve gone through it. I went through it at Penn State.”

“You talk to most kids who go to college who are conservatives, and you are singled out, you are ridiculed, you are — I can tell you personally. . . I went through a process where I was docked for my conservative views. This is sort of a regular routine. You know the statistic . . . that 62 percent of kids who enter college with some sort of faith commitment leave without it. This is not a neutral setting.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/santorum-stands-by-snob-comment-says-conservatives-singled-out-and-ridiculed-at-colleges/2012/02/26/gIQA7InobR_blog.html

[msanthrope]

1. In other words, Ricky didn't get laid in college.....nt

[randome]

2. Exactly.

That's the reason for the entire 'war against liberals'. In general, we have more fun than they do.

[msanthrope]

22. I think Little Ricky went to his marriage bed a virgin.....

Karen was obviously not.

In fact, her prior live in relationship was with an ob-gyn who did perform abortions.....

She lived with him for years, had no kids.

Married Ricky, and the kids started coming fast and furious....

It doesn't take a Freud.

[FarLeftFist]

20. Penn State is a "Liberal" college?! Oh Ricky, you're so lost.

[msanthrope]

25. Apparently no one was liberal enough to fuck him. THAT'S the problem with liberalism, you see..

the girls are free to say NO....

[Happyhippychick]

42. +1

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. In more other words, learning to think for yourself is seen as failure to conservatives.

Pathetic.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Maybe when they start telling their teachers that the Earth is really 6,000 years old

or that global warming could not possibly be man-made, no matter what the scientific facts reveal.

[Webster Green]

5. Perhaps Little Ricky was ridiculed because he's a fucking jerk.

I think he's reading too much into it.

[pschoeb]

23. He was given the nickname "Rooster" in High school

It's pretty clear because he was a total cock, who would get in anyone and everyones face with an argument about anything.

I doubt people cared about his politics at Penn, just him being a total argumentative cock, for whom politics was all that existed, no one wants to hang around someone like that at college, whether they are conservative or liberal.

[warrior1]

6. does he

really want to bring up Penn State?

[Beaverhausen]

7. and did Stephanopolos ask him for some kind of proof other than his own experience?

or did he just let him say it?

[tsuki]

36. Is that a rhetorical question? eoq

[HowHasItComeToThis]

8. THEY INSIST THAT THE WORLD IS FLAT

AND BELIEVE IN INVISIBLE BEINGS

[pubsrpigs]

9. The evil liberal colleges

teach people to think and thinking is totally against religion and conservatism today

[shraby]

10. Did he try to spread religion to one and all in college?

Maybe that's his problem..he's crashing boor of the worst kind..a walking talking evangelist to anyone who can't get out of his way quick enough.

[beyurslf]

11. I suppose if being told you can't discriminate against people and hate is wrong is what he

calls "indoctrination," then yes, it occurs. But most of us just call that being a decent person. Sorry he hasn't learned in all these years.

[silverweb]

12. Okay.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]First of all, I'd like to see exactly where President Obama said "everyone should" go to college in a context that made it a mandated goal for "everybody in America." Mr. Santorum is a manifest liar.

The President wants everyone who wants to go to college to have that opportunity, limited only by their own ability and not by circumstances like financing.

Secondly, I'd be willing to bet that any perceived ridicule Santorum experienced in college was because he was a rigid, moralistic, holier-than-thou jerk, who made himself unlikeable.

[Journeyman]

13. My professors were a mix of socialists, Marxists, conservatives . . .

and quite a few not easily classified. None ever expected me to regurgitate their beliefs by rote but all expected me to master the class material. If Thorstein Veblen was the topic, Milton Friedman wasn't the answer. However, as they expected me to know the topic, I wasn't required to believe the topic -- but it was my responsibility to intelligently defend any contrary belief I held.

I believe those who protest the most about a professor's "slant" are the one's least able to support their own. They're not protesting a professor's restriction of their academic freedom so much as they're reacting to their own academic frustration.

That, and their opinion appears to be smeared with santorum.

[Phlem]

14. Maybe it's because of the

Pious attitude and the stupid shit that comes out of their mouths. Projecting much Sanitarium?

-p

[Arkana]

15. I can't imagine why.

Probably because they cling to a preschool worldview in an adult world...?

[saras]

16. They often single themselves out and provoke ridicule with their fact-free approach in a university.

The conservatives that are busting their butts learning economics and business - THEY'RE not complaining, and they aren't being harassed. They often rule those whole departments.

But if you get in front of a bunch of 2010 college students and tell them they are too wicked to deserve birth control, then OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO GET RIDICULED. So what?

[Initech]

38. Exactly!!!

You can't spew AM radio crap and misinformation in a learning institute - unless you're trying to prove to be an example of what not to do!

[Amonester]

46. But, but, but... It HURTS the thin-skinned who R Ridiculed.

They can't stand it.

It hurts too much.

They then cannot hope to impose their views on everybody.

[treestar]

17. That may be true to a point

But since they are so right and all that, why can't they take it? They laugh at us about political correctness and being offended and now they're going to complain? Tough darts, Republicans. You're the tough ones aren't you?

[Nambe]

18. Who was spitting on us during demonstrations? Are Bullies really liberals?

Who uses nationalism and religion to rationalize actions uninhibited by any form of morality.

[annabanana]

19. Wrong, Ricky!. . They are *educated*.

Something I know you have issues with.

[TBF]

21. This guy should move to Texas.

Not that I want him in the state, but he would be comfortable living here and there are conservative universities he could send his children to - A&M, Baylor, Trinity. Of course he's correct that I would ridicule him but it's not because he's Christian.

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. a) it's not just colleges b) it's because you're ridiculous. n/t

[COLGATE4]

26. Bob Kerry, after Santorum's first few weeks

in the US Senate, remarked to a colleague "Santorum is Latin for asshole". He was an asshole in High School, an asshole in college and an asshole now. No wonder he was ridiculed.

[Marrah_G]

27. Ricks moronic vision of reality would be laughed out of Boston college and Notre Dame.

[Swede]

28. I believe it is the sweater vests they wear.

nt

[alp227]

29. That 62 percent number is baseless.

Here's PZ Myers's criticism of Santorum using this 62% statistic in a campaign speech. Myers comments: "What he wants is not diversity, but that his fundamentalist/evangelical Christian views can be presented in a protected environment on campus, where they won’t wither under the scathing light of reality-based scrutiny."

Furthermore, does Santorum only talk about religious conservatives not Ron Paul conservatives? Speaking from anecdote (like Santorum did, sorry haha) I passed by the Economics Club table during student organization week at my college and the Economics Club table had all sorts of libertarian/Austrian econ stuff, nothing from Krugman or Keynes or anyone who dares criticize free markets. Last year the econ chair from my college (a California State University) spoke at a tea party rally. She's also a guest lecturer at George Mason University's libertarian Institute for Humane Studies and got her Ph.D. from Mason. I'm sure that most economics departments in higher ed generally favor the capitalist model; where else would you think the Chicago School came from?

I also took a political science class about California politics. My professor wasn't biased for one party. Whenever I hear commentary from political science professors about the latest election or anything, i don't hear bias against one party or another.

[The Genealogist]

48. PZ Myers's criticism

"What he wants is not diversity, but that his fundamentalist/evangelical Christian views can be presented in a protected environment on campus, where they won’t wither under the scathing light of reality-based scrutiny."

This is mostly the conservative issue with colleges. Colleges are oh, so librul! Oh, Conservatives are sooo mocked on college campuses. Oh, dismantle all institutions of higher learning! Evil professors! Gloom, despair and agony on me! It is not only that they want a protected environment for their beliefs and ideas. There is more to the story than that. It is not enough for them to have their ideas protected; they want their ideas disseminated as Absolute Truth. They want their worldview, their ideology taught to the exclusion of others, so students WILL be indoctrinated. The old saying "knowledge is power" may be trite, overused, old, but it is true. Gaining facts, being able to analyze them, draw carefully studied conclusions about them, and communicating about them is what learning is all about at the college level. This, I think, is anathema to people like Frothman. People think in college, they encounter new ideas and ways of looking at the world. This is dangerous to the conservative worldview, which demands unthinking, blind acceptance of dogma, ideology, propaganda.

[MineralMan]

30. Well, of course they are, Ricky.

Duh...

[2pooped2pop]

31. It is hard not to make fun of the intentionally insane

I don't like bullying, but how could you not snicker?

[JDPriestly]

32. He doesn't like higher education because he was not intelligent enough to do really well

and feel comfortable at the university.

He is just admitting to his intellectual inadequacy.

There are lots of conservatives on campuses who hold their own. Most of them are obnoxious, but they aren't oppressed.

Santorum's frustration is that you can't win an intellectual argument about whether God exists.

Assuming God exists and is all powerful and ubiquitous, no human being could possibly ever prove His existence. That is a very frustrating reality for people who believe in God.

A Christian has to just accept the fact that, while they may feel, experience and believe in God's existence on a personal level, they cannot prove their feelings, experiences or personal beliefs -- not at this point in history.

Santorum thinks that people who remind him of that fact are anti-Christian and putting him down personally. They aren't. They are just pointing out that humans cannot comprehend the all-powerful and ubiquitous, that people cannot objectively prove God's existence. No one has the mental equipment for that.

Tough, Santorum, but if you can't understand this, then it is not surprising that you found your years in a university to be a tough time.

[SDjack]

43. Also, he continually sees his lower intelligence and laziness trump his prayers. n/t

[Zorra]

33. Well, of course they do, colleges are institutions of higher learning. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. It's the Bible, Wall Street Journal, and kissing up to the business professors that give them away.

[HockeyMom]

35. My daughter and the Young Republicans (MALE) at SUNY Cortland

The Fall of 2008 she had her own campus radio show, where she would do a little talking and take requests for songs. Since it was the election season, she would get on air and tell the students to register to vote, get an absentee ballot, etc, in between the music. Although at first she never mentioned any Party preference, the Young Republican students didn't like this. Don't register? Don't vote? Well, I guess they figured the majority of students in NYS were going to register as Democrats. They started calling up during her show and getting very, very nasty. It got personal too. They sent her hate emails, but she didn't back down.

She started getting calls and emails from other students to have one of these Republicans DEBATE her on air. So she got permission from the school, and DID debate one of them. One of the first things she said was, "Where are the Young Republican WOMEN on campus?" No answer. Needless to say, it created so much publicity for registering to vote, and support for OBAMA, that she got some kind of award for a record number of new voter registrations because of her radio show.

Why didn't Saint Rick go to a CATHOLIC UNVERSITY? Of course, that wouldn't have helped very much in the NE.

[msanthrope]

44. The Jesuits would have laughed themselves silly at him. nt

[Webster Green]

56. I love that story!

Awesome!

[RebelOne]

37. I watched that and it made me just want to punch him.

He does not want to agree with Obama on anything. It is a fact a that higher education means that a person will have a higher income. My daugher is a teacher with a bachelors degree. She is now studying for her masters as it will bring her at least $3,000 more in salary.

[lpbk2713]

39. Willfull ignorance has always been an oddity.

They make the decision, let them live with the consequences of their actions.

Oh snap ... RWingnuts are not capable of dealing with the consequnces of their actions.

[Douglas Carpenter]

40. if Ricky Santorum talked at Penn State the way he talks today - I can believe he was ridiculed

[Nikia]

41. There are religious colleges, some more conservative than others

Most other colleges do have clubs for Christians, Republicans, or other clubs that people like Santorum might feel more comfortable around.

[alp227]

51. For all this conservative whining about how colleges are evuhl n liburhl

guess what would be their typical institutes of higher learning? Just look at the Top Conservative Colleges list by Young America's Foundation. All of which are affiliated with a Christian church!!!! (including yours truly Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell.) If you graduate from there you'll have a narrow minded faith-blinded worldview that Santorum truly misses.

Meanwhile, I've heard elsewhere that George Mason and Auburn universities are friendliest to libertarian economics. And economics and business departments, maybe political science, and engineering won't scare the hair off the conservative students.

[Mikeystyle]

45. Well, if you're going to claim the earth is flat....

you can't complain about faling science class.

[fascisthunter]

47. no... just fascist control freaks who demonize groups of people like you do

[Odin2005]

49. Ignorance is ridiculed, and "Conservative" means ignorant.

[toddwv]

50. Had nothing to do with his love of sweater vests.

Or the fact that he's an asshat.

[EC]

52. Conservative views

or just plain wrong information? Like their rewriting history, denying science and just plain changing facts to fit their world view.

[Downtown Hound]

53. Yeah, that's because blanket homophobia, racism, stupidity, paranoia, warmongering,

torture, and corporate rape of the environment and workers are things that should be ridiculed.

I think that it's really just that conservatives can't stand having their ideas held up to scrutiny and found to be total bullshit. That's what they don't really like.

[Iggo]

54. They're ridiculed because they're ridiculous.

You're reading too much into it, Frothy.

[jmowreader]

55. There's a reason for that...

When they pull shit like this...



they are going to be singled out and ridiculed.

And I think the "process where (he) was docked for (his) conservative views" may have involved being told to rewrite science papers where he insisted dinosaurs and man coexisted, history papers claiming America was founded as a Christian nation, and other conservative moldy-oldies.

[yellowcanine]

57. He was likely ridiculed for being a sniveling little self righteous whiner, not for

being conservative. In other words, nothing has changed.

[opihimoimoi]

58. Conservatives are singled out for their stubborness obstinance and fanaticism = Stupid

and out dated... is no way to go through life....not when we have a choice..