Poll: Exit Poll: UK General Election 2017 - Results discussion and OcUK Exit Poll - Closing 8th July

[PlacidCasual]

To be honest I've heard people say universities are left wing institutions that brainwash students.

I don't know what people think students do at universites...they don't hold hands round a campfire...sing kumbyah... And talk to their teachers about what's the latest nasty thing Theresa may and the corporations have done. They just go there to learn about their chosen subject. Not once did any of my teachers talk about politics.... So I don't know why many people think this happens.

I think it is the student bodies promoting their right on ideologies that are creating the pervading lefty culture amongst students. Barely a week seems to go by without something being banned or some speaker being no-platformed because people are scared of hearing views they don't agree with. Maybe in the 60's the departments and lecturers were a source of that pressure but these days I reckon its entirely led by student bodies. After all being a oiky noise machine in the lefty student political ecosystem is seen as one of the ways of getting onto the MP ladder.

 

[Stumble Bum]

The ******* nerve of Cameron. Whilst spending willy nilly is not the answer, austerity isn't the golden goose we have been repeatedly told it would be. Two Tory PMs in a row playing with fire and screwing up royally for their own gain or party politics - now that's not selfish!

Oh how dare governments try to live within their means. How evil of them to not rack the debt levels up even higher..... Yawn.

 

[LateX'Dog]

To be honest I've heard people say universities are left wing institutions that brainwash students.

I don't know what people think students do at universites...they don't hold hands round a campfire...sing kumbyah... And talk to their teachers about what's the latest nasty thing Theresa may and the corporations have done. They just go there to learn about their chosen subject. Not once did any of my teachers talk about politics.... So I don't know why many people think this happens.

Go to a university and try to start a mens group or invite a speaker like Hitchens to talk and see what happens. Then come back and tell me how you got on.

Oh you're white? WHITE PRIVILEGE!!!! CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!!!!

Oh you're a man? RAPIST!! SEXIST!!! MAN SPREADING!!!

Oh you're cis gendered? TRANSPHOBIC!! ANTI GAY!!

Oh you have right wing opinions? RACIST!!! FASCIST!!! NAZI!!!

Universities are a place to challenge ideas, ideas aren't meant to be protected, they are meant to be challenged, only good ideas survive without protection, if you have to protect your idea from challenge, it's probably not a good idea to begin with.

 

[wordy]

Oh how dare governments try to live within their means. How evil of them to not rack the debt levels up even higher..... Yawn.

Thing is though, that argument doesn't stand up now May has miraculously found 1billion with which to buy the DUPs support in keeping her in power.

 

[dalehitchy1]

Go to a university and try to start a mens group or invite a speaker like Hitchens to talk and see what happens. Then come back and tell me how you got on.

Oh you're white? WHITE PRIVILEGE!!!! CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!!!!

Oh you're a man? RAPIST!! SEXIST!!! MAN SPREADING!!!

Oh you're cis gendered? TRANSPHOBIC!! ANTI GAY!!

Oh you have right wing opinions? RACIST!!! FASCIST!!! NAZI!!!

Universities are a place to challenge ideas, ideas aren't meant to be protected, they are meant to be challenged, only good ideas survive without protection, if you have to protect your idea from challenge, it's probably not a good idea to begin with.

Again... Have you actually seen this at university or just reporting what the sun or daily mail has said?

I'm gay, I had Muslim friends, right wing friends, woman, black, etc... All with different opinions. None of us barely talked politics to be honest.... We just got on with our course and did our work.... As did our teachers. I don't know where people get this idea that students sit around and get offended by peoples opinions and other things.

Why do I get the feeling that the people that moan about universities being left wing is because they see a group of completely different people there getting along and not at each others throat?

Yes there may be one millitant idiot that the sun reported.... That does not mean all people are like that. It's funny that the idea of universities being ultra left wing poisoning students mind only came about during the referendum.

 

[doodah]

Oh how dare governments try to live within their means. How evil of them to not rack the debt levels up even higher..... Yawn.

Yes and what has their version of austerity achieved? Yes our deficit is down but nowhere close to their predictions. Our rating has been down graded, public sector salaries have stagnated, significant cuts to services and councils, income inequality rising, the NHS is crumbling, mediocre growth (which the OBR estimated to be 1% higher between 2010-2012 without the cuts) and the length of austerity keeps growing (though obviously Brexit didn't help). Do you really believe it's all to be fiscally sound? Or the more likely ideological move to make the state even smaller whilst punishing those nearer the bottom (with some fiscal responsibility sprinkled in)?

Also how are two monumentally stupid decisions by the last two PMs fiscally sound? The referendum and May's election jolly have not helped one bit. May suddenly finding some money when it suited her says it all.

The deficit needed to be brought down, I absolutely agree. The way the Tories have done it is far from a success and lets not forget - they typically borrow more and pay back less/take longer compared to Labour over the last ~70 years.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Again... Have you actually seen this at university or just reporting what the sun or daily mail has said?

Seen it, heard of it from my wife (Lecturer) and will probably experience it when i start uni in September.

None of us barely talked politics to be honest

Rule 101 of friendship, never discuss politics.

Why do I get the feeling that the people that moan about universities being left wing is because they see a group of completely different people there getting along and not at each others throat?

Because that would best suit your agenda.

 

[dalehitchy1]

Because that would best suit your agenda.

I don't have an agenda. I've merely reported that none of us talked politics and that there was a mix of different opinions and yet we all somehow still managed to get along. You say universities is ultra left wing. I don't think so at all.... The students I were with just got on with their work as did the teachers.

By our 2 accounts it must be somewhere in the middle overall?

 

[garnett]

Oh you're white? WHITE PRIVILEGE!!!! CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!!!!

Oh you're a man? RAPIST!! SEXIST!!! MAN SPREADING!!!

Oh you're cis gendered? TRANSPHOBIC!! ANTI GAY!!

Oh you have right wing opinions? RACIST!!! FASCIST!!! NAZI!!!

Seen it, heard of it from my wife (Lecturer)

Which one have you seen? And which one has your wife (Lecturer) seen? I'm calling shenanigans.

 

[LateX'Dog]

I don't have an agenda. I've merely reported that none of us talked politics and that there was a mix of different opinions and yet we all somehow still managed to get along. You say universities is ultra left wing. I don't think so at all.... The students I were with just got on with their work as did the teachers.

By our 2 accounts it must be somewhere in the middle overall?

You would like to think that, but its not.

Which one have you seen? And which one has your wife (Lecturer) seen? I'm calling shenanigans.

I went to pick up my wife from work with our 2 kids and was physically blocked, shouted and spat on because i was a white male, entering a safe space of oppressed women and minorities. I had to collect my wife (Along with other lecturers) from a fire exit around the side.

My wife hears it and witnesses it within the university lecturers, she can't express alternative opinions or beliefs to the lefts version of social norms. If she was outspoken in agreement of something right wing, she'd be socially outcast.

 

[Tunney]

Which one have you seen? And which one has your wife (Lecturer) seen? I'm calling shenanigans.

Definite shenanigans. Half the insults don't make sense from a SJW's point-of-view.

 

[Secret_Window]

Go to a university and try to start a mens group or invite a speaker like Hitchens to talk and see what happens. Then come back and tell me how you got on.

Oh you're white? WHITE PRIVILEGE!!!! CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!!!!

Oh you're a man? RAPIST!! SEXIST!!! MAN SPREADING!!!

Oh you're cis gendered? TRANSPHOBIC!! ANTI GAY!!

Oh you have right wing opinions? RACIST!!! FASCIST!!! NAZI!!!

Universities are a place to challenge ideas, ideas aren't meant to be protected, they are meant to be challenged, only good ideas survive without protection, if you have to protect your idea from challenge, it's probably not a good idea to begin with.

This was never my experience, or that of my friends and family. In fact, I met all kinds of people with all kinds of views - left, right, centre.

 

[LateX'Dog]

This was never my experience, or that of my friends and family. In fact, I met all kinds of people with all kinds of views - left, right, centre.

Great, so there must be a middle ground right? Where it is happening, just not to the extent i believe it is and to more then the extent to which you experienced?

Either way, the middle ground is that its happening, its just the extent which is up for debate.

 

[dalehitchy1]

You would like to think that, but its not.



I went to pick up my wife from work with our 2 kids and was physically blocked, shouted and spat on because i was a white male, entering a safe space of oppressed women and minorities. I had to collect my wife (Along with other lecturers) from a fire exit around the side.

My wife hears it and witnesses it within the university lecturers, she can't express alternative opinions or beliefs to the lefts version of social norms. If she was outspoken in agreement of something right wing, she'd be socially outcast.

By your account that those experiences mean that not only is every single student is the same.... Every single teacher is the same (except your wife of course) ... And every single university is the same.

Memo to future students.... Don't bother applying for Cambridge or Oxford.... Go somewhere like Nottingham Trent university..... They are all the same anyway....

My experience was completely different.... But lateXdog is adement that his experience means all universities are left wing and the same so... I must have had that experience but not noticed it

 

[Tunney]

Great, so there must be a middle ground right? Where it is happening, just not to the extent i believe it is and to more then the extent to which you experienced?

A friend's son is currently studying at Cambridge. The Daily Mail ran a piece about his college and how the students had been complaining about the cultural appropriation of cuisine. The comments below the article were full of angry people complaining about Millenials and liberal fascism.

The entire story was based on a single joke in an e-mail thread between students. The students were bewildered that the joke got taken seriously and made it into the national press.

 

[Secret_Window]

Great, so there must be a middle ground right? Where it is happening, just not to the extent i believe it is and to more then the extent to which you experienced?

Either way, the middle ground is that its happening, its just the extent which is up for debate.

Those views may exist yes, but were not the dominant force as you claim, at least in my experience.

 

[dalehitchy1]

A friend's son is currently studying at Cambridge. The Daily Mail ran a piece about his college and how the students had been complaining about the cultural appropriation of cuisine. The comments below the article were full of angry people complaining about Millenials and liberal fascism.

The entire story was based on a single joke in an e-mail thread between students. The students were bewildered that the joke got taken seriously and made it into the national press.

The press seem to have it in for universities at the moment. It seems to be the next target in line after the EU and immigrants.

I suppose the likes of the daily mail and the sun don't want a too educated population... If that happened their readership would go down as most would start to realise 90% of what they write is lies.

 

[LateX'Dog]

By your account that those experiences mean that not only is every single student is the same.... Every single teacher is the same (except your wife of course) ... And every single university is the same.

Memo to future students.... Don't bother applying for Cambridge or Oxford.... Go somewhere like Nottingham Trent university..... They are all the same anyway....

My experience was completely different.... But lateXdog is adement that his experience means all universities are left wing and the same so... I must have had that experience but not noticed it

A lot of assumptions there pal.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Those views may exist yes, but were not the dominant force as you claim, at least in my experience.

Right, so we both agree its happening, we just disagree on the extent.

Can we both agree that its pretty rampant in American campuses?

 

[Secret_Window]

Right, so we both agree its happening, we just disagree on the extent.

It happens everywhere, like all political views. University no different that was point I was trying to say. I did not personally experience what you claim though.