Response from a Conservative Professor
Reader comment on item: Conservative Professors, an Endangered Species
in response to reader comment: Why ultra-conservatives feel marginalized

Submitted by Steven Rizzo (United States), Jan 22, 2007 at 23:50

Chris, you're a genius. In the very rant in which you imply that all conservatives are lemmings, you reveal that YOU are a lemming mindlessly repeating the mantras with which some liberal professor (almost a redundancy) no doubt brainwashed you. You probably think you're a "critical thinker" because you listen to NPR and have taken some "Women's Studies" courses. What a joke!

You see, I am one of that rare breed--a conservative professor. And an English professor at that! For eleven years now I've been teaching literature and composition courses, helping students to hone their critical thinking and reading skills, a "market" many liberals laughably believe they have cornered. True critical thinking involves going beyond childish Bush-bashing; it involves using logic rather than simply throwing the grenades many liberals love to throw--"You're sexist! You're racist! You're a homophobe! You're stupid!"--in lieu of an actual argument.

You remind me of a certain graduate student who said that "the only way you can be pro-life these days is if your views remain unexamined." Never mind that she's twenty-something and doesn't have kids. I'm thirty-something, and I have two kids and one on the way. In other words, I'm sure I have "examined" the issue of abortion from a much more real place than she has.

By the same token, I would be happy to challenge you to a "critical thinking" contest any day. But go ahead, foolishly believing that all the smart people are liberals; the more people like you continue to make that miscalculation, the easier it will be for conservatives to win the culture wars, not to mention the war on terror.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.