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I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

joseduarte.com

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Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#51
I grew up in a red state, too, and as an atheist, I got tired of being told I was going to hell by peers and forced to pray at school events.

As such, I have a lot of Christian friends but, it is understandable that some "intellectuals" are hostile to those with strong religious beliefs given that many with similar beliefs deny scientific concepts like evolution, advocate teaching creationism in schools, and deny the existence of global warming.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#52
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of argument is verboten when it's a white person talking to a black person, say, because it's not OK to tell someone their experience isn't valid. Strangely, that rule seems not to apply when it's a progressive talking to a traditionalist. And progressives wonder why they have such a hard time talking to traditionalists? You'd have to be willfully blind.

> This kind of argument is verboten when it's a white person talking to a black person, say, because it's not OK to tell someone their experience isn't valid. Is there some kind of large, documented body of evidence proving what the OP says is true? [ Hint: We have that for racism but we don't for what the OP is stating as far as I'm aware. ] > Strangely, that rule seems not to apply when it's a progressive talking t…

> Please, explain why this is an unreasonable standard?

Because you haven't described a standard, you've asked for "broad, systematic evidence." What exactly constitutes "broad, systematic evidence"? If we were to provide you with, say, 20 instances of left wing discrimination against the right, would you admit you're wrong? How these conversations usually go is you demand evidence, we provide evidence, you say our evidence is invalid and round and round we go.

This is called "bringing dialectic to a rhetorical debate". You're not arguing logic or facts, you're arguing emotions. If I'm wrong on that fact, please, describe an exact standard that would convince you the OP is, in fact, correct.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's less a generalization of everyone who has a degree being incapable of performing that task (I'd imagine a lot would be able to figure it out, it's not complicated) and more the idea that knowledge which is highly useful such as that is viewed as being "beneath" knowledge such as a thorough understanding of the writings of Socrates. The catch there is that knowing Socrates isn't getting you off the side of the ro…

I see what you're saying. I just disagree that isn't a two way street. I'm from the South and can't go home without being made fun of for "doing computers".

So am I, and I can. It helps, I think, that I earn an excellent living at it, and also that part of "doing computers" for me is solving friends' and family members' IT-support-level problems, even when it's not especially fun to do so.

On the other hand, I might just be lucky. Who knows?

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#54

As someone who grew up in a strongly red area and with beliefs in that vein, I know EXACTLY the kind of exclusion that the author is talking about to a painful degree. For anyone who wants to experience it, walk into any Reddit discussion and tell everyone you're a devout Christian and watch the pseudo intellectuals exercise their "openness." And yes it's true I'm far from the most religious person there is, and I st…

Ditto. The left made the personal political, not the right. They're the ones who say we're not allowed to have jobs if we think the wrong thoughts or have the wrong opinions. Even the worst bible-thumping rednecks I know (many, many cousins of both sides of the family) will agree to disagree and behave in a civil manner in the presence of those with whom they disagree. When I was living in San Francisco, I've been li…

This is clearly wrong unless you posthumously redefine all right-wing political violence as being leftist.

Though, really, "left" and "right" are useless terms without defining your usage of them beforehand. Rest assured, there are many right-wingers who are all too willing to make the personal political and to stifle dissent. In fact, that's more-or-less a signature distinction of the New Right that emerged around the era of Buckley and National Review.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#55
post #50

As someone who grew up in a strongly red area and with beliefs in that vein, I know EXACTLY the kind of exclusion that the author is talking about to a painful degree. For anyone who wants to experience it, walk into any Reddit discussion and tell everyone you're a devout Christian and watch the pseudo intellectuals exercise their "openness." And yes it's true I'm far from the most religious person there is, and I st…

I'd be interested in hearing if anyone from the UK with a background like this has had a similar experience of prejudice (beyond what I would consider to be background level "you're different"-type feelings). I am always quite shocked to hear of how strong the divide appears to be in the US between, loosely, "religious conservatives" and "non-religious liberals". I've spent approximately zero time in the US, so I can…

I know Top Gear's (previously) Mr. Clarkson always had colorful things to say about what they call "midlanders" which sounds to me like the British version of Midwesterners. No facts there there though, I have no idea how widespread it is.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of that, and you lock onto something that's clearly a device of rhetoric and not of actual substance?

I disagree that it isn't addressing the substance of the post. I think it speaks to the heart of it. Please feel free to elaborate on why I'm wrong.

I believe the parent has posted and explained exactly what he meant.

But here's how I understood it: He was exaggerating a bit for the purpose of making his argument a little more punchy, and phrases like "most of whom can't even swap a tire for a donut without calling AAA" are clearly meant to have an element of humor to them. You took his words at absolute face value without stopping to think that they might be meant as something else.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's less a generalization of everyone who has a degree being incapable of performing that task (I'd imagine a lot would be able to figure it out, it's not complicated) and more the idea that knowledge which is highly useful such as that is viewed as being "beneath" knowledge such as a thorough understanding of the writings of Socrates. The catch there is that knowing Socrates isn't getting you off the side of the ro…

I see what you're saying. I just disagree that isn't a two way street. I'm from the South and can't go home without being made fun of for "doing computers".

> I'm from the South and can't go home without being made fun of for "doing computers".

I'm from the South and have never heard of an adult being made fun of for working with computers. And my family on both paternal and maternal sides is very Southern, having been in SC/NC since before the Revolutionary War.

I have noticed that some family tease a lot about anything and everything, but this seems to cross regions and countries.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's less a generalization of everyone who has a degree being incapable of performing that task (I'd imagine a lot would be able to figure it out, it's not complicated) and more the idea that knowledge which is highly useful such as that is viewed as being "beneath" knowledge such as a thorough understanding of the writings of Socrates. The catch there is that knowing Socrates isn't getting you off the side of the ro…

I see what you're saying. I just disagree that isn't a two way street. I'm from the South and can't go home without being made fun of for "doing computers".

I'm from the Deep South, I work with computers, and I've never encountered anyone with that attitude. My minority friends on the other hand...

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#59

As someone who grew up in a strongly red area and with beliefs in that vein, I know EXACTLY the kind of exclusion that the author is talking about to a painful degree. For anyone who wants to experience it, walk into any Reddit discussion and tell everyone you're a devout Christian and watch the pseudo intellectuals exercise their "openness." And yes it's true I'm far from the most religious person there is, and I st…

>most of whom can't even swap a tire for a donut without calling AAA. There's a certain irony here I can't dismiss. You write three paragraphs about being victimized by stereotyping Middle America, then end your rant by.... stereotyping everyone on the east coast (or those who sought extended education).

Really? Because I don't see OP making that generalization; I see OP talking about "snobs". The one generalizing from "snobs" to the entire East Coast, and/or everyone with a tertiary education, is you. I wonder why.

Re: I was denied admission to a PhD program because of my perceived political views

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. The left made the personal political, not the right. They're the ones who say we're not allowed to have jobs if we think the wrong thoughts or have the wrong opinions. Even the worst bible-thumping rednecks I know (many, many cousins of both sides of the family) will agree to disagree and behave in a civil manner in the presence of those with whom they disagree. When I was living in San Francisco, I've been li…

This is clearly wrong unless you posthumously redefine all right-wing political violence as being leftist. Though, really, "left" and "right" are useless terms without defining your usage of them beforehand. Rest assured, there are many right-wingers who are all too willing to make the personal political and to stifle dissent. In fact, that's more-or-less a signature distinction of the New Right that emerged around t…

...Isn't one of the tropes of the left that you can't just reject the experiences of others offhand in such a manner? Maybe the parent has been run out of places when his views were known. Who are you to just reject that and say that's wrong?
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