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

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

#91

Post by dragonwriter »

talmand wrote: post #84
dragonwriter wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most European countries -- and most democracies in general, though there are some exceptions -- have, largely due to differences in electoral systems, more real axis of variations among visible electoral parties and farther extremes on the axes that roughly align with those in the US which are represented. On top of that, the center in the US is pretty far to the right in European terms; the mainstream of the Republi…

But I don't necessarily think that's a fair comparison. I look at it in terms of what politicians say they want to do and what they eventually do versus what the people say they want and what they accept. In the long run, the rhetoric from politicians and the effect of the resulting laws on the people seem really similar. But as someone else pointed out elsewhere on the page, I guess it depends on how you define left…

> In the long run, the rhetoric from politicians and the effect of the resulting laws on the people seem really similar.

The space occupied by the rhetoric might be similar, but the distribution within that space is not; more significantly, the substantive policy outcomes are not similar, particularly on economic/labor/welfare issues. (Consider things like government policies on healthcare, paid sick leave, paid family/maternity/paternity leave, etc.)

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

#92

Post by striking »

isolate wrote: post #74
Zikes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everyone has been so far as to do look like, why do you even?

I guess English is not your first language? I can't understand anything past "been", which is surprising given how easily I understood your last question.

"has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like" http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/has-anyone-really-been-far-eve...

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

#93

Post by BellsOnSunday »

e40 wrote: post #73
FussyZeus wrote: post #5

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…

walk into any Reddit discussion and tell everyone you're a devout Christian and watch the pseudo intellectuals exercise their "openness." I think that's your problem. Walking into a discussing and announcing that is a fairly odd thing to do. I've never entered a discussion on reddit and announced I'm an devout atheist. I think people generally bristle at people staking out positions via broad categories.

It depends on the topic of the discussion, I'd have thought - it might be Hands up who believes in God.

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

#94

Post by dragonwriter »

aaronem wrote: post #63
creshal wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To an European it's always amusing when Americans pretend they have a left wing.

To an American it's always amusing when a European tells us our political system is unsatisfactory. Over and over and over again. Never gets old. No, really. Keep it up.

> To an American it's always amusing when a European tells us our political system is unsatisfactory.

As an American, I find it amusing the same way I find it amusing when someone points out the sky is blue, or the Earth is round.

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

#95

Post by cmurf »

FussyZeus wrote: post #5

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…

Me -> 0-18 Kansas. 18-35 Colorado. 35-42 NYC and Aspen. There are friendly people everywhere. There are assholes everywhere. The notion middle America has disdain for culture and intellectual achievement is two parts in conflict:

1. quite a few people in middle America are poorly educated because of their religion and politics, and the political system, permit them to elect ideological morons to school councils, and those fuckwits are ruining facts. There are so many line item "vetos" editorializing history and science books that school book publishers have thousands of derivatives of a particular book title and edition to cater to every county in the country. So it's a circular problem that the American education system is itself political.

2. Middle Americans used to be relatively wealthier than they are now, because we used to believe, as a country, that is was a bad idea for a handful of people to end up with all the marbles. And that wealth meant that at one time, Americans as a whole were some of the most well traveled people in the world. Now, something like 80% of Americans don't even have a passport.

And that means confusing the difference between "culture and achievement" with condescending assholes which you do in fact get on the coasts; just like there are ignorant assholes in middle America. If we were more well traveled, we'd know the difference, and we'd properly be condescending to the assholes, and we'd embrace more of the people who just want to get good things done, instead of being so adversarial all the time.

You know, if one wants to thoroughly embrace stereotypes and all.

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

#96

Post by talmand »

munin wrote: post #75
talmand wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, how exactly were you forced to pray at school events? Regardless, maybe the intellectuals should stop being hostile, have an honest dialogue with such people, and maybe they'll get somewhere.

being forced to pray at school events is pretty simple, the teacher asks "why aren't you praying?" and sends you to the principals office. nobody within a 200mi radius of you thinks that there is anything wrong with this because "it's the way it's always been" and there's no higher power to appeal to, so... how can you "have an honest dialogue" with someone that thinks that you are going to burn in Hell and tells you…

No, that's a mild punishment for not praying at a school event. That is not forcing you to pray, you can continue to refuse to pray in that case. Were you somehow forced to pray once you got to the principal's office? There is always a higher power to appeal to unless the head of your country's government and legal system agrees with the sentiment. I agree it's a hard path to take, but the option is there.

I guess in the same way you try to have an honest dialogue with a person that insists you are stupid and they can dismiss anything you say because of your beliefs. Both are equally guilty of refusing to participate in the dialogue. Many of the intellectuals refuse to see their failing is evident as much as the overly religious person's failing.

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

#97

Post by merpnderp »

creshal wrote: post #37
CM30 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, pretty much this. It's also often the case with certain media outlets and politicians too, who make the assumption that anyone who's religious, not socially 'left wing' or anything else is a bigot who should be looked upon with disdain at every possible opportunity. It's great ammunition for certain politicians (like Trump or his UK and European counterparts).

To an European it's always amusing when Americans pretend they have a left wing.

More progressive stance on abortion, higher government transfers of wealth to the poor than many Western European countries, high degree of state involvement in many industries, highest corporate tax rate (although effective tax rate is on par with Western Countries), and the only thing missing from the US to make it European style left wing is socialized health care.

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

#98

Post by hackuser »

ecopoesis wrote: post #3

What school denied him? Because if was a public institution, bad on them. But if it was a private university, then that's their right. Feel free to disagree with them, but a private university is allowed to have political views and admit folks to their programs based political views [1]. [1] http://education-law.lawyers.com/school-law/can-private-scho...

Did any school deny him on that basis? From what I read, there is no evidence.

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

#99

Post by daodedickinson »

ecopoesis wrote: post #3

What school denied him? Because if was a public institution, bad on them. But if it was a private university, then that's their right. Feel free to disagree with them, but a private university is allowed to have political views and admit folks to their programs based political views [1]. [1] http://education-law.lawyers.com/school-law/can-private-scho...

There are, what, less than 10 private universities in the United States? Wyoming Catholic, Grove City, Hillsdale, a few more? All the rest take government funds and would be subject to legal action under a non-Alinskyite presidential administration.

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

#100

Post by dragonwriter »

engi_nerd wrote: post #90
dragonwriter wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...Isn't one of the tropes of the left that you can't just reject the experiences of others offhand in such a manner? The first paragraph, which appeared to be what was rejected, was a generalization, not a recounting of personal experience. And, nothing in the post you responded to was any kind of rejection that violates any precept that is particularly common, AFAICT, on the left (it might, I suppose, violate a r…

I am not sure how else to interpret a post wherein someone relates something personal and then the first sentence of the follow up tells them they're wrong.

What was called wrong was the generalization about the left which started the post, not the personal experience offered after it. At least, the "unless..." which qualifies the statement about wrongness only makes any sense as a qualifier to a rejection of the generalization, not the specific personal experience story, so there is no other reasonable way to interpret the post.
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