Goebell's Playbook : Assassinating the Intelligensia

http://www.blueoregon.com/2005/05/assassinating_t.html
By Meryl Lipman of Portland, Oregon
excerpt:
A few weeks ago the World Affairs Council’s Young Professionals met in the upstairs room of a Portland brew pub to ponder the definition of “civil society.” The conversation wandered like a Bedouin, touching on questions of health and elder care and personal freedom vs. social order. But by the third microbrew all had agreed on one thing: a civil society cannot exist unless critical thought is promoted, from kindergarten through the university level.

The subject came up again last weekend at PSU, where a panel of academicians spoke calmly but urgently on the matter of “Academic Freedom Under Siege.” Unbeknownst to most of us, the neo-conservatives have been taking a mighty swipe at academia, that last American bastion of critical thought. They’ve targeted female, foreign and minority professors, “outing” them as leftist liberal intellectuals. If you don’t believe it, check out a popular new web site, www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org.

Like any other “Bushism,” the title is a gross misnomer. Instead of opening a discussion of academic freedom, the site has created a forum for conservative students to rail against faculty and “inform on” controversial professors who criticize the US policy in Iraq. The site also suggests that legislative funding for public universities should be linked to the promotion of “equal” agendas, including those of the Christian right, who feel disenfranchised by the liberal bent on most campuses.

kick