Horowitz and the Vast Left-wing Educational Conspiracy

Horowitz and the Vast Left-wing Educational Conspiracy (posted 24 March 2001, 12pm)

Here's a pretty old legacy post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 23 years ago, in 2001, on the World Wide Web.

Not to pursue my unhealthy obsession with David Horowitz further, but I found a note on IndyMedia about an excellent article on Horowitz and the Myth of the Radical University.

Thanks to conservative author David Horowitz’s recent lecture at the University of Texas, I have new hope for radical political organizing on campus.

Many of us on the faculty with left/progressive values have felt rather isolated on what we all thought was a conservative campus. But it turns out that all this time we’ve been working in a nest of left-wing radicals who have over-run the place, leaving conservatives cowering in silence.

At least that’s Horowitz’s analysis. University faculties around the country, including UT, are skewed far to the left as a result of conservative professors being systematically purged, according to Horowitz, a one-time leftist turned right-winger.

My colleagues and I are hoping Horowitz will help us find where all these radicals are hiding; more company would be nice.

After doing activist work both in a staunchly liberal small liberal arts college in Michigan, and in a big, heavily conservative university in Alabama, I can only say Amen! to someone actually taking the time to point out that, contrary to popular opine, The fact, however, is that the typical American university is dominated by centrist to moderately conservative faculty members and administrators, with steady movement to the right in the past two decades.

1 reply to Horowitz and the Vast Left-wing Educational Conspiracy

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Anella /# 10pm • 27 Oct 2005

Hello. Interesting article about Mr. Horowitz. I think commentary (and I mean “commentary”) in the news and other media sources is heavily weighted to reporting or commenting upon drawn conclusions regarding various “news” topics – rather than reporting key facts so that the reader might use his/her own intelligence in drawing conclusions.

Now, I realize that your article is really an editorial, however, even editorials benefit from statements of the conditions of fact relating to the issue being discussed. I am probably “conservative” on about half of the issues often discussed in the media. On the other half I am probably a “liberal.” I can’t tell after reading your article whether or not I think Mr. Horowitz is right or wrong. I can’t tell whether my liberal side should be disgusted with him or my conservative side should snort at you. You indicate that Horowitz is incorrect in painting certain institutions as “liberal” but you have not provided me, first, with your definition of liberal/conservative nor with why you believe Horowitz is “conservative.” Second – and most critically, you have not provided objective information about the actual number of persons at these institutions who are liberal/conservative based upon the definitions that you did not present.

By the way, I imagine liberal to mean in part pro-abortion/choice, anti Christian, anti-Judeo Christian artifacts at government sites, pro-government social programs (all of them), pro-homosexual and believes in the US as a part of a world organization and considers the US Constitution as an old document that needs to be changed or eliminated. I imagine conservative to mean in part anti-abortion/choice, pro Christian, pro-Judeo Christian artifacts at government sites, anti-government social programs (many), views homosexuality as abnormal and/or sinful behavior, believes in the tradition and establishment of the US and the sanctity of the US Constitution.

Based on the above definitions, are YOU a liberal, conservative – or a mix. Can you answer the same question with some degree of accuracy for all the other faculty members for whom you spoke?

1 reply to Horowitz and the Vast Left-wing Educational Conspiracy Follow replies to this article

Anella /# 10pm • 27 Oct 2005

Hello. Interesting article about Mr. Horowitz. I think commentary (and I mean “commentary”) in the news and other media sources is heavily weighted to reporting or commenting upon drawn conclusions regarding various “news” topics – rather than reporting key facts so that the reader might use his/her own intelligence in drawing conclusions.

Now, I realize that your article is really an editorial, however, even editorials benefit from statements of the conditions of fact relating to the issue being discussed. I am probably “conservative” on about half of the issues often discussed in the media. On the other half I am probably a “liberal.” I can’t tell after reading your article whether or not I think Mr. Horowitz is right or wrong. I can’t tell whether my liberal side should be disgusted with him or my conservative side should snort at you. You indicate that Horowitz is incorrect in painting certain institutions as “liberal” but you have not provided me, first, with your definition of liberal/conservative nor with why you believe Horowitz is “conservative.” Second – and most critically, you have not provided objective information about the actual number of persons at these institutions who are liberal/conservative based upon the definitions that you did not present.

By the way, I imagine liberal to mean in part pro-abortion/choice, anti Christian, anti-Judeo Christian artifacts at government sites, pro-government social programs (all of them), pro-homosexual and believes in the US as a part of a world organization and considers the US Constitution as an old document that needs to be changed or eliminated. I imagine conservative to mean in part anti-abortion/choice, pro Christian, pro-Judeo Christian artifacts at government sites, anti-government social programs (many), views homosexuality as abnormal and/or sinful behavior, believes in the tradition and establishment of the US and the sanctity of the US Constitution.

Based on the above definitions, are YOU a liberal, conservative – or a mix. Can you answer the same question with some degree of accuracy for all the other faculty members for whom you spoke?