Universities, from merit to mediocrity

[Independent1986]

Below are my personal views on this matter:

*Academic merit results from the successful performance of individuals regardless of background.

*Individuals success is no longer considered a reference point for evaluation in universities, only collective traits are now the priority: gender, race, religion, etc.

*The Government is pumping money through programs like OSAP for people to chase their dream and the average to enter a university it can be as low as 60%.

*Critical thinking is not a priority in universities anymore, professors in social science classes main priority is not to teach but to discredit our Western Civilization.

*There are calls for mathematics itself to be open for interpretation and a sign of a racist culture: https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/10/math-racist-university-illinois-professor/

*A record number of students favor socialism over capitalism.

Thoughts ? 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Independent1986

[Michael Hardner]

No cites for most of this, and the single cite is misrepresented by you in your summary.  My thoughts are that alt right hysteria is a thriving cottage industry.

[Independent1986]

32 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

No cites for most of this, and the single cite is misrepresented by you in your summary.  My thoughts are that alt right hysteria is a thriving cottage industry.

Yes, that's right Michael, is all based on my experience and interactions with other individuals in society. I could definitely browse the internet for hours and find you links but I am not an activist or in the alt right camp to really care about changing anyone's mind, especially yours. 

Here is some links so you can feel better:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/academic-extremism-comes-to-canada/article33185073/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html

The good news is that the movement of mediocrity did not make it yet to the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology or the Mathematics Department in which I received my degree, with honors, after hard work. 

Now, with the help of individuals like yourself that love to talk but not put their money where their mouth is, I have no doubt that with time those departments as well will be conquered. 

I am going to produce goods and services for customers now, you have a great day, I recommend chamomile tea for your phobia and paranoia regarding the alt right.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Independent1986

[Michael Hardner]

9 minutes ago, Independent1986 said:

Yes, that's right Michael, is all based on my experience and interactions with other individuals in society. I could definitely browse the internet for hours and find you links but I am not an activist or in the alt right camp to really care about changing anyone's mind, especially yours. 

Here is some links so you can feel better:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/academic-extremism-comes-to-canada/article33185073/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html

The good news is that the movement of mediocrity did not make it yet to the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology or the Mathematics Department in which I received my degree, with honors, after hard work. 

Now, with the help of individuals like yourself that love to talk but not put their money where their mouth is, I have no doubt that with time those departments as well will be conquered. 

I am going to produce goods and services for customers now, you have a great day, I recommend chamomile tea for your phobia and paranoia regarding the alt right.

All I asked for was a cite.

The cities you gave me were opinions, any factual links?

For the record, I have cites that confirm your thesis but I'm trying to help you be a better poster.

[Independent1986]

37 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

For the record, I have cites that confirm your thesis but I'm trying to help you be a better poster.

I accept my limitations when it comes to debating and I do not have the academic language for it.

My brain has a different operating system but I would love to see how many experts in debating know what a parabola is ? I can maintain an ok discussion in your area of expertise, do you know the basics of mine ?

All i have in these points that I am making are personal experiences, I calibrate them by listening to what other individuals have to say.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Independent1986

[Michael Hardner]

2 hours ago, Independent1986 said:

 I would love to see how many experts in debating know what a parabola is ? I can maintain an ok discussion in your area of expertise, do you know the basics of mine ?

All i have in these points that I am making are personal experiences, I calibrate them by listening to what other individuals have to say.

Parabola has a standard definition.

Tell me your area of expertise.

Ok, some of the things you post aren't personal experiences, so help your thesis by providing something like objective evidence.

[Independent1986]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

Thesis

My thesis is that there are individuals that even when Rome was burning they were still emerged in non-ending hypocrisy and they could not understand how come the world was crumbling around them ? 

These individuals consider themselves morally superior, well educated, sometimes by privilege, you always tend to find them talking about policy & objective evidence that is as long as the financial stability in their bank account is safe.

Furthermore, due to these individuals naivety masses of not so intelligent people of all races are threatening law and order in North America. My prediction will be that these individuals will act like the mayor of one Washington state city that had a change of heart as soon as it got too close to her house.

These uneducated masses come mostly from the university system which allowed mediocrity to take over the campus by selling a dream in my opinion.

Now, policy ? Please enlightened us, I want to learn something new.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Independent1986

[Moonlight Graham]

4 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

No cites for most of this, and the single cite is misrepresented by you in your summary.  My thoughts are that alt right hysteria is a thriving cottage industry.

There's a lot of rightwing and leftwing hysteria these days.  Luckily rightwing hysteria hasn't infected our universities, but leftwing hysteria has.

[Moonbox]

4 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

All I asked for was a cite.

The cities you gave me were opinions, any factual links?

For the record, I have cites that confirm your thesis but I'm trying to help you be a better poster.

To be fair, you asked for a cite and then followed up with a "zinger" about alt-right conspiracies.  You are are a better poster than this, so I'd humbly recommend you at least hold yourself to the standard you're asking other people to.  

[Moonbox]

28 minutes ago, Independent1986 said:

My thesis is that there are individuals that even when Rome was burning they were still emerged in non-ending hypocrisy and they could not understand how come the world was crumbling around them ? 

These individuals consider themselves morally superior, well educated, sometimes by privilege, you always tend to find them talking about policy & objective evidence that is as long as the financial stability in their bank account is safe.

I'm pretty sure you don't know much about what the political and intellectual environment in Nero's Rome.  While you may actually have a worthwhile point to discuss somewhere, you're hardly making a case for it with this sort of silly rhetoric. 

[Michael Hardner]

10 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

Luckily rightwing hysteria hasn't infected our universities, but leftwing hysteria has.

Infected is both loaded and imprecise, as a term.

[Moonlight Graham]

1 minute ago, Michael Hardner said:

Infected is both loaded and imprecise, as a term.

Why?  It's like a disease and it keeps spreading.

[Michael Hardner]

13 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

1. To be fair, you asked for a cite and then followed up with a "zinger" about alt-right conspiracies. 

2. You are are a better poster than this,

3. ...so I'd humbly recommend you at least hold yourself to the standard you're asking other people to.  

1. I accept that I am not fair with the alt-right movement.  I tried to reason with them for years and now I realize that ridicule is another option.

2. No I'm not.

3. I will mitigate my tone, as I have done, if the rhetoric I respond to dissipates and I am in an agreeable mood. 

If other conservatives were more willing to dampen the Russian propaganda machine then I could just post interesting things.  I need help.

[Michael Hardner]

10 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

Why?  It's like a disease and it keeps spreading.

Ok, so kill all leftists I guess.  If it's a disease, I mean.  Eradicate it, right?

 

Is that the encouragement you are looking for?  I'm a conservative, but not THAT conservative.

[Argus]

5 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

For the record, I have cites that confirm your thesis but I'm trying to help you be a better poster.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Argus

[Argus]

4 hours ago, Independent1986 said:

I accept my limitations when it comes to debating and I do not have the academic language for it.

 

At least you're honest, which many others here fail at.

[Argus]

58 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

There's a lot of rightwing and leftwing hysteria these days.  Luckily rightwing hysteria hasn't infected our universities, but leftwing hysteria has.

To say the least. I mean, when law professors are afraid to teach about rape because that might 'trigger' people, and when professors are being hired on race alone while the curriculum is watered down so that affirmative action students can pass, that's a pretty sad indictment of the whole system.

The test for whether a norm is white and thus illegitimate is whether it has a disparate impact on blacks and Hispanics. Given the behavioral and academic skills gaps, every colorblind standard of achievement will have a disparate impact. The average black 12th-grader currently reads at the level of the average white eighth-grader. Math levels are similarly skewed. Truancy rates for black students are often four times as high as for white students. Inner-city teachers, if they are being honest, will describe the barely controlled anarchy in their classrooms—anarchy exacerbated by the phony conceit that school discipline is racist. In light of such disparities, it is absurd to attribute the absence of proportional representation in the STEM fields, say, to bias. And yet, STEM deans, faculty, and Silicon Valley tech firms claim that only implicit bias explains why 13 percent of engineering professors are not black. The solution to this lack of proportional representation is not greater effort on the part of students, according to social-justice and diversity proponents. Instead, it is watering down meritocratic standards. Professors are now taught about “inclusive grading” and how to assess writing without judging its quality, since such quality judgments maintain white language supremacy.

 

https://www.city-journal.org/social-justice-ideology

[Argus]

40 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

1. I accept that I am not fair with the alt-right movement.

Or with conservatives. Period.

[Argus]

38 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

Ok, so kill all leftists I guess.  If it's a disease, I mean.  Eradicate it, right?

This is another habit of the left. When someone points out an issue with something, propose the most extreme solution you can think of and pretend the person who raised the issue is behind that. It's another method of dismissing points without debating them.

[Moonlight Graham]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

Ok, so kill all leftists I guess.  If it's a disease, I mean.  Eradicate it, right?

If harmful thinking is the disease then you fight back against harmful thinking.  Or we can just let it take over everything as you seem cool with.

Universities are about discovering knowledge.  Facts aren't racist.

[Independent1986]

4 hours ago, Moonbox said:

you're hardly making a case for it with this sort of silly rhetoric. 

That's fine, every individual can make their own case. I am not into changing people to see the world the way I see it, that's arrogance.

Do you think is normal for someone in the first sentence to mention "alt right" ? What does the alt right have to do with my perception about this topic ? Every time someone disagrees with these enlightened individuals take a look at how fast the accusations fly. So don't accuse me to use silly rhetoric, some people deserve it and as a citizen/tax payer I can say whatever I want to say.

You can use all the big words you want, talk non-endless policy, nobody takes you serious anymore including minorities, lgbtq and all the groups that you constantly use for your political points.  Why do you think the sheep go out and vote for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders ? Because your mainstream politics are mostly hypocrisy.

How some consider themselves champions of conservative causes, I consider myself advocating for basic individual rights which in my opinion is the key to freedom for every single person of whatever background.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Independent1986

[Moonbox]

When you write posts like your OP, explain what points you're trying to make and provide citations. 

Listing a bunch of bullet points and then asking for thoughts is not going to result in much of a debate. 

It's like:

-Cheese tastes good

-Most of the cheese in Canada comes from Quebec

-Dairy Board

Thoughts???

[Independent1986]

Mr. Moonbox sir, this is my first time joining a political forum of this type, I find it extremely useful to come here a few minutes every hour to distract my mind from the stress of work, so yes I agree it has no substance. But big things have small beginnings, you have people here being on this forum for years, is like showing up to the gym and everyone else has a head start.

I tried taking an elective class in university one time, some low grade politics/sociology class I don't even remember what it was. I quit after 2 classes, do you think I have time coming back from a calculus class to be lectured about privilege ? So that speaks to the experience that I have in an academic setting, everything else is just personal experiences and philosophies I came across, one being the work of Ayn Rand. 

P.S.: Your Display picture is not showing up. 

[Moonbox]

1 hour ago, Independent1986 said:

Mr. Moonbox sir, this is my first time joining a political forum of this type, I find it extremely useful to come here a few minutes every hour to distract my mind from the stress of work, so yes I agree it has no substance. But big things have small beginnings, you have people here being on this forum for years, is like showing up to the gym and everyone else has a head start.

It's not a competition.  If you want to start a productive and intelligent conversation on a topic, and hear other people's thoughts on it, it's best to clearly state your thoughts and provide some background reasoning and support.  You would agree, I hope?

Quote

I tried taking an elective class in university one time, some low grade politics/sociology class I don't even remember what it was. I quit after 2 classes, do you think I have time coming back from a calculus class to be lectured about privilege ?

I've had a similar experience.  I took one poli sci course in university, and only went to a single lecture.  The professor was useless and boring, and it ended up being a bird course where I just read the textbook and aced the tests and essays.   What are we actually talking about here though, other than a bunch of random stuff and experiences?  

Quote

P.S.: Your Display picture is not showing up. 

I don't have a profile picture.  

Edited July 3, 2020 by Moonbox

[Independent1986]

17 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

I don't have a profile picture.  

On my end it shows like the image can not display properly, most likely a corrupt source, it does now show a plain circle like the other users that have no picture.