Quote Originally Posted by RblDiver View Post
At that age, I was a lot less engaging than I am now. Had I taken a course with a vocal prof at that age, I probably would have just fumed too, but now about 7 years later I'd be willing to challenge the professor. By challenge, I mean present reasonable counterarguments, not "You're a stupid moron Professor Knowitall."

Nobody wants to be the first. I'm sure that there are more in that classroom that agree with a conservative point of view, but when noone else speaks up they think that they must be the only ones thinking it. If one person has the courage to speak up, this'll encourage more discussion and facilitate learning.
I can't disagree with any of this, and I might even do the same depending on who it is. It is obvious to all the students who the professors are that are willing to engage in real and constructive debate and which ones just like their pulpit and can't be presented with ideas opposite their own. OTOH, I took those sort of classes because I had to. Whatever I was interested in, I'd do all the readings and more, but if i wasn't - just tell me the bare minimum, but let's not make the bare minimum bigger with a lot of classroom discussion. $0.02


But the part about evil - my own experience is that in academia, these folks are so disconnected with reality that they aren't really evil. There is Washington DC-disconnected-from-reality who I'd say are more evil and interested in absolute power and control, and there are academics-disconnected-from-reality who have never served in the armed forces, seen evil around the world, worked as an emergency worker, ran a business, sold something, etc, etc who are simply true believers and really think folks like Marx or Woodrow Wilson were really on the right track but executed incorrectly and done better, it would work. You won't convince them, but you'll frustrate yourself. $0.02