I was looking forward to reading osheezie's post about freshman writing seminars, but I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what his point is.
He opens with the usual conservative drivel about commie pinko Cornell:
I knew Cornell would most likely have, at very least, a politically correct, left-leaning faculty and student body. However, I thought that I would be able to tunnel under all of that by being in the College of Engineering. I had the image of myself working side by side with a politically inert genius physics professor, cranking away integrals and solving real life situations via complex mathematics.Have things been as bad as you've expected?
So far this image has, for the most part, come to life (other than the word ’solving’ at times).Nice. No problem here.
What I overlooked, however, are the Freshman Writing Seminars (FWS).Uh, oh. What's wrong with the big bad writing seminars?
These classes I speak often cover subjects regarding women’s rights, African American studies, American Indians, white superiority and manifest destiny, as well as a class on the war in Iraq.
Oh no!! Classes that deal with current events or controversial topics! How dare they!
Being familiar with the political ideologies of most Cornell professors and students [did he personally speak to hundreds of professors?], it is reasonably safe to say that many of these classes will be taught from a slanted viewpoint.
So did this turn out to be true?
After my first class of the semester, I am confident that the instructor will present the material in an unbiased, open-forum way.
Oh, great. Nothing to see here.
Honestly, why write this?
Hey there - Osheezie here. I wanted to say thanks for the traffic. And thanks for checking out the Insider! I liked this post of yours so I figured I would take the opportunity to give you what seems to be your first reader comment.
ReplyDeleteI personally found your recap of my story quite interesting. First off, I loved your new question and answer format of re-writing my article. It did a fabulous job of condensing my article to about an eighth of its original length and into sounding like a few randomly strung together thoughts.
I especially liked the way you took sentences out of context (i.e. talking about the 'classes that deal with current events or controversial topics!'). A better representation would have been including the VERY next sentence which said: 'they are all very fascinating, informative, and important for developing a class of people with a wide knowledge spectrum.' But, that wouldn't fit into your depiction of me as an insensitive rambling fool.
Moving on to my interviews with 'hundreds of professors.' Are you suggesting that the majority of Cornell faculty typically do not favor liberal ideals? Moving on...
You're right, in YOUR version of MY article, there is 'nothing to see here.' I will be the first to say - my blog post on this was not supposed to be groundbreaking or complex; it was merely my thoughts on the FWS classes and an introduction to future posts regarding the political ideologies revealed through the debate of a controversial issue in the writing seminars.
Now to dissect your overarching claims about the Cornell Insider in general ('So far it seems to be a mixture of ramblings about Cornell and short jabs at liberals, the Sun, etc.') As far as the jabbing goes, there was a single article about the Sun, and it was complementing it. And the jabs at liberals are, well, not 'jabs.' For the vast majority of the time we stray far from 'jabbing,' but rather acknowledge the opposing view and then present a (usually) more conservative approach. There are no ad-hominems, there is no vulgarity, spitefulness, or intolerance displayed. If your view of a 'jab' is an offering of a different opinion, then yes, we are full of 'jabs.' If that is not your definition of jab, then you should continue reading the Insider's material before you in fact, well... jab it, I guess.
And finally, to address your sweeping statement in your title claiming we say 'absolutely nothing.' I'm not sure how to respond to this but to suggest you should read further than the first post.
For example, I did this with your blog. I read past your most recent 'jab,' and I found an especially interesting article about Gaza support ads on Facebook. Which I find fascinating, because we at the Insider wrote about this exact same thing!
So...in a sense the 'absolute nothings' we ramble about overlap with yours!!
Only we covered it a week before you...
Hey,
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for commenting. You wrote a lot, so forgive me for not replying to everything you wrote.
Of course I picked a limited number of your lines to quote! I did my best to recreate the direction you took with your post. I linked back to your post (hence how you ended up here), so readers are free to read it in its entirety.
In response to your comment about professors' views, I don't dispute that the majority would be considered 'liberal.' However, and maybe this is where we disagree, but I don't think a professor's political views preclude them from presenting a course in a balanced way. I think that when you say "being familiar with the political ideologies of most Cornell professors and students..." you imply that your personal knowledge of their personal views qualifies you to conclude that the classes will be taught from a "slanted viewpoint."
As for your blog, I'll admit that I was introduced to it through a link that sent me only to the "campus news" category. I hadn't explored the other parts (didn't even realize they were there), which is why I hadn't seen the Gaza article. Congratulations for writing about this ultimately unimportant issue before me.
Point is, I don't claim that my blog serves any purpose or says anything consequential. If someone were to say I wrote about "absolutely nothing," I would probably agree. I represent only myself, and I assure you that I would write much differently if I were writing these posts for an organization or newspaper. After reading through the rest of your site, I think you guys are building a pretty good group blog. I'll look forward to reading future posts and you are of course always welcome to rant over here.
Elie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking out the rest of the Insider. We look forward to reading SITFL - feel free to always contribute some differing views on to the Insider. Thanks,
Oliver