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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

[quote] I would say by and large colleges and universities are far more manifest in progressive tendencies than they were say 20-30 years ago.[/quote]

That is because the US has become more liberal and progressive compared to 30 years ago. So yes, compared to 30 years ago, colleges will appear even  more progressive.  I went to college in the early 90's.

[quote] clear difference between "accepting of transgender people", than forcing people to accept transgender people. We can encourage it, as we should, but colleges/universities are shirking their responsibility by ruling that it is so.[/quote]
It's a college. They don't enforce it on the rest of the country.  I think it's a bit over the top, but colleges are where young people experiment with their identity, come into their own, and they are certainly encouraged to question the "as is" dictates that society imposes. I'm not a huge fan of this push by colleges, but I realize that colleges are where a lot of progressive ideals come from.  Where else can young people question their identity and find themselves freely, and without scorn?   Do the extreme right have a right to express their ideas in colleges? Of course they do, but colleges don't necessarily have to give them the right to preach their hate speech which a lot of the extreme right do.

[quote]I would agree that there isn't a lot of freethinking going on in churches, but the way that modern progressive college/universities preach their idealism is bordering on a religious experience.[/quote]I would agree that far left is as much of a cult as the far right, however, they certainly don't question the legitimacy of science, so I prefer my kids be more exposed to the far left progressive ideas in colleges than the backwards thinking, anti-education views of the far right.[/quote]

PP here, yes the US has become more liberal and progressive, at the expense of independent thought and critical thinking skills. Just look at the concept of intersectionality - a group identity based system of victim-hood classification that completely eliminates the experience of the individual, and irrationally arbitrary in its ranking of relative victim-hood: is a transgender man more of a victim than a black female? Look at the concept of safe space as practiced by progressives - I am not talking about being in vocal disagreement with someone, but the concept that the people you disagree with should be silenced through force of regulation that is backed by an enforcement authority. This is not okay. I'll criticize this line of thinking whether it comes from the left or right, but the left has reveled in this with a heightened sense of glee.

Sure it's a college, but why enforce speech-limiting rules in a college where we value independent thought and healthy debate? Sure, young people are free to experiment, but they should also be free to criticize. Shielding stupid progressive ideas from criticism gives them the air of legitimacy that they do not deserve, and we are all the worse off for it. When you simply label speech you disagree with as hate speech or extreme speech that is not a satisfactory argument

As a conservative with multiple degrees in technical fields, I find it peculiar when people accuse me questioning the legitimacy of science, or that I am backwards thinking, or anti-education. The scientific method is a rigorous one, but the left has hijacked it in an overly simplistic way. For example, that humans are a major contributor, or the main contributor to the release of greenhouse gases, is a broadly accepted conclusion. But it is a general conclusion that lacks specifics. It is scientifically irresponsible to say with certainty that unless we reduce our emissions by x percent, we will be met with certain doom in y years. Built into the various predictive models are variables that are at the control of the researchers doing the study. I am not claiming that they have nefarious reasons or that they are stacking the study to generate a certain result, certainly not. I am saying that these variables that affect the study are chosen based on assumptions, which by nature introduces error margins and uncertainties. So while I agree we should move our country to be less dependent on fossil fuels, I am far from convinced that we need to do this at a specific pace, nor is it convincing that signing some international pact on the subject will suddenly get the other countries to step in line when they've been cheating all along. I remain unconvinced precisely because I insist on relying on science, facts, rather than how strong my feelings are about wanting to leave a clean environment for my kids. [/quote]

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