7.7
June 10, 2019

Republicans love to hate on Higher Education. Here’s our Reply:

If facts offend us, that’s our problem.

I remember one time way back when I was vegetarian, or something, and a colleague of mine (Abbey!) told me I couldn’t eat something at one of my favorite restaurants. I remember the feeling in my brain when I decided to accept this new reality—instead of arguing—because I cared more than I was attached to my mistaken notion. It felt like working out—like my brain or heart was stretching and stressing to move into a fact-based reality.

If that made any sense, enjoy this post on the vital importance of an open mind: we need to be loyal not to our opinions, but to facts—even when they disagree with our preconceptions.

Via Reddit:

“Colleges are just saying actual facts.”

Facts are not partisan. We need more areas of our government devoted not to partisanship, but to service and…you know, governance. ⠀

Critical thinking is not partisan, though it may well lead to an examination of our prejudices, and empathy for a warming planet—be warned.⠀

If you think both parties are the same, remember only one is actively trying to suppress the vote. ⠀

We don’t have time to fuck around. Future generations depend on our ability to #makelovegreatagain. Have those tough conversations with those you love but might disagree with—that’s all of us. ⠀

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” ~ James Baldwin⠀

Get the Make Love Great Again cap at elephantjournal.com/shop and wear it. It’s not about partisanship, it’s about giving a care. ⠀

PS: quote image is via Instagram, typo included, reference is to President Trump’s recent tweet:⠀

“For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!”⠀

Reddit comment: “My dad always told me to be careful when I went to college because the liberal professors would try to tell me what to think, which was one of the big reasons he quit college after a year.

When I actually went to college, I realized they weren’t trying to teach me what to think, but how to think. College tries to teach you how to recognize whether everything you’ve been taught to think growing up is logical and rational, or if you were just accepting as truth ideas that are lies.

College is like being in Plato’s cave, and the professors are the ones who have already realized the shadows on the wall aren’t reality, trying to convince others that there’s a beautiful and real world outside the cave. It’s the mental equivalent of being a firefighter, constantly running back into the flames to pull people out.

It’s no wonder republicans don’t trust colleges. If everyone went to college and listened to its lessons, everyone would be using their brain the vote, using their brain to recognize the need for a national Election Day, using their brain to recognize gerrymandering for the oppression that it is, using their brain to realize the huge conflict of interest that private prisons are, using their brain to recognize the oppression of incriminating and then taking away their right to vote as a result and how that could just be a way to keep those who might disagree with you from voting, using their brain to recognize that a national healthcare situation in which people refuse medical attention in emergency situations because the debt might cripple them for life is fundamentally broken, using their brain to recognize that having no limits on campaign contributions sells our nation to the highest bidder, using their brain to recognize that public policy that congress exempts itself from is probably bad public policy, and using their brain to recognize that we a a nation can’t succeed unless we all do and that the poor and the sick and the weak and the hungry aren’t the enemy.”

Another: “This.

I grew up sheltered in rural Nebraska and I was drilled on what to think by my parents and society around me. I went to college as a hardcore Conservative and I graduated questioning my foundation of thought. A few short years later, I had flipped towards more liberal views. My father says I was brainwashed by my professors, but I respond by saying my engineering professors have never even once brought up the topic of politics in lecture. Instead, I was taught the foundation of critical thinking. I will not register someone else’s words as fact simply because it aligns with my train of thought, I now question everything I hear and make my decisions based on the facts that support.

When I’m back in Nebraska, it’s mind boggling listening to my father discussing politics with other friends and family. The amount of misinformation shared is staggering, all that can be fact checked by a simple google search. Unfortunately, it’s not worth debating with him because he cannot do so in a professional manner. He immediately jumps to anger and name calling…”

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