Academic Nonsense of the Day

David Green is a Research and Policy Specialist at the University of Illinois's Institute of Government & Public Affairs. He's also the author of this September 15h letter to the editor of the Daily Illini, reproduced in full:

The vast majority of 9/11 observances in this country cannot be seen as politically neutral events. Implicit in their nature are the notions that lives lost at the World Trade Center are more valuable than lives lost in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere; that the motives of the 9/11 attackers had nothing to do with genuine grievances in the Islamic world regarding American imperialism; and that the U.S. has been justified in the subsequent killing of hundreds of thousands in so-called retaliation.

The observance at Saturday’s football game was no different. A moment of silence was followed by a military airplane flyover; in between, Block-I students chanted "USA, USA." This was neither patriotism nor remembrance in any justifiable sense, but politicization, militarism, propaganda and bellicosity. The University is a public institution that encompasses the political views of all, not just the most (falsely) "patriotic." Athletic planners should cease such exploitation for political purposes. They might at least consider how most Muslim students, American or otherwise, would respond to this nativist display; or better, Muslims and others that live their lives under the threat of our planes, drones and soldiers.

The overwhelmingly white, privileged, Block-I students should be ashamed of their obnoxious, fake-macho, chicken-hawk chant, while poverty-drafted members of their cohort fight and die in illegal and immoral wars for the control of oil. University administrators need to eliminate from all events such "patriotic" observances, which in this country cannot be separated from implicit justifications for state-sponsored killing.

I've previously shown the illogic of the "chicken-hawk" claim, the fallacy of assuming that the military recruits from the less-wealthy or -educated population, and the inconsistency of flag-hating while eliding, if not supporting, totalitarian murder and, at the same time, flag-waving for Democrats. Green's ignorance of the facts is more confirmation of the biased leftist take-over of academia.

To slow your heart rate, it's worth scanning the comments on Green's letter; a typical one reads:

This is the kind of person Orwell must have been thinking of when he said, "There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them."

The phrase "poverty-drafted members" in reference to the military only reveals two things about your steaming horse sh*t beliefs. One, that you haven't the remotest idea what you're talking about beyond what groupthink you like-minded types pass around to each other as reality. Two, that you also can't be arsed to do even a little honest research before forming a strong opinion on something. Way to represent academia!

Congratulations to Mr. Green for greatly exceeding the point of diminishing returns in high education.

Agreed.