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A right-wing group in Missouri has launched a "woke heat map" documenting instances of "wokeness" in an attempt to fight back against "critical race theory" and alleged "grooming" in schools across the state.

The group, dubbed "Liberty Alliance," says it is "committed to fighting back against the Woke agenda that is permeating all across Missouri."

"The first step in fighting back is uncovering their crazy ideas – from Critical Race Theory to grooming toddlers with sexually explicit books," the organization states on its website. "That is why we have officially launched the Woke Heat Map – an interactive tool designed to expose the insane actions of the radical Left. This map will alert Missourians of craziness happening in their own communities."

"‘Liberty Alliance’ has launched a ‘Woke Interactive Map’ to warn MAGA about instances of woke behavior in a particular community. The site will alert people if either: 1. CRT, 2. Woke Extremism, or 3. ‘Action by a Crazy Leftist’ has taken place," Ron Filipkowski tweeted.

"This is the “Genderbread Person” & the latest example of the insanity that’s in Missouri schools," Eric Schmitt tweeted. "We launched The Students First Initiative to empower parents & bring transparency back to Missouri schools. This was submitted by a Fox C-6 parent We’ll keep exposing the extremism."

Another Twitter user added, "A reminder that on college campuses, anyone that doesn’t fall in line with the left are censored Where are you at @SLU_Official? These actions continued into the night and no one has been punished for vandalizing a peaceful #prolife @SLUSFL display #FreeSpeech [Students for Life]"

Liberty Alliance's map isn't the first of its kind. Over the years, numerous right-wing groups have created rankings, watchlists, and cluster maps to keep track of the left's alleged influence in healthcare and education as well as Corporate America.

Last October, Salon reported on a custom Google map created by trans activist Erin Reed that provides those seeking hormone replacement therapy with the names and locations of nearly 800 informed consent clinics throughout the country.By February of that year, Reed told Salon, her map was repurposed by anti-trans activist Alix Aharon as a resource for organizing protests against doctorswho provide gender-affirming care. That new map, called "The Gender Mapper," was quickly taken down over apparent copyright infringement. However, a new one has since appeared in its place, cataloging roughly 200 clinics in total.

On its website, The Gender Mapper accuses "Big Gender" of testing "experimental medication" on "confused and vulnerable children."

"GenderMapper volunteers work in secret, around the world to collate evidence and document what is occurring," the site adds. "Gendermapper volunteers are unsung [sic] heros- and data is our truth."

Right-wing groups have also sought to crack down on left-wing "indoctrination" on college campuses.

Notable among them isTurning Point USA, a conservative youth advocacy group, which runs a "Professor Watchlist" designed to keep right-wing students abreast of "college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."

"The project," its website says, "is comprised of published news stories detailing instances of bias, propaganda, or speech infringement on college campuses."

The site allows users to submit tips and search for professors by name or university. Some professors on the list include activist Angela Davis, linguist Noam Chomsky, author Ibram X. Kendi, and former FBI Director James Comey.As of 2016, there were roughly 200 academics on the list.

In the private sector, conservative are similarly hounding companies that engage in "woke" actions, arguing that Corporate America is prioritizing political correctness over profit.

Alliance Defending Freedom has its "Viewpoint Diversity Score," a 50-company index that "evaluates corporate policies, practices, and activities to determine whether companies respect their stakeholders' freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief as a standard part of doing business." The list specifically breaks down each company's support of free speech in the market, the workplace, and the public square, analyzing everything from political giving to DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies.

On the index, companies like Facebook and Meta – which face baseless accusations of anti-conservative bias – have notably lower scores than most.None of the firms included on the list score higher than a 35 out of 100.

"The results of our inaugural Business Index reveal that there is much work to be done. Company scores ranged between 2% and 35%, with the average overall score an abysmal 12%," wrote Jeremy Tedesco, senior vice president of corporate engagement for ADF, in The Wall Street Journal. "The poor showing confirms that there is an alarming trend among major corporations to favor virtue-signaling even at the expense of fundamental American freedoms."

Corporations have no legal obligation to promote free speech, a constitutional right designed to protect Americans from governorship censorship and coercion.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/turning-point-usa-targets-school-boards-over-evil-mask-requirements-and-radical-training-on-bias-and-inequality/

turning Point USA, an organization that trains and mobilizes right-wing college students, launched a project targeting public school boards on August 15, the Documented newsletter reported.  TPUSA’s “School Board Watchlist” urges right-wing activists to submit anonymous tips about “radical and false ideologies endorsed by school boards and pushed in the classroom.”

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The project, like the larger right-wing attack on public schools and school boards, opposes initiatives that teach students about systemic racism in U.S. history and institutions​, programs that ​ promote the full inclusion of LGBTQ students, ​or steps taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Among the group’s complaints about “Leftist, racist, and anti-American propaganda” are districts “renaming schools and sports teams because of their ‘racist’ namesakes” and “continuing to use COVID as an excuse to maintain online learning and enforce abusive mask policies.”

“SBWL finds and exposes school board leadership that supports anti-American, radical, hateful, immoral, and racist teachings in their districts, such as Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, sexual/gender ideology, and more,” declares the School Board Watchlist website.

Given the School Board Watchlist’s heated rhetoric about “blatant indoctrination” with radical ideologies, it is notable how little it takes to get a school district put on the “watchlist” and subject to being targeted in TPUSA’s “battle to reclaim our schools—and our nation’s future—by holding school district leadership accountable for their actions and the dangerousagendas they push in classrooms.”

In the case of Norman, Oklahoma​, public schools—labeled one of the “most radical districts”​ by TPUSA—the offenses included a school board member’s heated rhetoric—later apologized for—in defense of mask mandates and the district offering trainings on unconscious bias and systemic inequality.

A report on ​Albuquerque​, New Mexico, ​public ​schools notes that students are required to wear masks indoors and that one of the district’s high schools will award a ​”Homecoming Court​” rather than prom king or queen.

While the School Board Watchlist is described as a project of Turning Point USA, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, TPUSA President Charlie Kirk has also publicly vowed to involve Turning Point Action, the group’s political arm, in school board races.

On Tuesday, Kirkappeared with religious-right activist pastor Jack Hibbs at a “Freedom Night in America” broadcast from Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Kirk used part of his time to slam ​Scottsdale Unified School District school board members for voting to require students to wear masks for the start of the new school year. He claimed that wearing masks harms children’s emotional and spiritual development. “God gave us a face for a reason,” he said.

Kirk showed video of his smug and combative remarks from a recent school board meeting at which he told school board members that he is a new resident of Scottsdale but felt like he was living in San Francisco “because of all of you and your self-righteous measures that you’re putting to abuse the children of this wonderful state.”

“Your time is soon up,” he told school board members. “The people of this state and this school district are rising up. There are recall measures in place. You have awoke a sleeping giant. I hope you enjoy your masked, short-term future here while it still lasts.”

Kirk told attendees at the Dream City Church event that he was ​happy ​with how many church members had turned out to the school board meeting. “Evil,” he said, does not like to be called out.

Kirk said Turning Point Action would do everything it could to gather signatures for the recall effort, which targets four of the five Scottsdale school board members.

11/16

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/professor-watchlist-is-seen-as-threat-to-academic-freedom.html

A new website that accuses nearly 200 college professors of advancing “leftist propaganda in the classroom” and discriminating against conservative students has been criticized as a threat to academic freedom.

The site, Professor Watchlist, which first appeared Nov. 21, says it names those instructors who “advance a radical agenda in lecture halls.”

“We aim to post professors who have records of targeting students for their viewpoints, forcing students to adopt a certain perspective, and/or abuse or harm students in any way for standing up for their beliefs,” wrote Matt Lamb, an organizer of the site.

The Professor Watchlist is a project of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that says its mission is to educate students about “true free market values.” Charlie Kirk, its founder and executive director, wrote in a blog post that “it’s no secret that some of America’s college professors are totally out of line” and that it was time to expose them.

But Julio C. Pino, an associate professor of history at Kent State University in Ohio who is among those named on the site, said in an interview, “What we are seeing with this site is a kind of normalizing of prosecuting professors, shaming professors, defaming professors.”

Continue reading the main story

“The broader issue it raises is: What kind of country is America going to become in the next four years?” he added.

Professor Pino said professors should not fight the creators of the list directly but instead seek allies on and off campus to address what gave rise to the atmosphere that allowed the website to flourish in the first place.

The professor is listed on the site because, it says, he faced investigation by the F.B.I. “for connections to ISIS.” He declined to address the allegations, but has denied any ties to the terrorist organization and has spoken out against violence, according to The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

Mr. Lamb, a director of constitutional enforcement and transparency at Turning Point USA, said in an email that the website was “simply aggregating” professors whose actions have been the subject of news reports.

“This site is a beautiful example of freedom of speech,” Mr. Lamb said. “Professors can say whatever they want, other people can report it and we can compile the reports on whatever they say.”

The website has thin information in its entries and a less-than-smooth search function. That could be a reflection of how rapidly it was created to capitalize on the political climate, particularly after the election of Donald J. Trump as president, Professor Pino said.

Among those featured is Melissa Click, a former University of Missouri professor who was caught on video calling for “some muscle” to remove a journalist from a student demonstration in 2015. The university later fired Ms. Click.

One of the instructors listed, Joan Neuberger, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who teaches Russian history, was described on the site as leading a petition to bar students who carry concealed weapons from entering classrooms “in violation of Texas law.”

But Professor Neuberger said in an email that the characterization was inaccurate. “The law had not been finalized yet when we were petitioning,” she said, adding that the website showed no commitment to posting factual information.

Professor Pino said Professor Watchlist was a “reboot” of similar past efforts, such as Discover the Networks by the conservative activist David Horowitz.

Hans-Joerg Tiede, the associate secretary for the department of academic freedom, tenure and governance at the American Association of University Professors, said in an interview: “There is a continuing cycle of these sorts of things. They serve the same purpose: to intimidate individuals from speaking plainly in their classrooms or in their publications.”

He noted in a blog post that the monitoring of organizations and people deemed “radical” dated to 1934, when the conservative political activist Elizabeth Dilling published “The Red Network: A ‘Who’s Who’ and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots.”

Among the organizations listed in her work were the American Federation of Teachers and the American Civil Liberties Union. Ms. Dilling wrote that the federation supported “full ‘academic freedom’ to teach anything, including socialism, communism or atheism,” according to the blog post.

Mr. Tiede said the site could be used to harass professors or sabotage them from gaining jobs or promotions. And some professors were submitting their own names to the website as a way to emphasize the absurdity of the list, he added.

Others took to Twitter to highlight parody submissions, such as Albus Dumbledore from “Harry Potter” and the Professor from the television series “Gilligan’s Island.” The submission for the latter character read in part: “Spent almost 30 minutes building a working radio out of coconuts but failed to maintain a working signal in the end.”

Some in academic circles said professors should not overreact to the site, but should not ignore it either.

Continue reading the main stor

“In the past, I have taken the position that we ignore such challenges to free speech and the hate mail that usually accompanies it, but no longer,” Professor Neuberger said. “Now I say we fight as hard as we can against people who don’t care about accuracy, who can’t recognize fake news and who seek to monitor what we do as educators.”

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wiki

Professor Watchlist is a website, containing a list of professors at American colleges and universities, launched on November 21, 2016, by Turning Point USA.[1] The stated purpose of the list is to expose professors who "discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."[2] The list's claims about the people it includes have been contested as misleading or inaccurate, and its existence has been criticized as a threat to academic freedom.[3][4] As of December 2, 2016, the website contains about 200 professors.[3]The "driving force" behind the Watchlist was Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA.[5]

Sources

Campus Reform, a part of the Leadership Institute, was the source for 75 professors on the Professor Watchlist.[6]

Controversy

Slate columnist Rebecca Schuman described the website as "abjectly terrifying" and said that she feared for the safety of the listed professors.[7] Some have criticized the website as a threat to academic freedom; Hans-Joerg Tiede, the associate secretary for the American Association of University Professors' department of academic freedom, tenure and governance, told *The* *New York Times*: "There is a continuing cycle of these sorts of things. They serve the same purpose: to intimidate individuals from speaking plainly in their classrooms or in their publications."[8]

Critics including Peter Dreier of Occidental College—who is listed on the site for having criticized the National Rifle Association and using Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as a required text—have pointed out errors of fact that may make Professor Watchlist less than reliable as a source of information.[9]

Kent State professor Julio Pino told The New York Times the site is "a kind of normalizing of prosecuting professors, shaming professors, defaming professors."[10]

The website's organizers have responded by claiming that it simply provides conservative students with a guide to their professors, akin to Ratemyprofessors.com,[11] enabling them to avoid left-wing classes.[4]

Over one hundred University of Notre Dame faculty members signed an open letter asking to be included in the site, saying in part:[12]

We surmise that the purpose of your list is to shame and silence faculty who espouse ideas you reject. But your list has had a different effect upon us. We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called "dangerous," reaffirming our values and recommitting ourselves to the work of teaching students to think clearly, independently and fearlessly.

In response to the Notre Dame letter, University of Chicago psychology professor Leslie Kay started the website "Free Academics". This website lists the names of professors across the United States who have signed it to ask for their names to be added to the list. As of December 2016, it had over 1,500 signatories.[13]

References

  1. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Sidahmed, Mazin (December 2, 2016). "A conservative website is targeting professors and accusing them of spreading 'left-wing propaganda:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Business Insider.
  2. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Flaherty, Colleen (2016-11-22). "Being Watched". Inside Higher Education.
  3. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Watchlist#cite_ref-guardian_3-1) Sidahmed, Mazin (December 2, 2016). "Professor Watchlist website elicits both fear and ridicule in US universities". The Guardian.
  4. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Watchlist#cite_ref-time_4-1) Reilly, Katie (2016-12-01). "Professors Targeted by Conservative Watchlist Fire Back: 'It's Obviously an Attempt to Silence People:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Time.
  5. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Lester, Kerry (November 30, 2016). "Wheeling High graduate behind conservative 'Professor Watchlist*"*. Daily Herald. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  6. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Knott, Katherine (November 23, 2016). "What It’s Like to Be Named to a Watch List of ‘Anti-American’ Professors". Retrieved July 13, 2017 – via The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  7. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Schuman, Rebecca (November 23, 2016). "Oh Good, a "Professor Watch List:{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Slate.
  8. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Mele, Christopher (2016-11-28). "Professor Watchlist Is Seen as Threat to Academic Freedom". The New York Times.
  9. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Dreier, Peter (December 9, 2016). "Professor Peter Dreier, targeted by Professor Watchlist, says it gets an F for accuracy". History News Network. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  10. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Lester, Kerry (30 November 2016). "Wheeling High graduate behind conservative 'Professor Watchlist*"*.dailyherald.com. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  11. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Wenzke, Marissa (December 2, 2016). "This controversial website is targeting 'radical' left-wing academics". Mashable.
  12. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "A letter to Professor Watchlist". The Observer. December 8, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  13. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Strauss, Valerie (December 14, 2016). ":{':(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:The sort of company we wish to keep': More than 1,500 academics ask to join controversial 'Professor Watchlist:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". The Washington Post.

External links

This website-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Categories: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_Reform

Campus Reform is an American conservative news website focused on higher education. It is operated by Leadership Institute and its reporters are students.

In September 2015, Campus Reform said its website had received 9.3 million page views in the past year.[1]

The news site is known for conservative journalism, where it reports on what it claims are incidents of liberal bias and restrictions on free speechon American college campuses.[1]

The online publication maintains running list of "victories" — ranging from college policy changes to firings — on a dry-erase board at the website's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters inside the Leadership Institute.[1]

Notable stories

In May 2012, Campus Reform called on conservative students to protest liberal speakers on campus such as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.[2]

In September 2015, Campus Reform was first to report that David W. Guth, a University of Kansas associate professor of journalism, had tweeted: "The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time let it be YOUR sons and daughters", in reaction to the Washington Navy Yard shooting days before. The university was deluged by complaints, and the university put Guth on temporary leave with pay.[3]

Staff

Sterling Beard, editor in chief.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_Reform#cite_ref-Outrage_machine_1-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_Reform#cite_ref-Outrage_machine_1-2) d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_Reform#cite_ref-Outrage_machine_1-3) Schmidt, Peter (8 September 2015). "Higher Education's Internet Outrage Machine". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 13 May 2016. Most important, in its view, it had scored 15 "victories" — a term it applies to any situation in which a college changes a policy, fires someone, or otherwise responds to concerns raised by the reporting on its site.
  2. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ CAPLAN, LINCOLN (19 May 2012). "Sunday Review: Week Ahead". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  3. :{Jump up:(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ McMurtrie, Beth (8 September 2015). "What to Do When the Outrage Is Aimed at Your Campus". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 15 May 2016. The university issued a statement, and the story was posted the next day. "Journalism professor says he hopes for murder of NRA members’ children," the headline read. Once the National Rifle Association picked up the story, everything else at the university seemed to stop.

Categories: 

==

prof watchlist kirk turning pt

http://www.alternet.org/education/professor-watchlist-gets-f-accuracy

i am one of? roughly 200 professors listed on the Professor Watchlist, which claims to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students.” It was launched on November 21, two weeks after Donald Trump was elected president. It is sponsored by a right-wing group called Turning Point USA and run by a 22-year conservative named Charlie Kirk. 

The website is getting a lot of attention in both the mainstream and right-wing media. None of the stories about it so far have sought to identify where its funding comes from or who is really behind it. Mainstream news outlets, like The New York Times, have reported about it as a controversial group that might threaten free speech. Fox News, the *Daily Caller*, and other parts of the right-wing echo chamber celebrate it as a useful tool for exposing the allegedly “liberal” atmosphere on college campuses.

If the Professor Watchlist were a research paper, I'd give it an F. Much of the information about me on the Watchlist is simply untrue.The entry about me links to a right-wing website called Discover the Networks HOROWITZ that repeats lies about me that have been published in several books and websites by right-wing propagandists and apparent lunatics. For example, it claims, incorrectly, that I once worked for the Industrial Areas Foundation, the community organizing network founded by Saul Alinsky. And it repeats a story, published in several other places, that as a young student at Columbia University, Barack Obama heard me speak on a panel at a Socialist Scholars Conference in New York. Also wrong. Some right-wing books, articles and websites take this fabricated story even further, and claim that it was this event that inspired Obama to become a community organizer. This is all complete fantasy.

The Watchlist does get some things right in its profile of me. I have criticized the National Rifle Association. I am a member of Democratic Socialists of America, which means I agree with many of Bernie Sanders’s ideas and would like the United States to be a more humane society, like the ones in Canada or Denmark. I do assign Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States in my course on “movements for social justice.” What it doesn’t mention is that in that course and others, I also require readings from the Wall Street Journal,theWeekly Standard, and Business Week, and from the works of conservative writers.

The Professor Watchlist is a good example of our increasingly “post-truth” culture, which is primarily the consequence of several decades of persistent right-wing propaganda, such as attacks on the reality of global warming or Donald Trump’s statements that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because there were “millions” of people who voted illegally, something that theTimes called a “baseless claim,” and which in everyday language we would call a “lie.” It is also, to a lesser extent, partly the result of left-wing postmodernism, which posits that there are no facts, just points-of-view—something I wrote about earlier this year in an article titled “Academic Drivel Report,” for The American Prospect.

I was even a bit disappointed that the Watchlist entry about me didn't include some of the things I'm most proud of, including my work with labor unions, my activism around the minimum wage, my books, my mentoring of students, and my five minutes of fame being interviewed on TV by Bill O'Reilly!

The Watchlist offers no evidence that I discriminate against conservative students, and that’s because there isn’t any. In fact, one of the things that students routinely mention on their anonymous course evaluations is that they appreciate my insistence that they be able to understand and defend ideas from different political perspectives. Being “politically correct” in my classroom means being able to clearly and convincingly articulate your own ideas as well as those you disagree with. At the beginning of each semester, I tell students up front thateven though I’m a progressive, “I prefer smart conservatives to stupid liberals.”

I assume that much of the information about other professors on the Watchlist is, like its entry about me, also false and misleading. Apparently its “method” is to find conservative students who will to “report” on their professors, with no standards to define what is considered radical, leftist, or progressive. In truth, most of America's most significant and influential “radical” professors didn't make the list. And many of the people included on the Professor Watchlist are not even radical at all. But that's the point.Anything that makes a conservative (or simply misinformed or naïve) student feel uncomfortable could be reported as “radical” to the Professor Watchlist.

The Professor Watchlist is not a new idea. In 1990, Roger Kimball published a book titled Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education, which reflected the “culture wars” of that era. In 2006, the conservative propagandist David Horowitz wrote a book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America,along the same lines, put out by the conservative Regnery Publishing. I was disappointed to be excluded from that list, although I'm occasionally a target of Horowitz's fantastical conspiracy theories on his website, Frontpage.

The Professor Watchlist would be a joke, except that in the Trump era we could be in for a bumpy ride when it comes free speech and civil liberties, as demonstrated by his recent tweet that people who burn the American flag should be put in prison and lose their citizenship, something that even conservative Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia recognized violated the Constitution (a document with which Trump and his attorney general-designate Jeff Sessions appear to be unfamiliar). Not to mention Trump’s attacks and threats to rein in the news media, and his talk of bringing back torture, barring Muslims from entering the U.S., and expanding the surveillance state.

In 1950, as the Cold War Red Scare era was underway, three former FBI agents created a list of alleged Communists called Red Channels:The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. The pamphlet-style book names 151 actors, writers, musicians, broadcast journalists, and others who, it claimed, were Communists whose goal was to infiltrate Hollywood and the entertainment industry in order to subvert American minds. The operation was funded by Alfred Kohlberg, an American textile importer and leader of the right-wing John Birch Society (JBS). (He was a 1950s version of the Koch brothers, whose father was also a leader of the JBS).

Hollywood studios and other employers, under pressure from the subservient media and right-wing groups, used Red Channels to blacklist employees. Many colleges and universities, as well as public schools, had blacklists of their own after right-wing groups pointed the finger at professors and teachers for being subversives. Thousands of people lost their jobs and their careers. But the ripple effect of the blacklist was even greater, because it stifled dissent and free speech, among liberals and progressives in particular. Last year's Hollywood film, Trumbo, provides an entertaining and sobering account of that period, which is excavated in a number of scholarly books, including Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund’s The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960 and Ellen Schrecker’s No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities.

Like Red Channels, the Professor Watchlist is riddled with lies and disinformation, but it could have the effect of chilling dissent and free speech if college and university faculty feel intimidated or threatened. Faculty members without tenure, especially those who teach at institutions run by conservative trustees or administrators (like Baylor University, which until recently was headed by the reactionary Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel who sought to impeach Bill Clinton), could feel vulnerable. They could engage in self-censorship, afraid to speak out about issues of social injustice, or even afraid to incorporate “radical” topics and readings in their course.

Soon after the Watchlist appeared, I got a number of emails and Facebook comments from colleagues and friends congratulating me for making the list. But I’m reminded of a comment made by Lee Hays, one of the members of the popular 1950s folk singing group, the Weavers, who said, “If it weren't for the honor, I'd just as soon not have been blacklisted.”

So even though Professor Watchlist is run by a 22-year-old conservative activist with no standards for accuracy, we have to take it seriously. That’s because it could be taken over and/or used by more powerful and more serious right-wingers, who could then abuse it to revive a new wave of McCarthyism. Remember, Newt Gingrich recently suggested that Congress restore some version of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which, along with McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was the principal tool of the Red Scare witch hunts.

So I hope that every professional academic organization—like the American Sociological Association, the American Political Science Association and the Organization of American Historians, join forces to condemn this latest witch hunt. Indeed I would extend that invitation to American Association of University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers, and any number of intellectuals in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. This falsehood-laden propaganda campaign might begin with trying to intimidate college professors, but it could soon extend into other arenas—public school teachers, journalists, clergy, and political activists, for example.

At times like this, it is always useful to remember the poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Although it might be easy to dismiss the Professor Watchlist as the amateurish rantings of a few extreme conservatives, we cannot ignore its potential as a harbinger of efforts by Donald Trump and his ilk to suppress free speech and dissent, which, if successful, would undermine our democracy and make it possible for bullies and tyrants to rule, perhaps even with the unwitting consent of the governed.

Peter Dreieris a professor of politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His most recent book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame (Nation Books).

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http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/professor-who-criticized-trump-hiding-after-death-threats

professor who gave a lecture criticizing Donald Trump, and the divisiveness and racist rhetoric of his presidential campaign, has gone into hiding after receiving death threats.

Olga Perez Stable Cox, a psychology instructor at Orange Coast College, was secretly recorded by a student during a class days after the presidential election.:{ In a }video:{ posted to YouTube on December 6, Cox expresses disappointment, fear and to a lesser degree, hopefulness about the future. The footage begins with Cox stating the incoming administration is led by a “white supremacist and a vice president that is one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.” She goes on to say that, “Our nation is divided, we have been assaulted, it’s an act of terrorism....And so we are in for a difficult time, but again, I do believe that we can get past that.”}:

[vid]

The student who surreptitiously filmed Cox remains anonymous, but Joshua Recalde-Martinez, whom the Los Angeles Times identifies as thepresident of the Orange Coast College Republicans Club, released the video publicly. In the weeks since its appearance online, Cox has been subject to “more than 1,000 emails, calls and Facebook comments.” Almost all of those messages have been critical, and some have included threats to Cox’s life, according to the Orange County Register.

Rob Schneiderman, president of the local teachers' union, said Cox identifies as a “lesbian, Latina woman living in [conservative] Orange County.” Schneiderman told the Register that though Cox is “pretty strong,” the sheer number of harassing messages, as well as the violence some expressed, was frightening enough to force Cox to leave the state for a period.

“Someone emailed her a picture of her house, with her address,” Schneiderman told the Register. He said the letter warned that Cox’s “home address is now going to be sent everywhere.”

Another email reportedly read, “You want communism, go to Cuba...try to bring it to America and we’ll put a (expletive) bullet in your face.”

Earlier this week, a group of 60 students and faculty held a rally in support of Cox. Some held signs reading "We support academic freedom" and "OCC for Olga," according to the LA Times. Later in the day, a group of conservative students, including Recalde-Martinez, showed up in counterprotest.

Elias Altamirano, an OCC student who organized the demonstration, told the Register he hoped to reassure Cox her presence on campus was welcome. “She has been here 30 years and impacted over 30,000 lives,” Altamirano said. “I want to let Olga know this is her home and she doesn’t have to feel threatened.”

"Some of us were upset that the media was only showing one side...I think her comments were taken out of context," OCC student Autumn Durand, told the Times. "Undocumented students are scared, women are scared. Olga's speech was about protecting students."

A lawyer has filed a complaint against Cox with OCC president Dennis Harkins. The Times reports the “complaint suggested that Cox attend anger management classes and apologize to her students, and that the complaint be placed in her personnel file.” The college is currently reviewing the request. The school is also trying to determine if the student who secretly made the video violated any rules by recording without Cox’s consent. This may be due partly to the content of the class. A student who previously took the course, which is focused on human sexuality, told the Times it was a forum where “students can share their sexual experiences during class discussions.”

Cox has an entry on the Professor Watchlist, a right-wing website that asserts its mission is to "Expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” Conservatives have long condemned institutions of higher learning as bastions of liberal ideology. The political winds may be blowing in a direction that leaves many professors vulnerable to attacks from conservative, Republican and other right-wing groups. 

“My experience talking to students is that they want a diverse range of professors and opinions in class,” saidunion president Rob Schneiderman. “The problem here is the lack of dialogue, with students turning the classroom into a reality TV show when they surreptitiously videotape and publish it.”

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http://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-1214-occ-professor-rally-20161212-story.html

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http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/turning-point-usa-assault-free-speech

"Expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”

This is the stated aim of the Professor Watchlist,a website that went live on Monday. The project comes from Turning Point USA, a nonprofit group funded to support the work of conservative wunderkind Charlie Kirk, subject of a loving profile in the *National Journal*. Kirk, 22, was recently on Fox talking about Trump’s “mandate” andyoung voters and allegedly has raised over $1 million to support his conservative youth movement. Now he’s spending that money to put professors on a literal watchlist.

In a writeup on the project, Kirk stated that he often hears stories about professors who “use their position of power to advance liberal agendas in their classroom” and that “Turning Point USA is saying enough is enough. It’s time we expose these professors.”

The project offers a chilling example of what the academic world can expect in Trump’s America, while reigniting the ever-fraught safe spaces debate.

***

In recent years, the cultural battle over trigger warnings has intensified, with strange bedfellows working to characterize student requests for safe spaces as threats to academic freedom. Sure, you’d expect to see people at Breitbart write endless essays mocking “safe spaces,” and they have, but they’ve been accompanied by a host of high-status writers who are mostly, but not exclusively, white men.

An NYU professor and the CEO of the mostly libertarian Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) landed an *Atlantic* cover story on the matter. The New York Times has repeatedly published pieces decrying safe spaces. Hundreds of thousands of people shared a Vox piece about a liberal professor terrified by his politically correct students. Jonathan Chait, at New York Magazine, has made the dangers of political correctness one of his beats, accusing “language police of perverting liberalism,” then, after an incident in Mizzou, demanding to know “Can We Start Taking Political Correctness Seriously Now?” This fall, a dean at the University of Chicago won widespread publicity for his criticism of “safe spaces,” followed by faculty saying he was the one actually squelching free speech by telling students not to even inquire about trigger warnings.

There is a simple principle behind essays and letters like these, not to mention the infinite support they generate on social media: Marginalized students requesting or demanding more respectful language, fewer microaggressions, or even specially designated spaces in which to process trauma pose a significant threat to free speech and academic freedom.

This is not true. It’s never been true. Demands or requests from marginalized students do not carry institutional power with them. Sometimes they get appropriated by people with institutional power, but I’ve long argued that attempts to label certain kinds of speech requests “politically correct” stem from a fear of losing hierarchical position. In other words, the demand to stop microaggressions, to consider trauma when developing pedagogy, to change language use—these all destabilize current power relationships, so naturally the folk with the power find them uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, the American right wing is currently organizing, and has long been organizing, to actually repress speech on campus. This watchlist is just the most recent example of this. As the American Association of University Professors pointed out in a comment on the watchlist: “The AAUP has spoken out against organizations that conduct these kinds of activities going back to the 1920s, when it was the American Legion, through the 1980s, when it was an organization that called itself Accuracy in Academia.”AAUP is concerned that “External monitoring of in-class statements not only presents the prospect that the words uttered will be distorted or taken out of context; it is also likely to have a chilling effect and result in self-censorship.”

When I was in graduate school just starting to teach, people were worried about David Horowitz, a conservative who urged students to monitor their professors and eventually published The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. Since then, other attempts to use the internet to name, shame, and even punish liberal professors have proliferated. The cell-phone video camera has taught me to assume I’m always being recorded while teaching. Examples of professors, especially women of color, having their Twitter feed turned against them have proliferated.As Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote, academic institutions are unprepared for hate to spill off social media and into their phone and email systems, let alone with public protests, and will all too easily cave to pressure.

And this was all before the rise of Trump. Now David Horowitz is on television, supporting Breitbart, where he writes his screeds. His boss has Trump’s ear. Ben Carson, who keeps being mentioned for the cabinet despite taking himself out of the running, famously wanted to use the Department of Education to strip funding from colleges he deemed to be engaging in promoting liberal values. Trump hasn’t weighed in on professors, but his comments about media freedom and critiques of Hamilton don’t give me much confidence. In such a world, Kirk, a wunderkind conservative with connections to the new administration, seems a legitimate threat.

The problem isn’t really about the professors whose names are on the list, though many I know on the list are worried or at least irritated. The issue is that such a list is intended to intimidate. People who are in precarious positions, people who lack support within their institutions, or just generally people from vulnerable groups (LGBTQ professors, professors of color, disabled professors, etc.) will pre-emptively silence themselves. I suspect, in fact, that this is the goal—not to punish individual professors, but to chill us into silence.

Welcome to speech in the age of Trump. It’s never been more important for experts to engage in public discourse, and such discourse has rarely been so threatened from the state and its allies. I have no solutions other than to say be vigilant, be organized, and support each other.

And if you’re one of those people who has spent the last few years yelling at lefty students over PC running amok, repent, then get to work over here. We’re going to need the allies.

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https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/29522/this-21-year-old-is-trying-become-major-player-conservative-politics-so-far-seems-be-working

The 21-Year-Old Becoming a Major Player in Conservative Politics

Charlie Kirk’s backers swear he’s the future of conservative politics—and he’s only just old enough to drink.

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BS no img

http://willcountynews.com/2016/11/21/its-time-we-expose-professors-pushing-agendas-in-their-classroom/

It’s no secret that some of America’s college professors are totally out of line.

Everyday I hear stories about professors who attack and target conservatives, promote liberal propaganda, and use their position of power to advance liberal agendas in their classroom.

Turning Point USA is saying enough is enough.It’s time we expose these professors.

Today, Turning Point USA is proud to announce the launch of ProfessorWatchList.org, a website dedicated to documenting and exposing professors who discriminate against conservative students and promote anti-American, left wing propaganda in the classroom.

http://ProfessorWatchList.org

Meet some of the professor’s we profiled….

s Angeletti is a tenured professor at Metropolitan State University Denver. He required students to recite a pledge that describes a racist, sexist, homophobic America: “I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American and to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you if you don’t watch your step.”

e Miller-Young is an Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Miller was sentenced to three years’ probation after violently attacking a 16-year-old pro-life activist on campus. She was convicted of assault, theft, and destruction of property, but the University of Santa Barbara never fired her.

r is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Cooper stated thatwhite racism is to blame for Brexit. She tweeted “White nationalism gone be the death of all of us. #Brexit” and went on to say. “The only thing I know that makes white folks vote against their own economic interest is racism. #Brexit.” In another interview to Salon she stated that white people need to start recognizing that they are “the face of the oppressor.” Cooper has also stated that Christian conservatives worship a “white supremacist Jesus.”

Pino is a tenured professor at Kent State University in Ohio. Dr. Pino is currently under investigation for having ties to the well known terrorist group ISIS, and allegedly recruiting students to join the Islamic State. The professor once shouted “”Death to Israel!”” at a public lecture by a former Israeli diplomat, and has been a featured columnist for several anti-Semitic and pro terrorism publications.

These people are teaching our students!!

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mediatrackers

Months Later, Controversial “Death to Israel” Professor Still Hasn’t Been Disciplined By University

By: Jesse Hathaway | June 04, 2012

Almost one year afterKent State professor Julio Pino shouted “Death to Israel!” at a public lecture by a former Israeli diplomat, people are beginning to question why no disciplinary action has been taken against him by the university.

Pino, who has been a controversial figure on campus for years, disrupted a lecture in October of 2011 by demanding that Ishmael Khaldi, the first Muslim diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, answer how his country justified giving relief aid to Haiti and Turkey, which Pino characterized as “blood money.”

According to witnesses, before shouting his anti-Semitic remarks, Pino distributed anti-Israel fliers in the back of the conference room.

That incident did not seem surprising to students and other faculty attending the lecture, as Pino’s “outspoken” support of Islamic terrorism throughout the years seems to be well-documented.

In 2007, Pino was a columnist for the now-defunct pro-terrorism weblog *Global War*, which billed itself as a “jihadist news service,” providing “battle dispatches, training manuals, and jihad videos to our [Muslim] brothers worldwide.” In one column, Pino praised the actions of a female suicide bomber who killed 41 Shi’a Muslims, writing that she “lies on the Golden Couch of Paradise” for “[eliminating] Shia traitors.”

According to the Ravenna Record-Courier, former Kent State University History Department chairman Dr. John Jameson was aware of Pino’s contributions to the jihad blog. Jameson was removed as History Department chairman in 2007 because he approved an all-expenses-paid, six-week professional leave to the United Arab Emirates to “learn Arabic” — without gaining prior approval from the Dean’s Office.

Pino also wrote an e-mail to conservative columnist Mike S. Adams, in which he said, “The Muslim is commanded in the Quran to ‘fight oppression and overcome tribulation, until all religion is for Allah.’ This is the true meaning of jihad; daily struggle, in every manner prescribed by Allah and His Messenger. […] The martyr has no time for peace … [T]he greatest of all epics is martyrdom. ‘Laa ‘ilaaha ‘illallahu (There is none worthy of worship but Allah) must be on his dying lips that he may enter Paradise. Not by chance did Mohammed Atta’s ‘Instructions for the Final Night’ counsel him [sic] make these his last words before crashing into the World Trade Center. Amen.”

In 2009, the United States Secret Service searched Pino’s home in connection with an “ongoing investigation.” Pino later told the Daily Kent Stater that he “spoke out to clear up their minds of all these false allegations and accusations against me, but the whole matter was ultimately settled professionally, and it is closed.”

Pino allegedly sent an unsolicited e-mail to his fellow professors suggesting that the White House would need “more coffins,” sparking the Secret Service investigation.

In another e-mail, dated July 30, 2010,Pino wrote to Adams regarding the recent deaths of 66 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, saying “sorry about the loss of your 66 dogs; maybe the c***s [sic] should have stayed at home.”

Supporters of Pino characterize his outbursts over the years as speech protected under the First Amendment, but some of Pino’s colleagues wonder if Pino’s pedagogy is more akin to hate speech.

KSU Professor of English Lewis Fried told KentWired.comreporter Courtney Kerrigan that “when you identify yourself as a professor and advocate the killing of other people, you have crossed the line.”

Shortly after the 2011 incident, Kent State University President Lester Lefton slammed Pino’s conduct, saying his calls for genocide were “deeply troubling,” “deplorable” and a “grotesque failure” of Pino’s responsibility to serve as a role model for students.

Pino defended his actions to Inside Higher Education magazine, writing that “the only politics I have are ‘there is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Messenger.’”

However, on his Facebook page, Pino writes in support of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, noting that “to be an urban guerilla [sic] means to launch an offensive against imperialism. The Red Army Faction is striking the connection between the legal and illegal resistance; between national and international resistance; between national and international struggle; between the strategic and tactical requirements of the international communist movement.”

The Facebook note features a picture of a female Maoist soldier dressed in Unified Communist Party of Nepal military garb dating to that country’s civil war, from 1996 through 2006. In that conflict, Maoists attempted to overthrown the monarchy, but settled in 2006 for a partial nationalization of state resources, among other concessions made by the government.

In another Facebook note, he writes that “there is a Communism which is dangerous and a Communism that is not dangerous. Comrades, let us dare to make Communism dangerous again!” This post is titled “Bandeira Rossa,” which is the name of a popular Italian labor movement anthem, and features a photo of Pakistanis burning the American flag.

Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors, declined to comment on whether she supported national director Cary Nelson’s remarks that Pino’s calls for genocide were more akin to academic discourse than hate speech.

Colleen Casey, Kent State University Chapter Coordinator for the AAUP, refused to answer any questions about Pino, saying that the chapter had “no comment.”

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