Shocka: Lefty college professors support terrorist

Want to read a great big pile of crap sprinkled liberally (pun very intended) with weasel words and evasions? Well, look no further than this heaping helping of FAIL by one Jack Stripling at Inside Higher Ed:

William Ayers has been trashed by conservative pundits and labeled “an unrepentant domestic terrorist” by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, but the University of Illinois at Chicago professor has garnered the support of a growing number of peers who admire his scholarship and see the attacks on him as an affront to academic freedom.

While I have no doubt that there's a raft of lefty college professors who admire Ayers' "scholarship" (among other things) let's cut the crap here, Jack. To say that he's been trashed" by conservatives is subjective, I guess, but that bit about him being "labeled" an unrepentant domestic terrorist (note the lack of scare quotes) is disingenuous at best, especially when one considers the famous interview he gave the NYT back in 2001. But moving on...

Ayers, who helped found a Vietnam-era protest group that was blamed for bombing government buildings, has been a faculty member at Illinois-Chicago since 1987. In a statement signed by faculty members across the country, professors have spoken out against “the demonization” of Ayers, whose alleged ties to the Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama have made headlines.

Oh, so they were "blamed" for bombing government buildings, Jack? That's funny. I kind of got the sense that they took, you know, credit for that shit. But I guess that's just me "trashing" respectable academics.

Now, for the statement:

“It’s true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans,” reads the statement, which was posted on www.supportbillayers.org. “His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution — including publishing 16 books — to the field of education.”

I don't doubt that hundreds of thousands of people "participated passionately" in various causes in the sixties. It's just that, you know, most of them didn't blow shit up. And forgive me for being impertinent, but that's still relevant now thanks to the fact that we've got a presidential candidate whose only qualification seems to be his vaunted sense of judgment, but who didn't see anything wrong with working with and (at least on occasion) socializing with an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Oh, and as far as his "exemplary contribution" to education, let's not forget that we're dealing with somebody who has a "small-c communist" philosophy as far as that's concerned.

I'd tell you to read the rest (everybody's least favorite fake Indian makes an appearance) but it'll probably cause you to throw up a little in your mouth.

(h/t)

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:03 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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