cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/64975432
But this isn’t just about professors; it’s about all of us. This is the most flagrant attack on higher education in my lifetime. Why are politicians reducing public colleges and universities to vehicles of state propaganda? Why are self-proclaimed proponents of free speech turning around and using state repression to enforce speech codes on our campuses? Why can’t we speak openly about our social world in sociology classes? Why are unqualified appointees from the business world dictating to Ph.D.-holding academics how they should teach and which textbooks they must use?
What we really need are people beyond the university itself — the general public — speaking out about how ludicrous this all is. We are now living through an era of state censorship, politically motivated firings, and state-produced propaganda materials. If this isn’t authoritarianism in higher education, I don’t know what is.
Opinion piece by Zachary Levenson is associate professor of sociology at Florida International University.
EDITED TO ADD (in case some miss my comment)
Imagine the following scenario: You’re teaching Introduction to Sociology at a community college in Florida, and today, you’re trying to explain the well-documented pay gap between men and women in the United States. You check the guidance you just received from your dean, who received instructions via email from the executive vice chancellor of the Florida College System. The instructions state explicitly that explaining “unequal outcomes between men and women” in terms of “institutional sexism” would violate state law.
I was just going to reply in a similar way. I read that and thought: They will BECOME propaganda machines? Riiight…
Honestly, I don’t see how any state managed educational system, or any educational system controlled by any powerful entity, wouldn’t eventually slip in propaganda. If Coca-Cola ran an educational system, I’m sure it’d be increasingly full of subtle and not so subtle propagandas that Coke favors.
I suppose best we can do is argue/decide which “propaganda” are acceptable/useful, and which are not.
In short, nothing new under the sun.
Propaganda, strictly defined, is information from a slanted perspective.
At a really high level - where schools have limited time in the day/year and have to select their focus of study.
You can always and forever make hay about “what schools AREN’T teaching your kids!!!” because there’s always choices being made and people unhappy with those choices.
What’s happening in the US, today, is a deliberate effort to reverse historical liberal education regimes.
It’s not propaganda people are noticing, but the change in propaganda.
I mean, it’s definitely different