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fortdixlover
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 1476
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 Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:32 pm Post subject: U. Texas Journalism Prof: We Lost, and It's Good |
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Here is another example of the source of the Vietnam vet's stolen honor. Unbelievable, the anti-Americanism and elitism of many of today's "professors":
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13910_UT_Journalism_Prof-_We_Lost_and_Its_Good
12/10/2004: UT Journalism Prof: We Lost, and It's Good
We shouldn’t be surprised that mainstream media is relentlessly anti-American, when college journalism students are being taught by the likes of University of Texas professor Robert Jensen: A defeat for an empire.
A Defeat for an Empire
Robert Jensen
Professor in the School of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu
The United States has lost the war in Iraq, and that’s a good thing.
I don’t mean that the loss of American and Iraqi lives is to be celebrated. The death and destruction are numbingly tragic, and the suffering in Iraq is hard for most of us in the United States to comprehend.
The tragedy is compounded because these deaths haven’t protected Americans or brought freedom to Iraqis. They have come in the quest to extend the American empire in this “new American century.”
So, as a U.S. citizen, I welcome the U.S. defeat for a simple reason: It isn’t the defeat of the United States — its people or their ideals — but of that empire. And it’s essential that the American empire be defeated and dismantled.
The fact that the Bush administration says we are fighting for freedom and democracy (having long ago abandoned fictions about weapons of mass destruction and terrorist ties) does not make it so.
We must look at the reality, no matter how painful. The people of Iraq are better off without Saddam Hussein’s despised regime, but that does not prove our benevolent intentions or guarantee that the United States will work to bring meaningful democracy to Iraq.
In Iraq, the Bush administration invaded not to liberate but to extend and deepen U.S. domination. When Bush said, “We have no territorial ambitions; we don’t seek an empire,” on Nov. 11, 2002, he told a half-truth.
The United States doesn’t want to absorb Iraq or take direct possession of its oil. That’s not the way of empire today; it’s about control over the flow of oil and oil profits, not ownership.
In a world that runs on oil, the nation that controls the flow of oil has great strategic power. U.S. policy-makers want leverage over the economies of competitors — Western Europe, Japan and China — that are more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.
The Bush administration has invested money and lives in making Iraq a platform from which the United States can project power.
That requires not the liberation of Iraq but its subordination. But most Iraqis don’t want to be subordinated, which is why the United States in some sense lost the war on the day it invaded. One lesson of contemporary history is that occupying armies generate resistance that, inevitably, prevails over imperial power.
When we admit defeat and pull out — not if, but when — the fate of Iraqis will depend in part on whether the United States makes good on legal and moral obligations to pay reparations and allows international institutions to aid in creating a truly sovereign Iraq.
We shouldn’t expect politicians to do either without pressure. An anti-empire movement — the joining of anti-war forces with the movement to reject corporate globalization — must create that pressure.
We should all carry a profound sense of sadness at where decisions made by U.S. policy-makers — not just the gang in power today but a string of Republican and Democratic administrations — have left us and the Iraqis. But that sadness should not keep us from pursuing the most courageous act of citizenship in the United States today: pledging to dismantle the American empire.
The planet’s resources do not belong to the United States. The century is not America’s. We own neither the world nor time. And if we don’t give up the quest — if we don’t find our place in the world instead of on top of the world — there is little hope for a safe, sane and sustainable future.
-- FDL
_________________
"Millions For Defense, Not One Cent For Tribute" - Thomas Jefferson on paying ransom to Muslim corsairs (pirates). |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:07 pm Post subject: Re: U. Texas Journalism Prof: We Lost, and It's Good |
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| fortdixlover wrote: | | Here is another example of the source of the Vietnam vet's stolen honor. Unbelievable, the anti-Americanism and elitism of many of today's "professors": |
I thought this guy sounded familiar ... following are excerpts from a few articles I pulled up on him. (Glad to see the students have put him on a “Watch List”!!) -- most telling, I think, is the article he wrote on 9/26/01, which I’ve included here in its entirety:
| Quote: | “Symposium: The Left’s Hatred of Bush” by Jamie Glazov, 10/15/04
FP: ...the Left clearly sees Bush as a far greater evil than anything that Al Qeada and Islamic fundamentalism represent in the War on Terror & has taken the side of the enemy. What explains this bizarre phenomenon?
ROBERT JENSEN (an assoc. professor in the School of Journalism at the Univ. of Texas at Austin. He styles himself a “critic of the U.S. empire” & is a member of the board of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center;..):
“...The ideals of solidarity & freedom that have long animated the left continue to be at the core of left politics.... The phrase “knee-jerk anti-Americanism” illustrates how fundamentally anti-democratic some segments of the right are these days.... I don’t hate George W. Bush, any more than I hated Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush when I spoke out against those administrations’ policies that I thought were illegal and immoral, especially in the realm of foreign policy and war...
....
“The claim that the Left ‘hates capitalism & free choice and desires the submission of the individual to a supreme totality’ is nonsensical. I don’t ‘hate’ capitalism. ... I think capitalism is an unjust system that concentrates wealth & power in anti-democratic fashion, creates indefensible suffering, ... Capitalism offers people choices in some realms, but blocks other choices. To suggest that anyone who is anti-capitalist desires submission to a supreme totality is, frankly, rather silly... The claim that the U.S. liberated Afghanistan is asserted but unsupported. The U.S. has installed a puppet government... True, some of the regimes the U.S. attacked did receive aid of various kinds from the Soviet Union, but that hardly proves the central myth of the Cold War: That U.S. policymakers were fighting for freedom rather than simply acting as great powers tend to act.... One of the central tasks of the Left has been to counter the self-serving rhetoric of a benevolent empire & ask the U.S. public to hold our own government accountable to the law & minimal moral standards...
....
“...Do you want me to condemn Stalin? No problem. Since 9/11, in every talk I have given on the subject I have explicitly rejected the values and tactics of al Qaeda. ... have never apologized for a brutal government. ... A friend of mine who grew up outside the U.S. ... was surprised to discover that it was a fairly free & open place. It was hard to reconcile, she said, that domestic reality with the ugliness of U.S. foreign policy. That’s one of the paradoxes of this country. ... As for my remark about the millions of dead as a result of that foreign policy, I assumed it was a fairly obvious point. We could start with the 3 to 4 million dead in the U.S. attack on Laos, Cambodia, & Vietnam. We could take note of the hundreds of thousands of dead in Central America as a result of U.S. support for military regimes, dictators, & proxy armies. To have to point out these things in this kind of forum says something not too pretty about the state of the intellectual culture of the U.S....
“I have always held to the belief that (1) principles of justice should be applied uniformly, including to oneself & one’s own nation, and (2) we are responsible for our own actions, individually & collectively as a nation-state. That leads me to the conclusion that as a U.S. citizen, I should be part of movements to hold accountable powerful institutions (... the state and corporations) for abuses of power, while at the same time struggling to create a society in which such illegitimate concentrations of power eventually are abolished. Historically, such movements (labor, civil rights, feminist, anti-war) have been the primary force for progressive social change. They remain the hope for the future, even in a time of naïve triumphalism about the dominance of the American empire.” < SOURCE > |
| Quote: | “Winning the Culture War” by Brian C. Anderson, 11/3/03
... The orthodox Left’s blame-America-first response to 9/11 has also helped tilt the blogosphere rightward. “There were damned few noble responses to that cursed day from the ‘progressive’ part of the political spectrum,” avers LA–based blogger & journalist Matt Welch, “so untold thousands of people just started blogs, in anger,” Welch among them. “I was pushed into blogging on 9/16/01, in direct response to reading five days’ worth of outrageous ******** in the media from people like Noam Chomsky & Robert Jensen.” < SOURCE > |
| Quote: | “High Noon in Texas for Leftist Academics” by Steve Brown, 11/10/03
Fed up with what it views as "an overwhelming liberal bias in higher education," a group of conservative students at the Univ. of TX has begun compiling a list of professors who allegedly use their classes for the liberal indoctrination of students. ... Sample entries include one for Robert Jensen, who teaches "Critical Issues in Journalism." ... Speaking to the Austin American-Statesman, Jensen described himself as "left-progressive" and said he wasn't surprised to be on the list. "There are students who thank me for bringing up these issues & being straightforward. I've also had complaints & comments from those who think I'm pushing a certain political agenda in class," Jensen told the Statesman.
“Spring 2004 Watch List: Instructor: Robert Jensen
Department: Journalism - Course Evaluated: Critical Issues in Journalism
Spring 2004 courses: Critical Issues in Journalism
In a survey course about Journalism, one might expect to learn about the industry, some basics about reporting & layout, the history of journalism, the values of a free press & what careers make the news machine function. Instead, Jensen introduces the unsuspecting student to a crash course in socialism, white privilege, the ‘truth’; about the Persian Gulf War & the role of America as the world's prominent sponsor of terrorism. Jensen half-heartedly attempts to tie his rants to ‘critical issues’ in journalism, insisting his lessons are valid under the guise of teaching potential journalists to ‘think’ about the world around them. Jensen is also renowned for using class time when he teaches Media Law and Ethics to ‘come out’ and analogize gay rights with the civil rights movement. Ostensibly, this relates somehow to his course material.”
< SOURCE > |
| Quote: | “Academic Showdown in Texas” by Karin Brulliard, 11/25/03
Two days after the 9/11/01, terrorist attacks, Austin Kinghorn, then a sophomore at the Univ. of TX in Austin, sat down in a journalism class & heard the professor pose the question "What is terrorism?" The professor proceeded to "explain why America is a worse terrorist threat than the 9/11 terrorists,"... Today, Kinghorn, 21, is a senior & chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas at UT, the nation's largest university. And the professor, Robert Jensen, tops the conservative group's "watch list." ... Critics call it a blacklist whose goal is to intimidate liberal professors & cramp academic freedom. ... Jensen, who said he is bisexual, said the list could have an ominous effect on the faculty: "If professors are constantly worried about being branded liberal, & not just liberal but inappropriately executing their duties, then it's going to make people a little nervous & there's a self-censorship effect." ... Jensen denies that he ever equated the U.S. & al-Qaeda. ... < SOURCE > |
| Quote: | “Subversion in Bush Country” by Brendan Steinhauser, 2/11/03
Leaders in the Austin Against War movement include Univ. of TX Journalism Professor Bob Jensen & his protégé UT graduate student Rahul Mahajan. On 9/13/01, only two days after 3,000 Americans were massacred, Jensen wrote in a Houston Chronicle op-ed entitled “U.S. Just as Guilty of Committing Own Violent Acts” (below) that, "This act was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism -- the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes -- that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime." The Austin Against War website trumpets Mahajan's screed "The New Crusade - America's War on Terrorism," which argues that our mission in Afghanistan was not for self-defense and that the U.S. did not try to avoid killing innocent civilians. ...
< SOURCE > |
| Quote: | “U.S. Just as Guilty of Committing Own Violent Acts” Houston Chronicle by Robert Jensen, 9/26/01:
Like everyone in the U.S. & around the world, I shared the deep sadness at the deaths of thousands. But as I listened to people around me talk, I realized the anger & fear I felt were very different, for my primary anger is directed at the leaders of this country & my fear is not only for the safety of Americans but for innocent civilians in other countries. It should need not be said, but I will say it: The acts of terrorism that killed civilians in New York & Washington were reprehensible and indefensible; to try to defend them would be to abandon one's humanity. No matter what the motivation of the attackers, the method is beyond discussion. But this act was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism -- the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes -- that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime. For more than five decades throughout the Third World, the U.S. has deliberately targeted civilians or engaged in violence so indiscriminate that there is no other way to understand it except as terrorism. And it has supported similar acts of terrorism by client states.
If that statement seems outrageous, ask the people of Vietnam. Or Cambodia and Laos. Or Indonesia and East Timor. Or Chile. Or Central America. Or Iraq. Or Palestine. The list of countries & peoples who have felt the violence of this country is long. Vietnamese civilians bombed by the U.S. Timorese civilians killed by a U.S. ally with U.S.-supplied weapons. Nicaraguan civilians killed by a U.S. proxy army of terrorists. Iraqi civilians killed by the deliberate bombing of an entire country's infrastructure. So, my anger is directed not only at individuals who engineered the Sept. 11 tragedy, but at those who have held power in the U.S. and have engineered attacks on civilians every bit as tragic. That anger is compounded by hypocritical U.S. officials' talk of their commitment to higher ideals, as President Bush proclaimed "our resolve for justice and peace."
To the president, I can only say: The stilled voices of the millions killed in S.E. Asia, in Central America, in the Middle East as a direct result of U.S. policy are the evidence of our resolve for justice and peace. Though that anger stayed with me off & on all day on Sept. 11, it quickly gave way to fear, but not the fear of "Where will the terrorists strike next?" which I heard voiced all around me. Instead, I almost immediately had to face the question: "When will the United States, without regard for civilian casualties, retaliate?" I wish the question were, "Will the United States retaliate?" But if history is a guide, it is a question only of when and where. So, the question is which civilians will be unlucky enough to be in the way of the U.S. bombs & missiles that might be unleashed. The last time the U.S. responded to terrorism, the attack on its embassies in Kenya & Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in the Sudan & Afghanistan who were in the way. We were told that time around they hit only military targets, though the target in the Sudan turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory.
As I monitored television during the day on Tuesday, the talk of retaliation was in the air; in the voices of some of the national security "experts" there was a hunger for retaliation. Even the journalists couldn't resist; speculating on a military strike that might come, Peter Jennings of ABC News said, "The response is going to have to be massive," if it is to be effective. Let us not forget that a "massive response" will kill people, & if the pattern of past U.S. actions holds, it will kill innocents. Innocent people, just like the ones in the towers in New York & the ones on the airplanes that were hijacked. To borrow from President Bush, "mother and fathers, friends and neighbors" will surely die in a massive response. If we are truly going to claim to be decent people, our tears must flow not only for those of our own country. People are people, & grief that is limited to those within a specific political boundary denies the humanity of others. And if we are to be decent people, we all must demand of our government -- the government that a great man of peace, Martin Luther King Jr., once described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" -- that the insanity stop here.
Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin. < SOURCE > |
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swiftvetfan
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| Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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I graduated recently from UT, and I'm definitely not a fan of Jensen. Unfortunately, his views are in line with an amazing number of students and teachers at UT. Because Texas is a conservative state, people outside of Texas don't realize how liberal UT and Austin in general have become.
Austin's still a town with a lot to do and lots of great people, and I'm really glad I went to school there. However, its definitely full of misinformed overly-political college students who are willing to protest about whatever they can. The sad thing is that a lot of these students adopt a lot of their views from professors like Robert Jensen.
Even though Jensen is the most radical professor on campus, he is not the only one who seems to indoctrinate students with politcal propoganda that has nothing to do with what he is supposed to be teaching. The class he teaches is intro to journalism, and I've had a bunch of friends who have taken his class. They said the class is entertaining because you never know what he's going to say, but rarely does it have anything to do with journalism. They've also said that he's a nice guy as a teacher, but he has incredibly strange and radical views. The sad thing is that a lot of impressionable college freshman who don't know much about this stuff will adopt Jensen's views and start passing them off as their own.
Even though I highly disagree with Jensen's views, I believe he has a right to believe what he wants. However, what I do have a problem with is when professors at UT (and many other Univ) try to force their beliefs on the students.
I really believe teachers have an obligation to do their best to present the information non-objectively and let the students use this information to decide what they believe. All the students are there to learn, and its important that a teacher not let their views get in the way of letting the students learn. Once the students get the information, they should be able to decide for themselves what they believe. In many classes, you get so indoctrinated by a teachers view that you only get to hear one side of the story. I guess I'm not in favor of complete relativism in teaching history and stuff, but I think many teachers (but not all) are way to concerned with getting students to agree with their views rather than just teaching the material.
The fact that most of these professors are liberal isn't even the biggest issue in my opinion. The issue is that they aren't giving their students a fair chance to form their own opinions. I know that going to college made me more conservative. It can be frustrating to hear some of these professors pretend to be objective, but slant everything as much as they can. I always found the best thing to do was shrug it off, but sometimes I regret not saying something to a few of these professors. Even though politics are interesting, there is so much other fun stuff to do in college. Also, the student politics at UT are incredibly extreme.
Sorry about writing so much. I saw the name Bob Jensen and I just had to write something. Also, I didn't check the grammar on this, so I apologize if their are a lot of mistakes. My dad is one of the SBVT, and its been really amazing seeing what a great job everyone did getting the word out on Kerry despite amazing opposition. I've been reading this message board for months, but this is only my second post. However, I've had a great time reading this board and its been awesome to see all of the support for the SBVT. |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| swiftvetfan wrote: | | I graduated recently from UT, and I'm definitely not a fan of Jensen. Unfortunately, his views are in line with an amazing number of students and teachers at UT. Because Texas is a conservative state, people outside of Texas don't realize how liberal UT and Austin in general have become. ... My dad is one of the SBVT, and its been really amazing seeing what a great job everyone did getting the word out on Kerry despite amazing opposition. |
Thanks for the inside info on Jensen! -- is the Watch List having any effect ... are there enough alternative classes for students who may not want to take a class after seeing the info on a particular professor? Or is the choice mod-lib, rad-lib or general variety lib?
And thank YOU for loaning your dad to our country ... and thank your dad for his courage and stamina. I can't imagine what it would be like today had we not had the SBVFT -- in fact, I don't even want to think about it 
(and we, grateful and energized folk, are not "done" getting the "word out on Kerry" --  he's forever seared onto our radar....) |
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fortdixlover
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 1476
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| Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:18 am Post subject: |
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| swiftvetfan wrote: | | I graduated recently from UT, and I'm definitely not a fan of Jensen. Unfortunately, his views are in line with an amazing number of students and teachers at UT. Because Texas is a conservative state, people outside of Texas don't realize how liberal UT and Austin in general have become. |
Thanks for the reply. I'm glad my post brought on discussion.
I was faculty at Yale and won't even comment about the far left views there.
The universities were (and are) a root cause and primary instigator of the Vietnam vet's woes. I hope there's not an instant replay for the Iraqi vets. It needs to be stopped before it ever gets started.
Enough is enough.
-- FDL |
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swiftvetfan
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| Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:08 am Post subject: |
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The watchlist is definitely helpful, but I wish that more people knew about it. I only found out it existed my senior year. Many of the professors put on the list protested by comparing the list to being "black listed" in the McCarthy days. It wasn't a suprising response from a lot of those professors, and its hard to argue against the list because they do such a great job.
The list names about 30 professors who are obviously biased and have a strong political agenda. Most of the professors they list are the ones who are particularly hostile when any student tries to disagree with them. If the teacher welcomes dissenting opinion, they will say so.
The list is also great because it looks primarily at professors who teach "core" requirement courses. For example, freshman government would be a course that they would look at a lot. This is because everyone is required to take the course, and its always ridiculously liberal. |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| swiftvetfan wrote: | | The watchlist is definitely helpful, but I wish that more people knew about it. ... |
Luckily David Horowitz is helping out ! From one of the articles I indicated above:
| Quote: | < Academic Showdown in Texas >
..... In response to studies that have shown that Democrats outnumber Republicans on univ. faculties, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-GA, last month introduced a resolution* urging universities to adopt an “Academic Bill of Rights”** under which professors would teach opposing views & grade students without regard to their political views. The idea behind the proposal was pioneered by David Horowitz, a 1960s activist who once edited the leftist magazine “Ramparts.” Now a conservative, Horowitz in Sept. formed a group called "Students for Academic Freedom"*** to combat what he calls the grip that liberals have exercised at universities since the '60s: "When you go to the doctor, you don't expect to see political slogans on his wall," Horowitz said. "We all trust our doctors to be professional & to minister to us regardless of our religion or our politics. There's a large contingent of professors who no longer behave like professionals." |
* "The Academic Bill of Rights Goes to Washington"
by Rep. Jack Kingston & Rep. Walter Jones, 10/22/03
** ACADEMIC BILL OF RIGHTS
| Quote: | (excerpts)
<...> Therefore, to secure the intellectual independence of faculty & students & to protect the principle of intellectual diversity, the following principles and procedures shall be observed. <...>:
1. <...> No faculty shall be hired or fired or denied promotion or tenure on the basis of his or her political or religious beliefs.
2. No faculty member will be excluded from tenure, search & hiring committees on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.
3. Students will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers & appropriate knowledge of the subjects & disciplines they study, not on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.
4. <...>While teachers are & should be free to pursue their own findings & perspectives in presenting their views, they should consider & make their students aware of other viewpoints. Academic disciplines should welcome a diversity of approaches to unsettled questions.
5. Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major responsibility of faculty. Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination.
6. Selection of speakers, allocation of funds for speakers programs & other student activities will observe the principles of academic freedom & promote intellectual pluralism.
7. An environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas being an essential component of a free university, the obstruction of invited campus speakers, destruction of campus literature or other effort to obstruct this exchange will not be tolerated.
8. <...> ...academic institutions & professional societies should maintain a posture of organizational neutrality with respect to the substantive disagreements that divide researchers on questions within, or outside, their fields of inquiry. |
*** David’s group: This is a fantastic website for students, check it out:
"ABOUT: The Students for Academic Freedom Information Center is a clearing house and communications center for a national coalition of student organizations whose goal is to end the political abuse of the university and to restore integrity to the academic mission as a disinterested pursuit of knowledge."
< studentsforacademicfreedom.org >
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Nomorelies
Vice Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 977
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 4:09 am Post subject: |
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I'm currently embroiled in a licensure issue with the State of Texas. However, when I'm done with that Robert Jensen is on my personal target list and I assure you that I will not rest until he takes his dumb liberal a** out of Texas. Geez. Who let that wuss in?
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Armybrat/Armymom
Commander
Joined: 27 Aug 2004
Posts: 335
Location: Central Texas
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:01 am Post subject: |
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The majority of the UT professors are liberal so it's a waste of time. Don't send your money or your kid to UT. That could be more effective.
My husband graduated in 1990 from UT and it was bad back then. If anyone asks us about colleges we recommend Texas State University in San Marcos. Hubby got his Masters there and enjoyed it so much more. |
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joeshero
Commander
Joined: 30 Aug 2004
Posts: 321
Location: Midwest
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:34 am Post subject: |
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I don't think a title "professor" is suitable for this guy. This is precisely that makes me believe that the angry liberals have lost any common sense. They just better join Saddam in jail or Osama in hell.
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All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 9:53 am Post subject: |
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It's 3am Sunday, and I just saw Jensen on TV - Heartland with John Kasich. I had the TV on and wasn't watching, but then I started hearing talk about “we’ve lost the war in Iraq” and about "American empire" and waited to see the name of the guy talking. I was suspicious that it was Jensen, and sure enough it was.
Holy cow - what a pompous, self-righteous creep -- he has it all figured out, all our the “illegal wars,” all the terrible things the US has done around the world -- the terrible thing we did in helping the Contras in South America as everything was fine and they were having elections & we created havoc by getting involved-- every single US foreign policy choice in his memory is based on only one thing: the furtherance of the American empire. Kasich tried to interject some historical facts, but Jensen would have nothing of the facts.
I only caught the end of the show -- but that was enough. I cannot imagine anyone suffering through his class - the man spews garbage and lies about our history and is locked into a Far, Far Left, anti-American ideology. I would hope that the students get a transcript of this show -- what he said ought to be enough to get him booted out of any reasonable college......... |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:41 am Post subject: |
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More of Jensen’s views: (excerpts):
| Quote: | “Symposium: Four More Years,” by Jamie Glazov, 12/3/04
...President George Bush won. What does his victory mean? (discussion group includes): Robert Jensen, an associate prof. in the School of Journalism at the Univ. of TX at Austin. He styles himself a “critic of the U.S. empire” & is a member of the board of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. ...
ROBERT JENSEN: “Defenders of the U.S. empire typically assume the assertion that the U.S. promotes freedom & democracy is adequate to prove the claim. That is, ‘we are fighting for freedom & democracy because we say we are.’ That’s a smart rhetorical ploy, since any minimal investigation of the facts would reveal something quite different.” ... Is Bush’s election a positive or negative development in the war on Iraq? It’s clear the U.S. has lost the war on Iraq;... Is Bush’s election a positive or negative development in the war on terror? It’s hard to know what to say, since the “war on terror” is an ideological construction designed to justify the use of force to advance U.S. imperial aims.... to talk about a “war on terror” is to accept U.S. propaganda, which obfuscates rather than advances understanding. The importance of Bush’s election in this realm is that it communicates to the world that a sizable component of the U.S. population accepts the imperial project. ...”
FRANK GAFFNEY (the founder & pres. of the Center for Security Policy in WDC): “...The proposition that the U.S. is engaged in an imperial war is hard to credit. ... America has evinced absolutely no interest -- none -- in colonizing any of the places it has liberated to date...” ...
PHYLLIS CHESLER (an Emerita Professor of Psychology & Women's Studies): “Both Estabrook's & Jensen's ideological rigidities are breathtaking & their language best understood by Orwell. ... I disagree with Mr. Jensen whose lack of moral clarity is dangerous. .... Jensen's view is that of a selfish & privileged isolationist who does not care if the human, religious, & free speech rights that he enjoys in America are not made available to those living under Islamist tyranny... ..”
JENSEN: “...But it’s appropriate to speak of the U.S. as an imperial power, as do even many right-wing folks these days. ... As for Dr. Chesler’s accusation of “ideological rigidity” & “lack of moral clarity,” I am used to such empty charges, ... The claim that I’m an isolationist is just silly; no argument is even attempted to support it. ... I believe the U.S. should be actively engaged in the world, but in a lawful and moral fashion to support people’s movements for freedom rather than pursue strategies of domination. ... We can choose to ignore the brutality of U.S. policy, such as the prosecution of the war in Iraq, but in doing so I think we forfeit our own humanity. ... We are trying to inhibit U.S. aggression & work toward the creation of global institutions that can provide people the space to chart their own course, something the U.S. has consistently tried to derail. The antiwar & global justice movements, of which I consider myself a part, have always been clear on that. ... "
CHESLER: “...Mr. Jensen still believes that terrorism has a justified, rational, root cause such as poverty or oppression or the desire for justice for a dishonored people? Spare me. ...”
JENSEN: “...I am pro-justice, which leads me to oppose U.S. support for the Israeli occupation, just as it leads me to reject U.S. support for tyrannical Arab governments. ... I also do not demonize Israel; I simply believe it should be held to moral & legal standards, as should all nations. On the question of being anti-American: As I have argued many times, such a claim shows the deeply authoritarian instincts of the people who make the claim. ... If one disagrees with existing policy, one has a right ..an obligation -- to voice that opinion & work to support a more just policy. ...”
CHESLER: “... While Mr. Jensen may say that he's pro-justice his opposition to a U.S. backed so-called "Israeli occupation" shows us that he does not understand the situation in the Middle East at all. ... ...professors & intellectuals must also be careful not to lower the bar for tyrannies & to not justify fascism, totalitarianism, or terrorism as due to poverty or oppression. ...”
GAFFNEY: “Mr. Jensen chides me for not responding to the plethora of allegations of American wrongdoing, criminal conduct & imperialism that have largely comprised his & Mr. Estabrook’s contributions to this dialogue. This broadside calls to mind Pres. Bush’s recent retort dismissing claims by Sen. Kerry to have a “plan”... ‘A litany of complaints does not constitute a plan.’ It is no less true that a litany of complaints about past American activities does not constitute an empire. ... The fact is that there is no American empire. ... "
** SOURCE ** |
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wwIIvetsdaughter
Captain
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Posts: 513
Location: McAllen, Texas
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| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:47 am Post subject: |
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The old adage "those who can't...teach" seems to apply to Mr. Jensen. Obviously, the guy couldn't get a "real" job in journalism (probably because of his radical, leftist views) so as a tax-payer paid teacher, he latches onto the tit of the government he so despises to fill his belly.  |
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