Opinion
Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- Like most people, we understand that educational institutions and staff tend to lean left. The degree and intensity of the bend varies across universities, but a leftward orientation is actually expected today.
We’re aware that some – perhaps even many – academics look upon the NRA and gun owners with disdain. We always hoped this didn’t extend to the individual level, that the disdain was limited to the aggregate, and that personal interactions could be open-minded or – gasp! – even cordial.
The thought that academics would consider NRA members the bottom of the proverbial barrel never occurred to us. We never imagined that more college professors would be comfortable with an avowed communist than with an NRA member. It sounds like a joke, like an appeal to extremes to call attention to the absurd, but that’s precisely what a new study has discovered. A sociology professor at the University of North Texas found that political biases in academia peak with NRA members.
Professor George Yancey wanted to investigate possible hiring discrimination in higher education. He asked professors across the country how their support for a job applicant would change if they knew the applicant was a member of certain groups. Of all the groups Yancey tested, “NRA membership was ranked as the most likely to hurt an aspiring professor’s chances of getting hired.”
NRA membership was more damaging than being a Republican, a Libertarian, a vegetarian, a member of the ACLU, or a member of the Green Party. NRA membership is considered more damaging than being a communist.
Overall, more than two in five professors say a person’s membership in the NRA would “‘damage’ an applicant’s chances of getting hired.” Yancey suspects that, “academics envision individuals in the NRA as being on the far right.” Yancey also found that “meat hunters, evangelicals, and fundamentalists also are less likely to be hired.”
Imagine that. Being an actual, admitted communist – who proudly acknowledges being as far left as left can go – is less harmful to one’s career prospects than being an NRA member.
We’ve heard about high school teachers kicking students out of class for wearing NRA shirts. We’ve heard politicians disparage this association and its membership. But to hear that college professors would rather work with a communist than an NRA member is just sad. We found two takeaways from this: first, an inability to explain one’s adherence to a political and economic ideology with an absolute perfect failure rate probably doesn’t matter in academia and, two, academia is somehow even more out of touch with America than any of us thought.
Remember that the next time “academics” release a “study” on “gun violence.”
About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
Professors have spent much of their lives sitting and hearing someone instruct them. They become very proud of the amount of time spent as a student. Then, eventually, they have to get out of the warm, safe classroom and get a job.
The vast majority of them do not have the natural life experiences that make them useful. They have to teach from a book written by someone else because they do not have the experiences to relate to and teach students.
I thought this was interesting because I would mention I was a target shooter, but never admitted that I was a member of the NRA. I felt, and still do think, that this kind of discrimination encompasses all areas of university employment.. And, elsewhere. People forming opinions on any issue when they have little or no knowledge of it leads me to think that, in some capacity, higher education shares some qualities of how we label our enemies having “reeducation camps”.
Yet, the profs really have no idea about anything relating to the NRA. They think the NRA sells guns and ammo. They think the NRA buys politicians. They think a lot of nonsense. The only reason to think this is to believe that the NRA has far more power than they actually have. First, even if they did attempt to buy a politician, they can only do so if the politician is willing to sell his/her self respect. Second; out of a population of approximately 320 million, only 6 million are members of the NRA. Within that same population, there… Read more »
Years ago someone(I forget who)opined that gun owners are the new N*ggers.When I read articles like this, it reinforces that belief exponentially.
I wonder when the chains are going to appear?
I guess “Higher education” stopped at Kindergarten!
BSME and MS in tech fields here. No political or garbage indoctrination at all. That was years ago. Now I have a grandson who’s near ‘college age’ and will be looking for support from me. My education was fantastic, it allowed me so much hands on in my fields of endeavor, and I have the scars to prove it. As to my grandson, if he’ even begins to look into a college edumication that includes any ‘liberal’ endeavors, he better save up his allowance. I paid for mine, and he can pay (dearly) for his. But I will pay his… Read more »
What’s the curiosity about academic liberals (a preponderance are either socialist or closet communist by means of selective promotion over more than a century) being biased against membership in the most recognizable organization that defends the right to an essential freedom recognized in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution? After all, in the words of one of the most bloody handed founders of communism, vladimir lenin, “One man with a gun can control 100 without one.”
The time has come to remove these marxists/communist from their government positions and out of America.
We cannot survive as a Constitutional Republic withthese outright traitors and spies in our midst and forming their 5th column. Patriots, the time is nigh.
They should be removed from government AND teaching (indoctrination) positions !
If you are a Socialists or Communist you are against everything this country was founded on and what we have fraught and many have dies for, so you should not be in a position to turn the youth of American against it.
When their total revolution comes, they best remember that in every other progressive revolution, it is the professors and other such pinheads who end up being put up against a wall and shot. Revolutionaries stir up the masses to support their revolution with promises of land reform, redistribution of wealth, end of social classes, etc., etc., etc. In the end, the only change is who has the power to control the masses. The humble masses will still be the humble masses. The thinkers will be eliminated because it’s easy to kill someone with a weapon, but nearly impossible to stamp… Read more »
Not to worry: the disdain I have towards academia is surely the equivalent of that they have for me. I had heard for decades that “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”. These days they can’t even do that. All they can do is indoctrinate and stifle discussion for fear they might lose.
Good, and fairly accurate post!
You make an excellent point but, I believe, place far too little emphasis on the “all they can do is indoctrinate……”. That’s a lot and is why we’re left with a considerable number of 20 something year olds, with mush for brains, who feel it’s perfectly okay to keep taking other people’s money and Rights without a thought given to what happens when either of those runs out.
some should consider that..a lot of things can happen to dog s**t