‘Puter promised his additional thoughts on his Liberal Genius post below. In the interim, however, ‘Puter received this thoughtful response from Professor Mondo:

Sorry you had another disagreement with your buddy — I have those with the Major all the time. But speaking as someone who has been through the academic hoops, I can guarantee that a Ph.D. in English offers no certainty of real critical thought. What it offers most of the time (particularly in fields like eco-crit) is the usual array of lefty cant. Instead of actually considering the literature as literature, which may have useful or beautiful things to say, most lit scholars these days are taught to judge works in terms of support (or lack of support) for current political agendas. The baleful influence of Foucault (which is essentially warmed-over Nietzsche) has led literary study away from looking at literature as anything but an indicator of power relations. The result is a sort of half-assed sociological reading of everything as text, and all texts are mere expressions of the hegemon’s episteme. In short, it collapses into pure relativism in short order, and even fundamental ideas of logic and life as it is actually lived are disdained as mere constructs. By the way, this is also why the humanities are seen as the odd-sock drawer of academe. Too many of us have traded our birthrights for pots of message (to borrow a line from Chesterton). And it’s almost always a lefty message.

But keep swinging — occasionally they wise up, although an eco-critic may be too far gone. And besides, part of being on the right is knowing that some things (like friendship and good ice cream) trump politics.

Professor Mondo’s analysis gives voice to a concern ‘Puter has had since his college years. A liberal arts degree, as currently provided, is worthless. You are tested not on your ability to learn, think and critically analyze, but rather to parrot whatever liberal trope happens to be the flavor of the day.

The argument for a liberal arts degree has traditionally been that it provides a broad-based education in foundational thought, and leads to a recipient with the ability to think critically and provide gimlet-eyed anaysis in myriad situations. No longer.

For example, ‘Puter took a course at his Top 20 law school in the early 1990s titled “Nontraditional Perspectives on the Law.” It focused on reexamining the law through the lens of various self-proclaimed victim groups: minorities, women and homosexuals. The professor was a screamingly left-wing lesbian. The class boiled down to one concept: on any set of facts, assume the straight, white man is at fault. Its corollary is: if there is an oppressed class member in a fact pattern, assume that person is in the right. Bending, twisting, skewing facts and law to achieve the desired outcome was not only tolerated, but actively encouraged.

Our final assignment was to write a paper on an event in which we had suffered discrimination. Our topic had to be approved by the professor. ‘Puter offered to write his paper on law school admissions practices, as, based on past year statistics, three schools which rejected ‘Puter outright (Virginia, Michigan and Texas), would have accepted him gladly had ‘Puter been a minority or female.* The professor would not hear of it. So ‘Puter offered to write his paper on the assignment this professor had proferred, including her refusal to let him write on a clear discrimination. The professor sputtered, reddened and tossed ‘Puter out of her office. ‘Puter forgot what he eventually wrote his paper on, but he remembers well the lesson he took from this class. For liberals, there is only one correct world view: the one they hold at that moment. If you do not hew to their ever-shifting beliefs, you are to be ignored, or worse, destroyed. In retrospect, ‘Puter is glad he had this experience in a professional doctoral program, where professors are hard pressed to smother a career in the crib. ‘Puter pities conservatives stuck in more traditionally academic doctoral programs, where professors hold their futures in their hands.

In short, much of the “incivility” of which credentialed liberal “intelligentsia” complain is a direct result of their academic preparations. Having been taught not to think, but rather to obey unquestioningly, conservative thought is a threat. When challenged by conservatives, liberals resort to assuming you are wrong, because there can be no divergent views, only the truth as they see it. It’s what they spent four years of college and 7-10 years of post graduate education having drilled into their heads. Therefore, conservatives are “The Other.” Conservatives are bad, or stupid, or vote against their interest (as defined by liberals). As The Other, conservatives are ignored or, when noticed at all, disdained by our credentialed betters. Conservatives have nothing of value to offer. Their thoughts are not the correct thoughts, as handed down from academe’s heights. Heck, they probably even went to Directional State University. Fools.

And here we are at the crux of ‘Puter’s thoughts. It is liberals’ purposeful marginalization of conservative thought that has produced the backlash they now fear. When bright, hard working conservatives people are told day after day by the media, by academia and by politicians that they are stupid, it wears. But because these conservatives are busy working, raising families, creating jobs and building communities, they let it slide. There are better things to do. Eventually, these same conservatives look up and realize letting it slide was a mistake. Liberals have fundamentally changed the nature of the country, and redefined the rules that led to over a century of American Exceptionalism. And when conservatives come to that realization, they are galled. That, my friends, is where the Tea Party came from, and that is where ‘Puter is coming from.

The American camel can only take so much before its back breaks. And it is the liberal camel-loaders that have caused the situation of which they now complain.

*Interestingly, both Michigan (Grutter v. Bollinger) and Texas (Hopwood v. Texas) were sued by rejected applicants from around ‘Puter’s age cohort, and both schools had their then-current “affirmative action” admissions standards tossed out as discriminatory. How different would ‘Puter’s life have been (and probably not in a good way) if good old American meritocracy prevailed at that time?

'Puter

Always right, unless he isn’t, the infallible Ghettoputer F. X. Gormogons claims to be an in-law of the Volgi, although no one really believes this.

’Puter carefully follows economic and financial trends, legal affairs, and serves as the Gormogons’ financial and legal advisor. He successfully defended us against a lawsuit from a liquor distributor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid deliveries of bootleg shandies.

The Geep has an IQ so high it is untestable and attempts to measure it have resulted in dangerously unstable results as well as injuries to researchers. Coincidentally, he publishes intelligence tests as a side gig.

His sarcasm is so highly developed it borders on the psychic, and he is often able to insult a person even before meeting them. ’Puter enjoys hunting small game with 000 slugs and punt guns, correcting homilies in real time at Mass, and undermining unions. ’Puter likes to wear a hockey mask and carry an axe into public campgrounds, where he bursts into people’s tents and screams. As you might expect, he has been shot several times but remains completely undeterred.

He assures us that his obsessive fawning over news stories involving women teachers sleeping with young students is not Freudian in any way, although he admits something similar once happened to him. Uniquely, ’Puter is unable to speak, read, or write Russian, but he is able to sing it fluently.

Geep joined the order in the mid-1980s. He arrived at the Castle door with dozens of steamer trunks and an inarticulate hissing creature of astonishingly low intelligence he calls “Sleestak.” Ghettoputer appears to make his wishes known to Sleestak, although no one is sure whether this is the result of complex sign language, expert body posture reading, or simply beating Sleestak with a rubber mallet.

‘Puter suggests the Czar suck it.