Dumb thing to do. She should have said “despise” instead! What synonyms do you suggest?
University of Michigan communications professor and department chair Susan Douglas is facing calls for her resignation following an op-ed she wrote, titled “It’s Okay To Hate Republicans.”
“I hate Republicans,” Ms. Douglas wrote for the nonprofit magazine In These Times. “I can’t stand the thought of having to spend the next two years watching Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Darrell Issa or any of the legions of other blowhards denying climate change, thwarting immigration reform or championing fetal ‘personhood.’ “
She then accused conservatives of having “certain psychological characteristics,” such as “[d]ogmatism, rigidity and intolerance of ambiguity; a need to avoid uncertainty; support for authoritarianism; a heightened sense of threat from others; and a personal need for structure.”
“According to researchers, the two core dimensions of conservative thought are resistance to change and support for inequality,” Ms. Douglas continued. “These, in turn, are core elements of social intolerance. The need for certainty, the need to manage fear of social change, lead to black-and-white thinking and an embrace of stereotypes.”
By noontime Thursday, the article appeared to have been removed from the In These Times website without explanation. After further inspection, the article appeared to have been relocated under a new URL and with a different headline: “We Can’t All Just Get Along.”
The column sparked outrage among conservative and free-speech groups on campus.
What’s the problem? She was just exercising her right to free speech, right?
Grant Strobl, the chairman of U-M’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom and a member on the National Board of Governors of Young Americans for Freedom, issued a statement urging the school to “take action” against Ms. Douglas, MLive.com reported.
“This is blatant intolerance, and the university should take action on the behalf of intellectual diversity and all of the students who are intimidated into silence,” Mr. Strobl said.
I usually qualify it by saying “fucking hate with the heat of a thousand suns.”
So getting her fired is NOT blatant intolerance??
I thought she was spot on, frankly, but the title was definitely dumb. Hate-mongering is usually a conservative thing.
I actually know some conservative people I like. We just don’t talk politics.
It was dumb. But it was truthful.
Let’s get this right. It’s OK for the conservatives to lie about everything, but it’s offensive when a liberal tells the truth?
Yep, that’s the country that we all live in today.
Sure there are ‘nice’ Rethugs. I work with many. And I don’t trust them any farther than I would throw them. They’d watch someone die in the street and then pat themselves on the back for how righteous they are. The only thing liberals ever got by turning the other cheek is being stabbed in the back. Right to lifers who want everyone else dead. Fiscally conservative about everything except their profligacy. Huff, pant, wheeze . . . that felt good.