Free Arizona

Center of Gravitas and WOC PhD have very good recent posts on the current attack on academic freedom going on in Arizona. You can sign a petition against the effort here.

Bill SB 1108 would prevent public universities in Arizona from teaching any courses that would

denigrate or overtly encourage dissent from the values of American democracy and Western civilization, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism, and religious toleration.

Fuck.

And all this time I thought the right to dissent was an American value.

As Center of Gravitas wryly observes:

Republicans give faculty way too much credit... I have no special power to brainwash my students into being radicals. Heck, I can’t even convince my students to use the spell checker on their wordprocessor before submitting a paper. Just imagine how little power I have to foment revolution.

The LumpenProf hears you brother.