Long post ahead. Feel free to ignore it. It's just more left-wing nut job blah, blah, blah anyway:

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Rob Kamphausen said:
in my eyes, there're two issues in this thread that have divided the responses: that the teacher made a shocking statement, and that the teacher made a shocking statement relating to religion.

people tend to take varied viewpoints when it comes to religion, versus a viewpoint they'd have when it comes to, say, race or sexual proclivity. this debate would have entirely different reactions if the words in question were not "fuck god" but, say, "fuck chinks"

in the "fuck god" instance, the microcosmic view tends to feature the more religious or conservative who view this as obscene, and the more liberal who view this as educational or mind-broadening.


I can't speak for the other liberals on this board, but my point was not that "Fuck God" is educational or mind-broadening. My point was that the words were written separately. Again...

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QuadCityTimes said:
Black Hawk College professor Bruce LeBlanc was giving a lesson on the power of symbols and asked his sociology students to pay close attention to their reactions as he wrote two of the most powerful words in our language on the neighboring chalkboards.

The idea was for the students to observe how people connect words, even when they’re not connected. The exercise worked a little too well.


The words were not connected, and I blame the student for either not paying enough attention or assigning his own meaning and creating a message that wasn't there despite warnings to the contrary.

Also, the student apparently had it in his head based on an earlier confrontation that the professor was using the class to push a left-wing agenda. I tend to be wary of biased accounts.

If he wrote the phrase "Fuck God"... two words together, without ample warning, I would think differently. That would be like telling a crowd of paying patrons that you support Michael Moore's F-9/11.

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Rob Kamphausen said:
conversely, were the message "fuck fags," it'd be the more liberal individuals forming the movement against the teacher.


The professor is gay.

It really wouldn't affect my argument as long as he kept the words separate. Personally, I'd like to think it would have little affect on me as a student no matter what the words were. A little kink in my liberality, if that's a word.

If I've learned anything from my time in the Navy + my time on these boards, it's that words don't mean much. Too much stupidity and insanity in this world to think otherwise. Great Zombie Jesus, bitch, it's Gay Niggers From Outer Space!

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Rob Kamphausen said:
the whole argument, in my mind, comes down to two things: (1) my oft-referenced belief that no one really wants freedom of speech, just freedom of their speech.

(2) more pertinent to this topic, the teacher simply used bad judgement. i, personally, don't have any problem with what he did, especially when noting the quotes from other article wednesday pointed out. but there's a distinct difference between broadening your classes collective minds and making them feel uncomfortable.


Agreed, though their discomfort was his point.

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Rob Kamphausen said:
things are only offensive if someone is offended -- and if the teacher can not, for certain, know that his class will be ok with a topic, it should be handled a lot more delicately.

the same message could have gotten across were it presented with more tact -- perhaps even leading to the exact example being used, if only after a little "warm up."


True. We know he gave them warning, but he could have given them a few warm up word pairs first. On the other hand, we don't know for certain that he didn't.