The Hillsdale College Collegian, the school newspaper of Hans Zeiger’s alma mater, calls their “favorite son” to task for his long record of bigoted commentary:
If Hans Zeiger’s recent skirmish with liberal blogs can teach us anything, it’s basic common sense: Don’t call the Girl Scouts a feminist training corps and expect to get away with it.
Learning common sense from the liberal blogs. That’s not a bad start.
But too bad the editorial doesn’t stop there, for in attempting to elaborate on the lesson, the author provides an unflattering window into Hillsdale College culture that probably explains an awful lot about Zeiger and his abhorrent views:
Your friends at the table in Saga might think it is okay to make jokes about women needing to know their place. Your professor might jokingly refer to Catholics with a derogatory phrase. And your frat buddies might even crack the occasional racially-charged joke.
At Hillsdale, most students overlook offensive comments like these. But in the future, your coworkers, neighbors and pew-mates may not.
That’s because Hillsdale College –– despite the school’s history of gender equality and racial inclusion –– consists primarily of white Christian conservatives.
Um… so let me get this straight: your professor might “jokingly refer to Catholics with a derogatory phrase,” because Hillsdale College “consists primarily of white Christian conservatives.” So that means… uh… Catholics aren’t Christian?
Coming from an alma mater that was home to the infamous “water buffalo” incident, I can’t imagine students just shrugging off a professor’s anti-Catholic remark, but I guess white Christian conservatives say the darnedest things. Which I also guess is why Zeiger chose Hillsdale College, and why he felt so comfortable routinely disparaging woman, gays, Muslims, Catholics, Unitarians, mainstream Baptists and whoever, during his four years there. He felt right at home.
Of course, a lot of us regret some of the things we did (or didn’t do) in college. For example, I regret not having taken more philosophy courses, while Christine O’Donnell regrets having dabbled in Satanism. But both Christine and I have had a couple decades to maturely muse over our regrets, and reshape ourselves into more philosophical, less Satanic people.
Zeiger on the other hand is only 25, just a few years out of college — and sexist, racist, anti-Papist Hillsdale College at that — and only weeks removed from regretfully pulling down from the Internet huge swaths of his hate speech. So forgive me for not taking his sudden mea culpa at face value.
Is Herr Zeiger’s alma mater this Hillsdale College?
Sounds like the ideal place for a holier-than-thou, self-righteous young fellow like Hans.
1
Fascinating link. It’s remarkable how many of our wingies idolize Ayn Rand given her true nature.
Maybe if they actually followed their Honor Code, they wouldn’t have so many issues.
Also…Hillsdale College was founded in 1844 “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary and scientific education…and to combine with this, such moral, social and artistic instruction and culture as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of the students.”
proud leftist @2:
And, as Dr. Roche demonstrates, their “leaders” too often emulate Rand’s sexual (and other) amorality.
Like other sociopaths, Ayn Rand and George Roche (and possibly Hans Zeiger) see the strictures and demands of the fundamentalism they publicly espouse as applying only to their
lessersfollowers and adherents, not themselves.“So that means… uh… Catholics aren’t Christian?”
Nope. Despite the fact that they pretty much started Christianity, Catholics are actually not Christian because they worship Mary, the Sun and do so by having paganistic celebrations. And they’re too liberal. And too conservative. And they don’t have enough praise bands. Not Christian. See?
And I’m actually not surprised by this dude one bit (sadly). My alma matter was similar in being predominantly white and Protestant, Baptist or Presbyterian (and they are the only TRUE Christians doncha know). And this is the exact same kind of tripe you’d have heard one of the more meatheadish or nerdy libertrollian frat boy spout off after coming from his youth group meeting about how sex makes the angels cry and before returning to his room to have lots of unprotected sex with his girlfriend (because Jesus hates condoms).
I live in beautiful downtown Puyallup and Hans came to my door a few days before Goldie started to expose him. (If I had only known)
My impression of him at the time was that he was a strange duck. He introduced himself without actually saying much and I felt he was intimidated by me for some reason. He checked my name off a list on a clipboard and seemed confused as to how to get off my porch. He actually took a few steps toward the end of the porch where the steps weren’t.
I’ve talked to a couple of my neighbors about him and they weren’t impressed either. Just saying……………
Hillsdale College has deteriorated quite dramatically over the past 30 years when its funders decided it should be one of the primary bastions of right wing X-tian crazy.
Used to be Presbyterian Christian colleges could be relied upon for more than just simple (useless!) chest thumping Bible banging.
Just a bit of explanation:
Strictly speaking, “Christian” means “follower of Christ”, which can incorporate just about anything the adherent perceives that Christ represents.
But sometime in the 1970’s, Evangelicals began to use “Christian” as having a more confined meaning, rougly applicable to being a “REAL follower of Chirst”. They wanted to distinguish between those who were baptised in a church at youth and attended out of habit or compulsion, with those who were “born-again” believers who followed what they perceived to be the teachings of Christ, with an evangelical zeal.
No attempt has been made to reconcile those definitions, from the more restrictive to the more general. So sometimes you will often see confusion within a person’s own writings, as they go back and forth between referring to the worldwide “Christian” community, and the “REAL Chistians” within their much more limited group.
And, of course, some writers don’t even understand this usage themselves, and thereby are confused within their own minds. Having heard others define Christianity to exclude everyone except their specific group within a specific denomination, some don’t understand the wider concept of Christianity. I suspect Zeiger is one of the latter ones.
This is incredible. It’s a clone of Bob Jones University.
# 10: Wowl
It seems pretty clear from federal law that they couldn’t accept federal money without submitting to federal rules designed to make sure it wasn’t being used to support segregation. This applies whether or not the money comes to it directly or somewhat indirectly, through student loan programs. The college was well aware of the source of the money, since student funds are (mostly) disbursed to the college, rather than to the students.
The college’s attempts to paint their refusal to cooperate is pretty revealing of their ideological slant. They call the clear requirements of the law a “pretext”. They try to argue that refusing to identify the racial makup of their college is being “non-discriminatory”. They refer to plan language of anti-discrimination laws as being “unconstitutional regulation”.
I guess it’s no surprise that a recent graduate of that University wouldn’t understand how his writings disparaging other religions or denominations would cause a controversey.
Just this type of leadership ring a bell?
California sunlight, sweet Calcutta rain
Honolulu starbright – the song remains the same. ;-)
Hans represents the future of the Republican Party. Close-minded bigots who are certain of their beliefs but who couldn’t reason their way through a second grade math puzzle.
@10
Exactly. It illustrates just what kind of bubble this guy is living in. He’s spent his whole life living in an echo chamber where this type of beliefs was never challenged.
Re Hillsdale
I see.
So you’re perfectly willing to engage in character assasination on the basis of rumors and inuendo. I don’t know anything about Roche or his daughter in law. Where I’m ahead of you folks is, as Bertrand Russel said, knowing that I don’t know what I don’t know.
But that’s fine and tolerant of you folks on the left to go after someone in absentia, try and convict him and all on the evidence of a woman whose tragic suicide makes some question as to her mental state at least possible.
And it’s so tolerant of those on the left to call a school which adheres in name anyway to Kings dream of divorcing race and ethnicity from consideration of a person racist. I mean, it’s so clearly racist of them to say they won’t participate in a scheme to advance the interests of one race against another. Or does this only count if those who are discriminated against aren’t caucasion?
Seriously, get a grip folks. At least try to practice the tolerance you so vociferously claim to embrace.
Re 13
Did you even read your own link? First college to deny discrimination on the basis of race or sex.. yeah, that’s pretty bad. Refused to play in a bowl game because their black athletes couldn’t join their white team-mates on the field. Damn them! Serving officers in the army refused to segregate their troops. Assholes!
And the discrininatory racist policies? They simply refused to play silly games with the federal government statistical offices. When they lost in court they refused to accept federal money, and went to private funding for the school, scholarships etc.
Yeah. These guys are pretty bad.
Before today I didn’t know anything about Hillsdale, except that Mark Helprin, one of the best writers now alive, contributes to their magazine on occasion. Now, thanks to you folks I know a little more, and am impressed with them if the Wiki link is accurate.
The KKK has a description of Christianity, too. and seems closer to Hillsdale’s than Jesus’.
Winston was a flaming asswipe of a racist. Dig into the history of his stint in S. Africa for some juicy bits.
@18, . = ,
lost @ 16″: “Where I’m ahead of you folks is, as Bertrand Russel said, knowing that I don’t know what I don’t know.”
Uh, lost, you quote the right guy, for the right thing. Bertrand Russell was a major proponent of the value of uncertainty. I hold uncertainty in high regard. I can’t say I’ve seen the same trait in your posts. You seem, always, pretty damned sure of yourself. Ever read the Scripture that begs,”Lord, help me with my unbelief.”
Your friend headless lucy loves Ayn Rand proud leftist. So do some other leftist pinheads here. Just ask TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb proud leftist.
Proud leftist never learns anything…
Didn’t Lee once say you can’t measure others just because of the action of one person? So why is it progressives like the moronic proud leftist continue down this road?
This all you have proud leftist. It seems your continual meme for months now!
Mark Helprin? You mean the guy who, responding to his critics wrote this?
It would be one thing if such a revolution (the Constitutional limit on copyright-PTBA) produced Mozarts, Einsteins, or Raphaels, but it doesn’t. It produces mouth-breathing morons in backwards baseball caps and pants that fall down; Slurpee-sucking geeks who seldom see daylight; pretentious and earnest hipsters who want you to wear bamboo socks so the world doesn’t end; women who have lizard tattoos winding from the navel to the nape of the neck; beer-drinking dufuses who pay to watch noisy cars driving around in a circle for eight hours at a stretch; and an entire race of females, now entering middle age, that speaks in North American chipmunk and seldom makes a statement without, like, a question mark at the end?
Ah. The bracing love for common humanity oozing out of each and every one of his little stinking pores.
Good novelist, but otherwise a real putz.
My experience with water buffalos was that if you shot one, our government had to pay a Vietnamese farmer for it.
Kinda looks like Zeiger lacks the maturity to be a state legislator.
And lost approves. Conservatives are a curious lot.
Re 20
Mark 9:24
Though you’ll find it unbelievable, this is among my favorite scriptures.
Re 23
A few years ago Helprin attempted to defend the basic right of an artist to own his or her intellectual property for a reasonable time period under copyright. To this fairly non-controversial claim he received thousands of complaints that he in fact created nothing. These folks claimed that those around the artist in influencing him or her sparked the novel or painting or symphony, so copyright was an inherently evil notion. It is to these people who felt entitled to work they did not perform, and art they couldn’t possibly create at no cost that he exploded in the quote you reference.
A more measured response was his Digital Barbarism, which was an elegant and compellingly refutation of artists rights to their production, written some months after your quote.
But as a short story writer and novelist is where Helprins’ talents shine, not as an essayist, in my opinion.
Nor do I look for likeability in artists. I care about the work they produce, not the lives they lead. Generally great talent is accompanied by personal eccentricity anyway. A superbly done movie about this was done by Roland Polanski (another genius whose personal life is dodgy) called Un Pure Formalite. It’s in French, but has subtitles if needed. If you haven’t seen it and are tired of movies whose plot and outcome you know within five minutes of the first scene, I highly recommend it.
“I don’t know anything about Roche or his daughter in law.”
It’s not like having a lack of knowledge will ever keep you from running off at the mouth.
Steve,
Back at ya.
Well, I’ve got an early day tomorrow. Have fun.
RE 23
One last thing. You gotta admit that “an entire race of females, now entering middle age, that speaks in North American chipmunk and seldom makes a statement without, like, a question mark at the end?” is pretty funny. Like, don’t you?
Proud,
Actually one last thing. Digital Barbarism was anticipated to some degree maybe 15 years ago by a book called ‘The Gutenberg Elegies,’ written by Sven Birkerts. Without value judgements it analyses the effect on writing and thought of mass media and now computers. Really quite a good book.
lost @ 27
One of my favorite verses, too. Stunning. Yet, you are certain about everything. Amazing.
“Yet, you are certain about everything.”
Reason #5 why he’s such an insufferable bore.
“Everybody else has to have some kind of household budget. Everybody understands that,” said Merle Black, a professor of politics and government at Emory University in Atlanta.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201.....z10oByjhK2
Losty @ 27: Actually, Helprin wrote a poorly sourced and inaccurate screed decrying the ‘revolutionary nature’ of limited copyright in the otherwise ‘inspired’ U.S. Constitution. He argued for an infinite time period on copyrights. Stung by critics, he wrote his execrable book, Digital Barbarism….digging the hole he made that much deeper.
For a different take on copyright, the commons, and our founding fathers (Ben Franklin is a most interesting example of this republican virtue) see Common As Air by Lewis Hyde.
@30: No. That was not funny.
Seriously, get a grip folks. At least try to practice the tolerance you so vociferously claim to embrace.
I am tolerant of everyone, except the intolerant.
I understand King County is making some deep cuts in their budget.
Cutting into the bone of public safety. Some detectives will be DEMOTED going back on patrol. Some smaller property crimes like a wallet being lifted will not be followed up on.
I don’t get it. I heard Reagan Dunn making noises about “efficiencies”.
Doesn’t that right winger know he should be proposing tax cuts????
Breaking: Atheists and agnostics know more about religion than the religious!
Here: http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....5137.story
Remember the gal involved in the minute-man movement who lived in Everett and was in the news with her campaign against illegal immigrants? She claimed she was attacked by illegals because of her activities.
She was charged with involvement in the shooting of a man and his daughter in Arizona. Prosecutors now claim that the minute-man thing was just a cover for her smuggling and narcotics activities, she had the guy shot because he was “competition”.
Everett Herald: Prosecutor alleges Everett woman sought death of Arizona rival
@38.
Maybe tea bagger conservatives don’t want services that benefit them cut. They just want social services for those OTHER people cut.
Re 35
“…in the otherwise ‘inspired’ U.S. Constitution.”
I like the hesitation in assigning the word inspired to our Constitution. It speaks volumes.
I’ve read Digital Barbarism. While I’m unsure what you mean by ‘poorly sourced’ nowhere does he argue for infinite copyright. Nor did he in the article which created the furor inspiring the quote you provided at 23, the entire text of which is in Digital Barbarism. He explicitly says that he doesn’t so argue, in fact.
Though I’m unsure why infinite copyright need be a problem. After all, my descendants can inherit any property I leave so long as they can hold it against ruinous taxes. During my life I worked to obtain whatever property I left. So does a sculptor, or a painter, or a writer. Why is intellectual property different from real property in this regard? Or do you think that all real property should revert to ‘the commons’ on the death of the owner? Not being snarky, just curious.
At any rate, I also wrote that Helprin as a writer of fiction, an artist, is what I admire and enjoy. His personal politics or proclivities really don’t matter to that.
Re 36
Well, humor like beauty would appear to be in the eye of the beholder. Prior to marraige I guess I was with enough dates possessing that irritating tick of using ‘like’ inappropriately that it tickled my funny bone. Among my nieces and nephews this isn’t common, but nearly all my nieces friends use it, and it’s still irritating.
Off to work. Have a nice day.
@39 Thanks for the link. It’s interesting that the Mormons were found to have a better knowledge of the Bible than the Bible thumpers.
Yep that’s basically the rank and file right winger’s motivation.
Chancellor DeMint shuts down the Senate:
http://news.firedoglake.com/20.....-shutdown/
39 – The atheists I respect the most can quote scripture and contemporaneous literature from memory.
I’d better get memorizing, then; your respect means so much to me.
has anyone gotten a comment on the Collegian page yet? Considering the topic of the article is mindful self censorship, they’re doing an awesome job of censoring the thoughts of others…
48 – Good… Happy to hear it.
On the same subject I’ve concluded I have to read John Cole more:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2.....w-nothing/
Guns Don’t Kill People Dep’t
The University of Texas at Austin is on lockdown this morning after a nut opened fire with an AK-47 in the library and then killed himself. Apparently the only other casualties are books.
But hey! What’s a few bullet-riddled library books compared to preserving the right of every mentally ill American to pack military assault rifles in public places?
@50. As some writers have suggested, everyone should be armed.
That way when this guy opened fire, every one in the library could have opened fire on him with their own AK 47s. Sure there would be an epic firefight, as each person who was shot at returned fire and likely a lot of collateral casualties as the library turned into a free fire zone.
@46. Gawd I wished Harry Reed had a pair.
In the future, we are going to look back at period as a time of timidity and cowardice of our democratic elected officials that hurt the country, perhaps fatally. Too many have the Chamberlain mindset of appeasement to the right.
The republican primary process seems to cull out the sane people leaving the crazies and the intolerant and the racist.
The Democratic party primary process seems to weed out the extreme people, leaving the sane, the tolerant and the inclusive, but all the tolerance comes at a price, they also have no spine.
There was a comment on a news show that rang true. Independent Americans don’t care strongly about the politics, just that the politician is strong, not weak. bush was a terrible president, but I admire him for his ability to be ruthless in his attempts to get what he wanted.
Democrats are bringing books to gun fights. We have to fight crazy with strength. The weak Dems are going to lose. Grayson is strong and passionate and is going to win even in a conservative district. Harry Reed would have lost easily against a moderate republican, because he acts weak.
How do you see it?
“How do you see it?”
Whatever their leadership skills, which to me seem somewhat dubious, I see Reid and Pelosi as the wrong faces to put on the Democratic congress. And while we need more Graysons, he isn’t particulary suited to be the face of the party either. It’s like I cheer his kick-butt style for contrasting with the milktoast style of the other two. But somewhere in between would serve the party and the nation better.
Yes, Zeiger’s a christianist weirdo who, if he really wants a future in public life, needs to experience some intellectual growing-pains.
By why did Goldy link to the Penn “water buffalo” incident? It doesn’t in any way back up the arguements he makes in this post, though it doesn’t contradict them, either. It seems totally irrelevant. I mean, what does a campus speech-codes controversy have to do with the idiotic student rantings of Hans Zeiger?
Um, because Goldy went to Penn. Though he graduated several years before that incident.