Social The destruction of critical thinking in higher education

Are institutes of higher education declining in their ability to teach critical thinking?

  • Yes

  • No


Results are only viewable after voting.
That criticism always tends to remain in vague territory. You pretty much never see a leftist try to debate the specifics of a point Shapiro has made. They just don't like him. Shapiro has gotten into plenty of debates with people more qualified than college kids as well.

There are hour long debunkings of his tripe on climate change and healthcare which have been posted here before.

They aren't exactly anyone magna opus but they couldn't really be given the source material they were working with - that is to say Shapiros arguments are mostly vapid on their face and break down under any real scrutiny.
 
Is it declining? It's been a steady decline for several decades to the point where critical thinking has been weeded out. It doesn't exist. They won. It's over.

What is this based on? I am well reasoned arguments backed by data. Share the knowledge.
 
There are hour long debunkings of his tripe on climate change and healthcare which have been posted here before.

They aren't exactly anyone magna opus but they couldn't really be given the source material they were working with - that is to say Shapiros arguments are mostly vapid on their face and break down under any real scrutiny.

Yeah, if people want to get a sense of his ability to construct arguments as opposed to his ability to stay composed (and rattle his young interlocutors) in a live discussion, they should look at his columns. I'm confident that anyone with even moderate thinking skills can see how poor they are.
 
There are hour long debunkings of his tripe on climate change and healthcare which have been posted here before.

They aren't exactly anyone magna opus but they couldn't really be given the source material they were working with - that is to say Shapiros arguments are mostly vapid on their face and break down under any real scrutiny.

They should debate him then. Shapiro often has videos on Youtube of him reacting to people who make videos "debunking" him. Now Shapiro, and Matt Walsh too, can be a little too "Woman, get back in the kitchen." levels of conservatism for me. I don't agree with everything they say, especially when they center morality around religion. But most of their arguments are pretty damn solid and are backed up by facts.
 
What is this based on? I am well reasoned arguments backed by data. Share the knowledge.


I know guys like you. You demand data to tell you that it's raining on your head. Some times you have to put the puzzle pieces together yourself. I personally witnessed it as I first went to college in 2000 and then went back in 2011. The environment was unrecognizable.
 
They should debate him then. Shapiro often has videos on Youtube of him reacting to people who make videos "debunking" him. Now Shapiro, and Matt Walsh too, can be a little too "Woman, get back in the kitchen." levels of conservatism for me. I don't agree with everything they say, especially when they center morality around religion. But most of their arguments are pretty damn solid and are backed up by facts.

I don't think Shapiro wants to debate anyone who has a background in climatology (or scientifically literate in this area) nor healthcare economics. At least, I haven't seen any willingness to do so or engage in any serious way.

That said I don't really follow Ben Shapiro because it's just tripe on its face. I only really know him from him destroying liberals with facts and logic memes, and of course that time he humiliated himself with Andrew Neill.

If you take him seriously it's a bit worrying.
 
I know guys like you. You demand data to tell you that it's raining on your head. Some times you have to put the puzzle pieces together yourself. I personally witnessed it as I first went to college in 2000 and then went back in 2011. The environment was unrecognizable.

Was the environment you went to unrecognisable because you went back to a different place during a different time and you yourself had changed? Seems like anecdotal rather than anything you'd be able to hang your hat on. Hence asking for data and reasoned arguments.
 
Was the environment you went to unrecognisable because you went back to a different place during a different time and you yourself had changed? Seems like anecdotal rather than anything you'd be able to hang your hat on. Hence asking for data and reasoned arguments.

The fact that you think this question can be answered by data tells me a lot. Would you like a questionnaire? Some polling perhaps? That's kind of what this thread is no?
 
Ben is not a critical thinker. This is the moron that is unable to tell how morally inconsistent he is. He uses a fairy tale to justify a 3000 year old land claim and a week later he and his idiot friends at the Daily Wire complain about how Blacks won’t get over slavery and Jim Crow era laws and think institutional racism is a myth .One of the key components of critical thinking is to acknowledge one’s own biases. He clearly doesn’t given the examples I’ve provided
 
The fact that you think this question can be answered by data tells me a lot. Would you like a questionnaire? Some polling perhaps? That's kind of what this thread is no?

Some data would be nice yeah.

Arguments have been made and its been pointed out how vague they are.

Something more tangible would be nice.
 
You completely ignored 90% of what I said.

Parents want their kids to believe what the parents believe without questioning it. That's dogmatic. Kids who pursue education learn to question things and some of the things they will question are their parent's beliefs.

It doesn't matter which belief it is and deflecting the larger point into micro-arguments about specific issues doesn't reflect well on critical thinking. We don't need to debate trans or climate change to discuss the role of education in fostering critical thinking.

Frankly, you're demonstrating the exact opposite of what critical thinking is for and exactly what I said is the fallacy of the criticism. Your claims in this post are that the kids have beliefs that their parents, or you, think are bad beliefs. But that's not a sign of bad critical thinking. That's a sign that the kids have reached different conclusions based on the information they have learned.

Critical thinking doesn't mean that Party A will reach the same conclusions as Party B. Nor does it mean that Party A will have the same values and priorities as Party B. Critical thinking is about how people decide on their values and priorities and how they reach their conclusions. Your post seem to be arguing for dogma -- that the kids should mirror the parents beliefs and priorities and if they don't then something is wrong with their critical thinking. And that's not remotely close to what critical thinking is for.

How do you know that parents want their kids to believe what the parents believe without questioning it?
 
Okay so I'm supposed to conclude that a media-trained, wealthy donor-funded guy (meaning lots of resources) who most often targets young people who havent even completed their education getting better of them in debates is indicative that the problem is Colleges? There's a reason he, Walsh, Crowder, all those guys specifically targeted these audiences and often only engage at their own events where they have crowd support and control (they can and often do elect to move on from a point when they're getting tooled by suggesting it's someone else's turn to speak).

There is an attack on critical thinking, it's coming in the form of book bans and threats to curriculum at the grade school level.
Lol…come on. Nobody else wants to debate Shapiro because they know they’ll get shredded. So instead of debating, they just call him a racist, bigot, transphobe extremist who is unworthy of their time. It’s the bitch way out. He’s not always correct, but he’s waaaay smarter than the average liberal dipshit who thinks he’s a superior intellectual because he got a degree at NYU.
 
It's because leftism is a child's ideology. Most people start out on the left before they've ever worked or had any responsibility and everything is just theoretical, so universities are a great way to keep kids in a state of arrested development into their mid 20s. Actors, pop stars, people who spend 25+ years in school and get into the activism grift, basically whoever is most out of touch with reality and never had a regular work schedule is more likely to lean further left.

This is also why conservatives can go to college campuses and make them look silly, because the kids have been insulated from opposition and don't know how to respond to it.
Haha…you nailed it. Liberals are all about ideology and wishful thinking. Conservatives are a lot closer to reality. Both sides have extremists. But things that were once common sense are now conservative views:

Men can’t become women and women can’t become men.

Life is tough and isn’t fair, and the government can only do so much for individuals. They cannot give them everything they want that they can’t get themselves.

You’re responsible for paying back money you borrow.

You should never judge somebody by the color of their skin.

Four statements that could get you attacked and fired from your job if you say them out loud and the wrong people hear.
 
Lol…come on. Nobody else wants to debate Shapiro because they know they’ll get shredded. So instead of debating, they just call him a racist, bigot, transphobe extremist who is unworthy of their time. It’s the bitch way out. He’s not always correct, but he’s waaaay smarter than the average liberal dipshit who thinks he’s a superior intellectual because he got a degree at NYU.

Lololol Shapiro and company don't do the College circuit because "no one else will debate them." There's video evidence of Shapiro coming completely unglued against a British dinosaur who was just reading his own quotes. Dude got flustered in a room full of children who pressed him about taxes FFS. He got exposed lying about Colin Kaepernick on Joe Rogan, which is hilarious because he, Walsh, AND Candace Owens all got tooled on Rogan and he isnt even a leftist. All he did was just go "you sure about that?" And they WEREN'T.
 
Lololol Shapiro and company don't do the College circuit because "no one else will debate them." There's video evidence of Shapiro coming completely unglued against a British dinosaur who was just reading his own quotes. Dude got flustered in a room full of children who pressed him about taxes FFS. He got exposed lying about Colin Kaepernick on Joe Rogan, which is hilarious because he, Walsh, AND Candace Owens all got tooled on Rogan and he isnt even a leftist. All he did was just go "you sure about that?" And they WEREN'T.
He didn’t get unglued by that old British guy, but he couldn’t debate him because that geezer was retarded. He couldn’t make an argument and kept talking in circles. And the things you’re talking about with Rogan were things that were gray areas and matters of opinion more than anything. I’m only talking about Shapiro, not the others you mentioned. Rogan is a really bad example by the way. He’s not woke at all, and constantly trashed leftism.

Again, it’s not that Shapiro is always right, it’s that his logic is far more grounded in reality than people you worship like Bernie Sanders and AOC.
 
He didn’t get unglued by that old British guy, but he couldn’t debate him because that geezer was retarded. He couldn’t make an argument and kept talking in circles. And the things you’re talking about with Rogan were things that were gray areas and matters of opinion more than anything. I’m only talking about Shapiro, not the others you mentioned. Rogan is a really bad example by the way. He’s not woke at all, and constantly trashed leftism.

Again, it’s not that Shapiro is always right, it’s that his logic is far more grounded in reality than people you worship like Bernie Sanders and AOC.
So you admit Ben can’t even take on a retard?
 
He didn’t get unglued by that old British guy, but he couldn’t debate him because that geezer was retarded. He couldn’t make an argument and kept talking in circles. And the things you’re talking about with Rogan were things that were gray areas and matters of opinion more than anything. I’m only talking about Shapiro, not the others you mentioned. Rogan is a really bad example by the way. He’s not woke at all, and constantly trashed leftism.

Again, it’s not that Shapiro is always right, it’s that his logic is far more grounded in reality than people you worship like Bernie Sanders and AOC.

Excuses excuses. Shapiro sucks against literally anyone comfortable speaking in front of a mic and camera who thinks about what he says for longer than a few seconds.

And you don't read before you reply, I specifically said Rogan isnt a leftist.
 
How do you know that parents want their kids to believe what the parents believe without questioning it?
I know that many parents believe that about many things that they teach their kids about. But you'll want numbers so...

Pew reports that about 35% of parents want their children to have the same faith and that 16% said the same for politics.

https://kslnewsradio.com/2006889/ne...orts that about 35,said the same for politics.

Everyone with kids knows this to be true. There is always something that the parent teaches the child and wants the child to internalize it. Why? Because the parent thinks it is important. If it wasn't important, the parent wouldn't spend the time and resources required to teach it in the first place.

Thus when the child returns from an environment and rejects that important teaching, parents get upset. And the environment doesn't have to be college. Parents react this way at church, at elementary schools, at the playground when a parent is teaching the "wrong" moral lesson, at a friend's house where the parents there follow a different creed. They react this way in grocery store lines when the tabloids lead the kids to ask questions the parents aren't comfortable with.

Parents have always acted this way. They always will. It's part of being a parent. Where the ship has lost course is that rather than simply stop paying for Lulu's college and sending her to the indoctrination camp of their choice, they've decided to criticize the very tool that they sent Lulu to college to learn: Critical thinking and the ability to question things.
 
“They debate emotional college students because stable adults with decades of experience in their relevant fields don’t want to debate them because they are scared.”

people believe this lol
 
Back
Top