Dr. Amy Bishop Was Allegedly a Socialist, or: How Your New Right-Wing Outrage Sausage is Made
On the strength of one lone, anonymous comment left on Dr. Amy Bishop’s RateMyProfessor.com profile, the Right Wing Blogosphere (all caps because the media likes to think they’re just that monolithic) may be set to erupt in another round of socialist-hating and of course, since they assume he is one, Obama-baiting (it’s a rhetorical device; I know they never actually stop). You can read the comment above, but here’s a direct quote in case the print is too small – the comment was left in 2009:
This class was great. Bishop makes the class interesting by talking about her research and her friends research. That speaker she had for class was hard to understand but smart. She expects alot and you need to come to every class and study. She is hot but she tries to hide it.And she is a socalist (sic) but she only talks about it after class.
Amy Bishop, you will recall, is the Harvard-educated geneticist arrested yesterday and charged with killing 3 colleagues from the University of Alabama (Huntsville) biology dept. and wounding 3 others after learning she would not receive tenure. Bishop, incidentally, had been at UAH since 2003 and it may take up to 10 years for a professor to earn tenure in many universities.
Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, pointed this RateMyProfessors comment out and it was immediately picked up by other historically conservative bloggers. Because you know all the comments on “Rate My Professor” are true and valid reflections of a teacher’s personality, style and ability to do their job and not student perceptions and biases, right?
The “socialist” slam – for it is definitely a slam from anyone on the Right, since they typically confuse socialism with outright communism, in spite of key differences between the two – was also taken up in the hinterlands far beyond standard-issue American conservatism, on the White Nationalist message board, Stormfront.org.
It may be, considering that she allegedly shot at least 6 people and later said, “It didn’t happen. There’s no way. … They are still alive,” that Amy Bishop was just nuts. Her husband James Anderson, who has been questioned in relation to the incident, once sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission that sounded much more like a libertarian’s complaint about individual privacy than socialism:
Why should these companies be allowed to turn our computers into a Reality TV show for their pleasure? What is the legality of an individual or the Government doing this?
The government is not allowed to intrude on us without a court order. These companies (often foreign or foreign owned) should not have more rights to us than our own Government. The Constitution protects us from the Government, what protects us from these voyeurs?
High priced lobbyists are not a replacement for democracy. Our privacy needs armor plated protection.
“By the people … for the people …”
not
“Buy the people … for the Corporations …”
James Anderson
Cherokee Labsystems
AL
It isn’t unheard of for two ideologically opposed people to have a long-lived relationship, but there is nothing socialist in Anderson’s sentiments above. They’re much more in line with the beliefs of the libertarians who currently support that Frankenstein of Bircher and Reaganite ideologies, the Tea Party Movement.
All of this was perhaps inevitable from the moment it became clear that Amy Bishop was an instance of supposed Harvard Elitism working in the outlands of an Alabama university (even though Huntsville, home to many scientists and European transplants, is as close as any city in Alabama ever gets to a kind of East Coast lib’rul enclave). The Right Wing Outrage monster stirred at the mention of Harvard. It shifted its bloated bulk about and gimlet eyes laser-focused on whatever reports were available. Names were googled. Words were searched. Then, an eldritch claw embossed with “Reagan/Bush ’84″ clicked a link and the word – misspelled as “socalist” but still obvious – was found. The monster growled in satisfaction. A new talking point was born, as was a new implication, bloody, red, still-pulsing meat for those disposed to believe – Harvard –> Socialism –> Death and Destruction and oh, hey, Obama went to Harvard, and he’s a socialist… you see where this is meant to go, don’t you?
The Right Wing Outrage Monster knows precisely what it is doing. Glenn Reynolds – a comfy, tenured professor himself at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville – helped create the thing as it is today.
And I still wasn’t able to get around to the student interviewed by WAFF-TV after the shootings, who told the reporter that the crime could have been avoided if only the campus had listened to her pleas for licensed firearm users to be allowed open-carry on the UAH campus.
Yeah, I’m sure that would have worked out great for those 3 dead professors.
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Dr. Amy Bishop Was Allegedly a Socialist, or: How Your New Right-Wing Outrage Sausage is Made
On the strength of one lone, anonymous comment left on Dr. Amy Bishop’s RateMyProfessor.com profile, the Right Wing Blogosphere (all caps because the media likes to think they’re just that monolithic) may be set to erupt in another round of socialist-hating and of course, since they assume he is one, Obama-baiting (it’s a rhetorical device; I know they never actually stop). You can read the comment above, but here’s a direct quote in case the print is too small – the comment was left in 2009:
Amy Bishop, you will recall, is the Harvard-educated geneticist arrested yesterday and charged with killing 3 colleagues from the University of Alabama (Huntsville) biology dept. and wounding 3 others after learning she would not receive tenure. Bishop, incidentally, had been at UAH since 2003 and it may take up to 10 years for a professor to earn tenure in many universities.
Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, pointed this RateMyProfessors comment out and it was immediately picked up by other historically conservative bloggers. Because you know all the comments on “Rate My Professor” are true and valid reflections of a teacher’s personality, style and ability to do their job and not student perceptions and biases, right?
The “socialist” slam – for it is definitely a slam from anyone on the Right, since they typically confuse socialism with outright communism, in spite of key differences between the two – was also taken up in the hinterlands far beyond standard-issue American conservatism, on the White Nationalist message board, Stormfront.org.
It may be, considering that she allegedly shot at least 6 people and later said, “It didn’t happen. There’s no way. … They are still alive,” that Amy Bishop was just nuts. Her husband James Anderson, who has been questioned in relation to the incident, once sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission that sounded much more like a libertarian’s complaint about individual privacy than socialism:
It isn’t unheard of for two ideologically opposed people to have a long-lived relationship, but there is nothing socialist in Anderson’s sentiments above. They’re much more in line with the beliefs of the libertarians who currently support that Frankenstein of Bircher and Reaganite ideologies, the Tea Party Movement.
All of this was perhaps inevitable from the moment it became clear that Amy Bishop was an instance of supposed Harvard Elitism working in the outlands of an Alabama university (even though Huntsville, home to many scientists and European transplants, is as close as any city in Alabama ever gets to a kind of East Coast lib’rul enclave). The Right Wing Outrage monster stirred at the mention of Harvard. It shifted its bloated bulk about and gimlet eyes laser-focused on whatever reports were available. Names were googled. Words were searched. Then, an eldritch claw embossed with “Reagan/Bush ’84″ clicked a link and the word – misspelled as “socalist” but still obvious – was found. The monster growled in satisfaction. A new talking point was born, as was a new implication, bloody, red, still-pulsing meat for those disposed to believe – Harvard –> Socialism –> Death and Destruction and oh, hey, Obama went to Harvard, and he’s a socialist… you see where this is meant to go, don’t you?
The Right Wing Outrage Monster knows precisely what it is doing. Glenn Reynolds – a comfy, tenured professor himself at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville – helped create the thing as it is today.
And I still wasn’t able to get around to the student interviewed by WAFF-TV after the shootings, who told the reporter that the crime could have been avoided if only the campus had listened to her pleas for licensed firearm users to be allowed open-carry on the UAH campus.
Yeah, I’m sure that would have worked out great for those 3 dead professors.
[Instapundit], [CBS]