Shortell Is Retarded
Example of a Retard
This month, Brooklyn College's sociology department elected Timothy Shortell as its chairman.
Normally, this would be a case of "So What?" This time around, however, the chairman has caused an uproar.
As you read these Shortell quotes, keep in mind that, as chairman, he carries some weight when it comes to each professor's tenure at the college. I won't really comment much about this. I'll just let Shortell speak for himself:
On a personal level, religiosity is merely annoying — like bad taste. This immaturity represents a significant social problem, however, because religious adherents fail to recognize their limitations. So, in the name of their faith, these moral retards are running around pointing fingers and doing real harm to others. One only has to read the newspaper to see the results of their handiwork. They discriminate, exclude and belittle. They make a virtue of closed-mindedness and virulent ignorance. They are an ugly, violent lot.
In the heart of every Christian, though, is a tiny voice preaching self-righteousness, paranoia and hatred. Christians claim that theirs is a faith based on love, but they'll just as soon kill you.
Modern religion is a fundamental belief in magic.
I have been attacked recently in the New York newspapers. We laugh at our critics. We will behold with joy their silly tantrums.
This sort of fodder is expected when dealing with anonymous jerks on the internet, but not generally when dealing with people who are not anonymous and who hold a prestigious position at an educational institution. Furthermore, his pseudo-taunts in the last of the quotes sounds malformed and childish, much like the taunts we hear coming from the extremists in the Middle East. I was surprised that he didn't end that one with "the streets will run with blood." That would lower him to the literary genius of Assam the American.
If you're interested in reading the piece that some of those quotes came from, check it out. It is titled "Religion & Morality: A Contradiction Explained."
As usual, we're seeing typical unbalanced treatment of Shortell's comments. Not surprisingly, Brooklyn College seems to be tiptoeing around this one. I like this quote from The New York Sun:
If a professor had spoken of, say, gay persons or Jews as moral retards, it's a safe bet that things would not be dealt with quite so delicately as they seem to be on Brooklyn College's campus at the moment.
Remember, some children just demand more attention than all the others.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 26th, 2005 at 21:21 by Novac and is filed under All, Education, Liberals, People, Politics, Sociology.
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