A Textbook Case of Indoctrination

It’s hard to push back against liberal bias in the classroom when the textbook carries the Lefty bent shared by the professor.

I’m currently enrolled in a course called Social Problems. The supposed purpose of the class is to explore fundamental problems in American society. According to the course catalog, examples include overpopulation, economic and gender inequality, and racism.

Our main textbook is “American Society, How It Really Works,” by Erik Olin Wright and Joel Rogers. According to a biography of Wright from the American Sociological Association, Wright “pioneered what [he] called analytical Marxism, or more colloquially ‘no bullsh*t Marxism.'”

Whether “no bullsh*t Marxism” is a contradiction in terms is left unaddressed.

“He could be found among the thousands of Madison citizens in their 17-day occupation of the capitol building,” the ASA biography of Wright continues, adding ia gleeful recollection of the ultimately unsuccessful effort to unseat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a 2012 recall election.

Simply stated, my textbook argues that lack of regulation and government oversight in an economy leads to the societal problem of economic inequality.

Rogers has helped found and run many progressive organizations, including the progressive policy think tank, The Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

The two authors cite much of their information from another “academic” work, “The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us,”  by Robert H. Frank and Phillip J. Cook. The title offers some insight into its precepts.

On page 291 of my textbook, Wright and Rogers describe the reason America has this so-called problem of “wealth inequality.”

“For a number of reasons, the deregulation of labor markets and the intensification of competitiveness within labor markets will tend to escalate inequality in earnings,” it reads.

It goes on to lament that success in the workplace begets a lifetime of rewards, while a drop out of the labor market, will affect people negatively.

“How on earth could time well spent or time wasted not beget an equal outcome?” they must wonder, putting aside common sense. But common sense seems a reason for these intellectuals to become perturbed.

Common sense seems a reason for these intellectuals to become perturbed.

“There are always winners and losers in market competition, but in weakly regulated markets with high stakes competition, the consequences of winning and losing tend to cumulatively intensify overall inequality,” they write.

Simply stated, my textbook argues that lack of regulation and government oversight in an economy leads to the societal problem of economic inequality.

The authors fail to mention how a competitive, free-market economy drives prices down, creates more jobs, and pulls people out of poverty.

How many students will be impacted by this anti-American and anti-Capitalist thought for a lifetime? Capitalism has helped America become one of the most powerful and well-off nations in the world, but classes, professors, and textbooks like mine are doing their Marxist best to stamp that out.

At least my class taught me one thing. Indoctrination is running wild on college campuses across America. That is a true social problem.

Gina Jochimsen is a sophomore at the University of Iowa. This piece is part of a CampusZette series exploring the culture, oddities, and experiences of students on college campuses through their eyes.