Another epic Twitter thread/Arrival review that’s worth your time…
Dear Red State peeps: Happy New Year! I was wondering, could we talk for a second? I apologize if this is long.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Have you seen Arrival? I saw it the other day (so good!) & it got me thinking about the weird relationship we Americans have w/academia.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I started thinking about all the movies where something terrible happens & how it’s often an egghead who comes up with the solution.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
But it’s weird, this relationship we have; I mean, we certainly value expertise, right? If you’ve got cancer, you want a cancer expert.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
And yet there’s this message coming from the right that academic experts are elitist, that they’re somehow “less American” than other folk.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Um, just who exactly got to decide what makes someone a real American? No, really, who? Am I not a real American?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I was raised by a truck driver and secretary mom (until she went to college while I was in high school).
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I grew up in a manufacturing town, and most of my friends’ parents worked in a factory.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
My neighborhood was lower middle class, a weird mixture of nice homes, two room shacks, and shitty apartment buildings.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
We often worried about money, & there were periods when my folks were b/w jobs & there was talk of losing a car, or even the house.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
We watched football on Sundays. My step-dad was a member of the NRA & taught me how to shoot a gun.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I had a FOID card by the time I was in 8th grade. My desire for responsible gun laws is not born out of a lack of experience with guns.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I didn’t go to a fancy college or university. I went to my local community college & then transferred to the state school an hour away.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I didn’t have enough self-esteem to apply to “better” schools, even though my grades, test scores, & professors suggested I should.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
A lot of us so-called “elitists” suffer from something called Imposter Syndrome, but that’s a topic for another thread….
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Anyway, I worked two, sometimes three, jobs while in college. Took out student loans for undergrad and more for grad school.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I’m still paying them back & probably will until I die. But it’s ok. They’re worth it.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I live in a solid middle class, 90s ranch house w/contractor grade everything. My backyard literally leads to a corn field.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I shoot the shit with my neighbors, some of whom have NASCAR flags hanging in their garage. Pretty normal stuff.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I also have a Ph.D. in Psychology and spend my days teaching students about critical thinking and evolutionary theory.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
And I am a real fucking American.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I returned home to teach at the CC from which I graduated, in this once-strong manufacturing town with nothing left to manufacture.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I live and work here and put everything I have into trying to help people find a career and/or change their lives.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
But Fox News, Breitbart, Trump, & Co. want you to believe that I am woefully out of touch with “real” America. So, I need to ask:
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Am I out of touch when I celebrate w/students who barely made it through high school get their first B & see what they’re capable of?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Am I out of touch when I’m helping a 45-yr-old man who lost his job when the factory closed realize his lifelong dream of being a teacher?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Am I out of touch when I’m encouraging the mom going to college to show her kids that you’re never too old to try?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Am I out of touch when I’m helping someone find help for dealing w/sexual assault, or find a place to stay away from an abusive spouse?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Am I out of touch when I’m holding the hand of a sobbing student who was just kicked out of his home for coming out?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Are we out of touch when my colleagues & I are stocking food & toiletries in our offices to give to the students who are barely surviving?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Don’t tell me academics are out of touch because we have advanced degrees, or don’t punch a time clock, or don’t get dirty at our jobs.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
We are just as much “real” Americans as anyone else and I’m pretty sure we won’t stand for people saying otherwise any longer.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Some academics teach. Some make amazing scientific & technological breakthroughs that help ALL Americans. Some do both.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
It’s not a lie that most of the greatest advances this world has ever seen have come from the minds of people working in academics.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
So maybe ask yourself why you’re supposed to believe that we’re not good for America? Why do they *want* you to be suspicious?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Could it be that knowledge and education make people question more, and those in with all the power & money don’t like that?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
They need you to want the goods that academics produce—because they make money off of them—but they don’t want you to trust the producers.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Isn’t that weird? Seriously, why would anyone think anti-intellectualism is something you should strive for?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Especially when you consider that the people on the right telling you not to trust someone w/a college education are often highly educated?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Shouldn’t THAT make you suspicious?
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Go. Look it up. Explore the educational background of the leaders of the conservative right who are telling you college is bad.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
And if something seems a little bit off to you, stop and think about why.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
We are not the enemy. Science is not a liberal conspiracy. Educating is not brainwashing.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
We want the same things as you: to be safe, to be healthy, to have a good life.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
We went into academics to help make those things happen—both for ourselves and for you.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I love my career. I make a decent living between my salary and the extra classes I teach during the regular and summer semesters.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
For that, I am grateful, so I try to give back to my community through volunteer and community work.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
And you know what? There are thousands of academics just like me, probably in your own community.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
And in 20 years of teaching, I’ve never heard a single colleague say that someone without a college degree isn’t a real American. Ever.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Now it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m about to put some frozen pizzas in the oven for my kid & her friends, & settle in for rented movie.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I keep trying to figure out what it is about me that’s elitist, while you see a man who rides a golden elevator every day as relatable.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
I gotta admit, it’s baffling.
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
Anyway. I was just thinking that maybe it’d be cool if you stopped insulting academics so much. You never know…
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
You might need one of us to save you from an alien someday. 🙂
— Buffy the Psych Prof (@DrPsyBuffy) December 31, 2016
