Dispelling a Few Myths About Republicans, Conservatism, and Medical School Admissions

[little_late_MD]

I just thought that I would use this forum as a place to dispel certain preconcieved notions people might have about members of the GOP

Myth: Republicans eat children.
Truth: While for centuries this was an established custom of conservatives world wide, in recent years, following the edicts of chief potentate Scalia have greatly diminished this practice. In place of children, many Republicans have substituted puppies and newborn kittens.

Myth: Conservatives take seats from more qualified liberals and independents.
Truth: Using statistical data taken from a survey my best friend Nelson and I just did at lunch, I can state that this is certainly false. Of the 20 people we say walking around the cafeteria who looked like med students, only 2 looked like they were Republicans. And they looked very qualified, as they had both bookbags and cell phones.

Myth: Republicans only enter medicine so that the dark lord will have a stranglehold on human helathcare when he makes his triumphant return from the outer realms.
Truth: The real reason Republicans enter medicine is so that they can have a base from which to attack their only natural predator-trial lawyers.

Myth: Republicans in government are responsible for the dropoff in funding rates for science in recent years.
Truth: Republicans all over are firmly committed to the basic tenents of science and exploration. Or perhaps you don't believe that military science is really science! That's just being quite arrogant on your part. Anyone not doing medicine isn't a real scientist? Pfft. There's a whole lot of strategery going on in them there wars. And what about Creation Science? I mean it says science right in the name!

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[chef_NU]

Well I'd agree with you that the Republican party as it stands really sucks. The ideals that the actual Republican party stands for are limited government and just dessert. However, that's not what it stands for now. Republicans these days get elected by cutting taxes and spending ludicrous amounts of nonexistent money (a great way to get elected). Unfortunately, eventually its going to bite them in the ass.

 

[Shredder]

"compassionate" conservatism since when was conservatism supposed to be explicitly compassionate. i hear you on the just deserts

i think espousing right wing viewpoints during the app and interview process will earn you a hearty round of discrimination

 

[odrade1]

"compassionate" conservatism since when was conservatism supposed to be explicitly compassionate. i hear you on the just deserts

i think espousing right wing viewpoints during the app and interview process will earn you a hearty round of discrimination

When I look at medicine, I see a field dominated by conservatives. My liberal friends in med school are defintely a minority. Also, ALL of my interviewers mentioned their husband/wife, children, and "has an extremely active church life" in their bios. (none of which am I even remotely intersted in knowing--as an interviewee--about my interviewer's life) Conservatives don't have a monopoly on child-rearing or churchgoing, but they certainly are more vocal about sharing such information, so I took this as evidence that I should avoid leftish topics in the interview.

Shredder, you are right about espousing extreme views. Whether right or left-wing, you run a risk of turning off your interviewer if you take a controversial stand. (Of course you may also make yourself stand out in a positive way, if they listen to your arguments carefully).

 

[Shredder]

When I look at medicine, I see a field dominated by conservatives. My liberal friends in med school are defintely a minority. Also, ALL of my interviewers mentioned their husband/wife, children, and "has an extremely active church life" in their bios. (none of which am I even remotely intersted in knowing--as an interviewee--about my interviewer's life) Conservatives don't have a monopoly on child-rearing or churchgoing, but they certainly are more vocal about sharing such information, so I took this as evidence that I should avoid leftish topics in the interview.

Shredder, you are right about espousing extreme views. Whether right or left-wing, you run a risk of turning off your interviewer if you take a controversial stand. (Of course you may also make yourself stand out in a positive way, if they listen to your arguments carefully).

ive heard that interviewers are supposed to steer clear of politics in interviews, dunno about that for sure though or how its enforced. church huh...most in academia are left though, an overwhelming majority. left wing ideology shines through on med school websites in all of their tenets and goals, and admission criteria

 

[odrade1]

ive heard that interviewers are supposed to steer clear of politics in interviews, dunno about that for sure though or how its enforced. church huh...most in academia are left though, an overwhelming majority. left wing ideology shines through on med school websites in all of their tenets and goals, and admission criteria

Yes, the official school websites are usually very PC. As for the churchgoing thing; I *do* live in the south, which is both very conservative and very religious. Another possibility is that they were Episcopalians, and not conservative at all! I still don't want to know whether or not someone has kids or goes to church when I read a professional bio. Oh well....

As far as the PC thing goes, I have experienced both the left and right edges of the proverbial PC sword. The school I went to for my first years of high school was a private boys school. The student population was typically (but not exclusively) affluent and white. We attended two days of "sensitivity training" each year, in order to help us appreciate those different from ourselves. The idea was good in principle, but horribly executed. The "trainers" were obviously consultants who were using a curriculum developed for corportations, not students. (also, this was in 1991, so the school I was at was pretty progressive.) An assumption that was clear in the program design was that the groups of participants would have enough diversity in them to generate useful discussions about race, power, and ethnic pride, etc... However, 100% of us were male and 95% were white, and 80% were affluent. We were told to get into groups and come up with lists of things that our "people" had done or invented that we were proud of. Not a good idea for a diversity assignment comprised of a room full of snide, brilliant, affluent white 14 year old boys. Most of the comments were in horribly poor taste, and don't bear repeating. No one got in any trouble, but I'm sure the administrators were furious!

Usually the idea of political correctness is associated with leftism, however, a fair amount of PC-ness is motivated from the family/christian values camp, which is decidedly right-of-center. The left seems to like to censor ideas about people being differnt from one another, and the extreme left likes to censor ideas that make evaluative claims about the worth of people or beliefs. The right seems to like to censor ideas and behaviors that don't reflect certain aesthetic and sub-cultural values. I learned my lesson about keeping my mouth clean at work years ago when I worked in retail; eventually I got "counseled" by my boss about using speech that upset the delicate sensibilities of some of the prudes at work. Strictly speaking, I'm glad it happened; I certainly don't need to be in the habit of swearing like a sailor when at the hospital, etc. However, I was furious at the time. Later, when I was at OSU, one of the battles that we had as teachers was over freedom of speech. The issue came up a number of times that term; in every case the original complaint was from a conservative. The university tried (in a typically mindless litigation-avoidance behavior) to put an end to whatever had offended someone. However, in one case it was a matter of having police arrest students for wearing the wrong t-shirt slogans, and in another it was about restricting speech on university bulletin boards/listservs. In both cases the philosophy & law faculty emailed the hell out of the bureaucrats responsible & they dropped the attempt to restrict speech.

Sometimes we can change how people act by changing their speech. If you are interested in how this can affect medical treatment, there is some interesting stuff in the literature on narrative medicine.

However, usually with PCness all you are doing is dressing up a dog in a dress. If by "disabled" we mean handicapped, and then a few years later people catch on that 'disabled' really just means 'handicapped,' then we have to change the PC use from 'disabled' to 'differently abled' in order to make sure that no one things we mean 'handicapped' when of course we are really trying to say that that person has a handicap. Personally, I am fairly left of center on many issues; however, I have always suspected that PC-ness is typically silly but well-intentioned at best and manipulative and stupid at worst. There are a few exceptions, I'm sure.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Another possibility is that they were Episcopalians, and not conservative at all!

We're not all liberals, in fact a good number of us are moderates or conservatives. Why do you think the gay Bishop thing is cause so many problems in our Church?

 

[odrade1]

We're not all liberals, in fact a good number of us are moderates or conservatives. Why do you think the gay Bishop thing is cause so many problems in our Church?

I know that, of course! I was deliberately stereotyping. Actually the center-to-leftish tendencies of the episcopalians I know is one of my favorite things about them. Anyone can be a christian and right winger; it's SO popular these days! In passing, I would ask if the episcopal church wasn't pretty liberal, do you think the gay Bishop thing would even be up for discussion?! You'd never see a threat of a major schism over gay bishops in a truly conservative denomination. If you brought up the ordination of gay pastors at the Southern baptist convention, your body would never be found. I swear it. Of course the episcopalians are usually better at thinking than the southern baptists. (another deliberate attempt to have fun with stereotypes)

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I knew you were messing with me....I was just trying to be funny....

Actually there are essentially two Churches (liberal vs. old school) and you can see them divide up almost totally along the age of the church's membership. There is some debate about an actual split over the Bishop issue from what I have heard.

 

[DireWolf]

If you are looking to hang out with a lot of liberals, I would stay away from medicine. This field is full of selfish, morally corrupt radical right-wingers who like to use their profession as a facade.

 

[Saluki]

If you are looking to hang out with a lot of liberals, I would stay away from medicine. This field is full of selfish, morally corrupt radical right-wingers who like to use their profession as a facade.

A little harsh, don't you think? If you had asked Mother Theresa about her views on abortion and stem cell research, she would have given the same opinions as many of those "radical right-wingers" and I doubt you'd call her selfish. All of us are selfish in our own ways; I am firmly convinced that no politcal party or religious group will ever have the monopoly on "selfishness" and "moral corruption"

 

[LADoc00]

If you are looking to hang out with a lot of liberals, I would stay away from medicine. This field is full of selfish, morally corrupt radical right-wingers who like to use their profession as a facade.

Awesome, because hanging out with limp wristed pansy leftists who get down on their knees to give bjs to anyone willing to the attack the country would get old. Their constant bending down into the receptive position anytime someone is confrontational would also not be conducive to the good practice of medicine. And of course the incessant crying when someone disagrees with them.
So its better they take their Marx and love of Che to another profession to corrupt, I suggest law or business.