The University of Utah’s College of Humanities poster (which you could have easily properly identified with a simple Google search; disinterest in doing research or fact-checking – check) does nothing to support any of the five claims you state it makes. These are simple matters of logic, but perhaps that’s one of those fake classes that you felt comfortable dismissing.

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@ Luke Maciak:
Yep, it’s good being a philosopher. However, it’s bad when you discover you’ve inadvertently taught your teenager to argue like one.

… and Art will teach how to DRAW them correctly … (now get off my lawn!)

This is hilarious. I love you. See you on RSS. XD

@ Luke Maciak:
I’m not as offended as maybe I seemed, and I guess I’m not as funny as I thought, either. Which is oddly appropriate. ;)

And while I might disagree with your science-elitist persona about non-science fields being the easy-button path to a degree, I’d certainly agree that they CAN be. In fact, I think that may be the root cause of a lot of what’s wrong with our schools today:
If you can’t actually hack it in college, change majors to something where the answers are more subjective. Then, if BSing your way through doesn’t work, you can always just beg the professor to fudge your grade a little, because if you flunk out they’ll draft you and send you to Vietnam where you’ll be killed. So your professor decides that your idiotic interpretation of the material is “interesting” and “thought provoking”, and you get a C.
This produces a glut of people with degrees, especially degrees is areas where “correct” and “incorrect” are less than clear-cut. The most qualified of them get jobs in the relevant field, and the least qualified of them are qualified to do nothing but teach.
Don’t get me wrong: a lot of teachers in this country teach because they love it, and would get snapped up in a heartbeat if they wanted to work in their field instead of teaching it. But a lot of other teachers teach because they can’t get/keep work doing anything else that pays as well.

I wonder if my father ever realized that the people doing a lousy job preparing students for the demands of being a university student (every year he had to send students from ComSci102 back to ENG101-English as a Second Language because they just weren’t up to speed) were the same ones who used to beg him not to flunk them so they could keep their draft deferment.

@ Lurkerdragon:

Bwhahaha, U mad bro? What could I have possibly said to offend your tiny, tiny underdeveloped reptilian brain so much?

@ SpyOne:

Ah, now we are getting to the bottom of the butthurt. Listen, I mean no offense to you dad – I’m sure he is a wonderful, educated man. I never said that the courses taught under the fold of “communications” are useless. To the contrary, as you said yourself they things like public speaking should be (and usually are) general education requirements at any liberal arts school. Your old man is doing work that is both noble, necessary and useful. I salute him, and if I ever met him I would probably think highly of him – I have nothing but respect for people working in education. It doesn’t really matter what you teach – most college courses are important and useful.

Now I assume you are new here and you haven’t lurked on this blog before. If you did, you would notice that I use this thing called humor. The elitist science jerk is sort of my go-to shtick. Usually it doesn’t offend people because, well, most of my readers are like minded folks who are in on the joke. Case in point, most of us had a friend in college who failed bunch of science classes, could not cut it in humanities and ended up graduating with a “low barrier to entry” degree in communications, nutrition, phys-ed or business something like that.

I usually rip on business people for having graduated with fake majors but they don’t care because they are making a lot of money with their degrees (as they should) so an opinion of one internet nerd does not really concern them. Plus they are not that great at reading comprehension… But I can see how communications majors (lovely people as they are) would get upset.

So listen. Let’s bury the hatchet. I apologize. I did not mean to make unwarranted digs at your degree of choice. I have nothing against communications professors – more power to them. They are doing a great, and their department is indeed necessary. Degrees such as communication are absolutely vital to any college just like a kidney is absolutely vital to a living organism. Without such majors a lot of students would simply flunk out, but instead they can graduate with legitimate 4 year degrees. I think that’s great because during those 4 years they still have to take all kinds of gen-ed requirements – so no matter what they end up as better, more culturally enriched people.

Oh, and please do not ever take anything I say seriously. You should know better than that.

Thanks for typo corrections. I really appreciate your proofreading effort. I’m only a human and I make mistakes just like everyone, but I really appreciate when my fans take time out of their busy day to do the difficult job of proofreading my ramblings. :)

I guess everything has the potential to offend someone.
Case in point: why do you casually dismiss Communications as a “fake degree”? Is Communications Sciences not a rigorous enough discipline for you? Is Public Speaking not an art form worthy of study, in your opinion?
My Father taught Communication Sciences for 22 years, and from him I learned the importance of communicating clearly and well.
If nothing else, he taught me that if I am writing for publication, I should be sure to spell Michael Crichton’s name correctly, and to proof-read my work so I can spot where I used the word “thing” where I meant “think”, which a spellchecker will miss.
Since you seem to regard writing as a worthy field of study and endeavor, while at the same time dismissing speech as pursuing a “fake degree”, one would think you’d put in the effort to make sure you wrote well. I always do, even if it is just a quick email to family. But then I was raised by someone with s degree in communications.

I think someone needs to point this out to you. You’re that guy, the guy people are friends with because they feel sorry for him but don’t really like him because he’s a complete jerk. Please do them a favor and drink some bleach.

Damn, a lot of haters today. Did I get linked in some anti-science publication or something?

Double standards much guys? So I guess what you are telling me is that when humanities uses hyperbolic exaggeration, and misrepresents scientific method and slanders my field labeling all scientists as unethical and inherently dangerous that’s fine because it’s humorous. When I make a joke post, humorously ranting about said misrepresentation I am suddenly stuck up and humorless? Really?

McBob wrote:

There is a lot of different careers paths that people can take in University, but taking the Humanities as a minor is a choice that few people will ever regret.

Did you miss the entire section where I talked about how much respect I have for people studying humanities, and how I think it is an awesome and very important field to study? I am not putting down humanities. Hell, I personally think that science students should be required to take more literature and philosophy classes because that stuff is important – it makes you grow as a person. I’m trashing a dumb poster which makes scientists look like unethical dipshits, and humanities people like ignorant assholes. It makes us both look bad.

It’s shit like this why I have such a low opinion about folks in Marketing.