Grover Furr: A Moonbat's Moonbat

Frontpage recently published an article of mine about English professor Grover Furr, an apologist for Stalin who teaches at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. I wrote:

"For twenty years, Grover Furr has been an English professor at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey, where he educates students in his peculiar worldview, which is an updated Stalinism and in which America is the world’s biggest oppressor and greatest terrorist state. While his academic expertise is English literature, he presents himself as an expert on communism, and scours academic forums like the Historians of American Communism net, defending Joseph Stalin and calling America’s role in bringing down the Soviet Empire a moral outrage. `Was there something morally wrong in trying to bring down the Soviet Union? I think the only honest answer possible is: Yes, it was wrong,' says Furr."

News of the Frontpage story quickly reached The Montclarion, Montclair University's school newspaper. "Professor Accused of Spreading Communism," screamed the Montclarion headline. The article continued:

"A Montclair State University English professor has become a topic of great political controversy as a local journalist accused him of using his classroom as a breeding ground for his own political agenda. An article published in FrontPage Magazine, an online forum for political columnists, said professor Grover Furr was one who `employs a simple ploy in ramming Marxism, glowing accounts of communism and anti-U.S. propaganda down his students' throats.'"

The paper's editorial board got in on the act, running a piece titled, "No One's Callin' for Stalin." It ripped out chunks of Grover's "red" fur, thus:

"He is, after all, an English professor, not history, and is assigned to teach certain classes, such as his `Great Books and Ideas' class. A book such as Karl Marx's `Communist Manifesto,' while greatly important to the events of the 20th century, is not necessarily a great book, and thus, is not appropriate subject matter to be digested by students in that particular class. Another of Furr's classes, centering on American involvement in Vietnam, demands an objective voice in regards to a sensitive subject, and Furr, a blatant, self-proclaimed communist, may not be the most appropriate choice to teach this class (just as a devout, right-wing extremist would be equally inappropriate). "

It's heartening to know that the Montclarion staff keeps moonbat repellant locked, loaded and within easy reach.

My Montclair campus contacts tell me that the normally combative Furr has so far reacted rather meekly to my article that exposes him as a far-leftist hack. But it's not too late for comrade Furr to suit up in his best moonbat attire, grab his copy of the Communist Manifesto, kiss a picture of Josef Stalin for good luck and come at me with both brain cells blazing.

So far, all he has done is try to hide behind his students: classic behavior for one who talks the radical talk but lacks the nerve to truly walk the radical walk.