Colleges used to encourage the exchange of challenging ideas. Now faculty members who challenge students’ beliefs are being forced to leave the profession.
There's a reason the radical left doesn't understand why there is finally a small degree of blow back on their support for Hamas and their efforts to create an equivalency between Israel and Hamas.
They have had such success in capturing, coopting, and controlling various institutions - especially in education from PK through universities - that they are under the impression everyone agrees with them. Their saying "silence is violence" was really code for "silence is submission."
There are elements in the left, throughout our institutions (especially education), who truly believe the radical bilge they're spewing. Unfortunately, they've had decades to work on kids' minds and the middle and right have let them.
There used to be an "equal time" rule for media. It needs to return - not only for media but in education.
However, for a good chunk of the radical left this isn't possible. They're fully in a religious dogma and the issue we face now is a sectarian divide.
The good news is that for "normal" people some of the blinders have fallen away a bit. On many issues we've been seeing super majorities for years. These, of course, haven't been reflected in leftist-leaning media. But the common sense is there.
Let's hope that the line too far is dead babies. But for the radical left, don't count on it.
For the very same reasons you describe in your excellent article, I chose to retire after a 40 year career, even though I was midst a job, and with others awaiting me. I couldn’t live in a battle zone another day. Thank you for this article, Ms. Block. It helps validate what was a very hard decision for me.
Harvard and Princeton academics are turdbuckets, known for their biases and stupidity (apologies to Prof. Pinker and a couple of others). Reading about these fools makes me glad to be old. But I worry for my kids. Most of the twits pushing this horsepoop won't even have kids, thank heavens.
When I completed my M.A., I had a choice to make. My thesis professor, on the verge of retirement, was one of the foremost Medievalists in the country, and he was strongly supportive of my going on for my PhD. And my original aim, when I went back to college in my 30s, was to become a professor. That was my career dream--a path out of the working poor class, doing something I loved.
But I had discovered, during my time in grad school, just how completely the Far Left had taken over my subject area. I had turned to Medieval Studies as a sanctuary from the Wokeness (although it wasn't called that quite yet). But getting hired as a tenure track professor, even in Medieval Studies, would require running the gauntlet of a Far Left hiring committee who would use shibboleths to detect how far Left (and thus how acceptable) a candidate was. And I had also read some articles that indicated that Wokeness was going to seep into Medieval Studies sooner rather than later.
So I chose not to pursue my PhD. There are still days when I regret that--when I miss the rigor and excitement of academic discovery. But I have never been willing or able to pretend that I am someone I am not. And the idea of pretending to be Woke in order to get and keep a job makes me deeply ill, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
The problem comes when ideology becomes superior to truth. DEI and anti-racism have become paramount. Truth, observations, in fact anything that contradicts woke ideology, is forbidden. Further, teaching the methods of math, science, technology and engineering has already been declared racist by some. Anti-racist discrimination against whites and Asians is increasing. Educating straight white and Asian males is already being discouraged. This ideological stew is a direct threat to modern civilization.
The fact is that you can't build a modern engineering project, like a sewer system, based on anti-racist principles with no math or real engineering. With our academic institutions indoctrinating rather than educating, we won't be able to run a modern economy. In particular, if we refuse to train all straight white and asian males, it cuts the available talent pool down a lot, even if we train everybody else. Given that we're indoctrinating instead of educating already, things can get bad really fast. We will replace our current competent technical people with indoctrinated incompetents.
It is bizarre. Because STEM courses require empirical data, and cannot be subject the 'relativity' of social justice, the insanely woke social sciences simply declare maths 'racist', thereby dismissing them entirely. Good luck with building safe bridges.
Very insightful article! “Disinterested truth-seeking” is of fundamental importance to the stability of our culture and its institutions. This includes academia, but also others, such as the press. Thank you, Free Press for bringing us this perspective. Another outstanding article from Francesa Block!
I have two daughters under 5. If it is this bad now what will it be like when they are old enough to go to college? I can teach them critical thinking and independent thought at home, but I don't want their intellectual curiosity and freedom to be stifled at university. I WANT my kids to be challenged by opposing view points and to be forced to defend their beliefs with reason, not emotion. This is being lost across college campuses and I genuinely do not know what/where I should be steering my daughters toward after high school.
These are the same kids who will come into the real world unprepared for real life. They will break the first time someone explains to them they are not the boss. IMHO, it is not worth the social capital to lose your whole soul.
The left has a great deal to answer for...And it is high time that they be called to account.
The bigotry and hatred introduced in the name of progressivism should be first on the list.
There's a reason the radical left doesn't understand why there is finally a small degree of blow back on their support for Hamas and their efforts to create an equivalency between Israel and Hamas.
They have had such success in capturing, coopting, and controlling various institutions - especially in education from PK through universities - that they are under the impression everyone agrees with them. Their saying "silence is violence" was really code for "silence is submission."
There are elements in the left, throughout our institutions (especially education), who truly believe the radical bilge they're spewing. Unfortunately, they've had decades to work on kids' minds and the middle and right have let them.
There used to be an "equal time" rule for media. It needs to return - not only for media but in education.
However, for a good chunk of the radical left this isn't possible. They're fully in a religious dogma and the issue we face now is a sectarian divide.
The good news is that for "normal" people some of the blinders have fallen away a bit. On many issues we've been seeing super majorities for years. These, of course, haven't been reflected in leftist-leaning media. But the common sense is there.
Let's hope that the line too far is dead babies. But for the radical left, don't count on it.
For the very same reasons you describe in your excellent article, I chose to retire after a 40 year career, even though I was midst a job, and with others awaiting me. I couldn’t live in a battle zone another day. Thank you for this article, Ms. Block. It helps validate what was a very hard decision for me.
Harvard and Princeton academics are turdbuckets, known for their biases and stupidity (apologies to Prof. Pinker and a couple of others). Reading about these fools makes me glad to be old. But I worry for my kids. Most of the twits pushing this horsepoop won't even have kids, thank heavens.
Sounds like a hostile work environment for conservatives to me.
This entire article breaks my heart. What happened to the free exchange of ideas battling it out in young minds in these institutions?
The future is dark
When I completed my M.A., I had a choice to make. My thesis professor, on the verge of retirement, was one of the foremost Medievalists in the country, and he was strongly supportive of my going on for my PhD. And my original aim, when I went back to college in my 30s, was to become a professor. That was my career dream--a path out of the working poor class, doing something I loved.
But I had discovered, during my time in grad school, just how completely the Far Left had taken over my subject area. I had turned to Medieval Studies as a sanctuary from the Wokeness (although it wasn't called that quite yet). But getting hired as a tenure track professor, even in Medieval Studies, would require running the gauntlet of a Far Left hiring committee who would use shibboleths to detect how far Left (and thus how acceptable) a candidate was. And I had also read some articles that indicated that Wokeness was going to seep into Medieval Studies sooner rather than later.
So I chose not to pursue my PhD. There are still days when I regret that--when I miss the rigor and excitement of academic discovery. But I have never been willing or able to pretend that I am someone I am not. And the idea of pretending to be Woke in order to get and keep a job makes me deeply ill, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
The problem comes when ideology becomes superior to truth. DEI and anti-racism have become paramount. Truth, observations, in fact anything that contradicts woke ideology, is forbidden. Further, teaching the methods of math, science, technology and engineering has already been declared racist by some. Anti-racist discrimination against whites and Asians is increasing. Educating straight white and Asian males is already being discouraged. This ideological stew is a direct threat to modern civilization.
The fact is that you can't build a modern engineering project, like a sewer system, based on anti-racist principles with no math or real engineering. With our academic institutions indoctrinating rather than educating, we won't be able to run a modern economy. In particular, if we refuse to train all straight white and asian males, it cuts the available talent pool down a lot, even if we train everybody else. Given that we're indoctrinating instead of educating already, things can get bad really fast. We will replace our current competent technical people with indoctrinated incompetents.
It is bizarre. Because STEM courses require empirical data, and cannot be subject the 'relativity' of social justice, the insanely woke social sciences simply declare maths 'racist', thereby dismissing them entirely. Good luck with building safe bridges.
Why am I NOT getting these articles in my inbox?? I am an annual subscriber?
So many woke liberals who are watching this happen are not only intolerant, but now more than ever, hopelessly uninformed.
I’m 70 and what I see today saddens me. So many young people are not going to experience much happiness. The self satisfaction they are holding dear
Will not be long lasting.
I'm still astounded at the "Lab Leak is Racist" concept.
The official "non-racist" story was that monkey- and bat-eaters at a wet market spread it. That's not racist?
Very insightful article! “Disinterested truth-seeking” is of fundamental importance to the stability of our culture and its institutions. This includes academia, but also others, such as the press. Thank you, Free Press for bringing us this perspective. Another outstanding article from Francesa Block!
I have two daughters under 5. If it is this bad now what will it be like when they are old enough to go to college? I can teach them critical thinking and independent thought at home, but I don't want their intellectual curiosity and freedom to be stifled at university. I WANT my kids to be challenged by opposing view points and to be forced to defend their beliefs with reason, not emotion. This is being lost across college campuses and I genuinely do not know what/where I should be steering my daughters toward after high school.
And we thought the Spanish Inquisition ended in the 16th Century.
Turned 66 today. Have never felt more pessimistic about the future of the west. Unsustainable.
These are the same kids who will come into the real world unprepared for real life. They will break the first time someone explains to them they are not the boss. IMHO, it is not worth the social capital to lose your whole soul.