It was a given that the media would not like Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss, given her clear Thatcherite disposition. But I hadn’t expected the New York Times to beclown themselves with this self-own headline:
Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, has recruited cabinet members from diverse backgrounds, though her inner circle retains a hard Conservative edge.
So in other words, sort of like a college faculty. Or the editorial board of the New York Times. Not much ideological diversity there, either.
How come we never see a sentence like this:
America’s new president, Joe Biden, has recruited cabinet members from diverse backgrounds, though his inner circle retains a hard Progressive edge.
Of course not, because only conservatives need to pay attention to ideological diversity. A monochromatic ideological university department or editorial page is just the natural order of things for Progressives who believe that have a monopoly on the truth, or at the very least are agents for “the side of History.” If you suggest that universities (or newsrooms) ought to have some ideological or political diversity, you get shouted down.
Case in point: an article this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education by a professor of German and comparative literature at the University of Michigan that you really have to read, not to believe it:
The article is long—of course it is—and complains about the resources deployed to respond to a complaint by a student against a professor who had tweeted out something mean about Republicans. Fair enough, though I don’t ever recall anyone lamenting the resources a college expends every time someone yells “racism!”
But then the author finally gets to the point: to hell with Republicans:
In light of the Republican Party’s longstanding contempt for knowledge and expertise — be it in the context of history, public health, climate change, or ecology — the question is why colleges so far had escaped its venom relatively unscathed (if you disregard the systematic defunding of public institutions that plunged a generation of college kids into deep debt that cannot be discharged).
College football is surely part of the answer, but I suspect the real reason is this: Despite the common narrative to the contrary, colleges are not, in fact, left-wing institutions.
I’ll pause here so you can pick yourself off the floor from laughing. Because it gets better!
This is a moment of considerable peril. There is an entire complex of organizations, like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, dedicated to creating the impression that the most pressing threats to free speech and academic freedom originate on the campus left.
Okay, you’re on the floor again. Sorry, I can’t help it when leftist professors are working for Powerline for free. Finally:
When J.D. Vance says that “professors are the enemy,” he is correct. He is our enemy, and we must be his. I welcome his hatred. As a modest start, I suggest that we no longer respond to Republicans who complain about professorial tweets with anything other than a short form letter.
I propose a compromise: how about the same short form letter for every campus claim of racism, too. Deal?
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