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posted by CoolHand on Monday August 29 2016, @01:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-takes-all-kinds dept.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html?_r=0

WE progressives believe in diversity, and we want women, blacks, Latinos, gays and Muslims at the table — er, so long as they aren't conservatives. Universities are the bedrock of progressive values, but the one kind of diversity that universities disregard is ideological and religious. We're fine with people who don't look like us, as long as they think like us.

O.K., that's a little harsh. But consider George Yancey, a sociologist who is black and evangelical. "Outside of academia I faced more problems as a black," he told me. "But inside academia I face more problems as a Christian, and it is not even close."

I've been thinking about this because on Facebook recently I wondered aloud whether universities stigmatize conservatives and undermine intellectual diversity. The scornful reaction from my fellow liberals proved the point.

"Much of the 'conservative' worldview consists of ideas that are known empirically to be false," said Carmi. "The truth has a liberal slant," wrote Michelle. "Why stop there?" asked Steven. "How about we make faculties more diverse by hiring idiots?"

To me, the conversation illuminated primarily liberal arrogance — the implication that conservatives don't have anything significant to add to the discussion. My Facebook followers have incredible compassion for war victims in South Sudan, for kids who have been trafficked, even for abused chickens, but no obvious empathy for conservative scholars facing discrimination.

The stakes involve not just fairness to conservatives or evangelical Christians, not just whether progressives will be true to their own values, not just the benefits that come from diversity (and diversity of thought is arguably among the most important kinds), but also the quality of education itself. When perspectives are unrepresented in discussions, when some kinds of thinkers aren't at the table, classrooms become echo chambers rather than sounding boards — and we all lose.


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @05:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @05:33AM (#394482)

    > You can hate me for being divisive against 2 classes of people, while Facebook (run by a Jew) is classifying people into over thirty genders.

    Yeah, you are actually being inclusive.
    You combine over thirty different kinds of asshole into one person.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @07:18AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @07:18AM (#394511)

    Liberals thought they could replace Christianity with a kind of ersatz charity without God. The bit they forgot about is real Christian society doesn't put up with bullshit like rapist muslim men or usurers/banksters etc. But Liberals roll over for everything because they are ideologically loose like a two bit whore. So now the experiment has failed, time for all you liberals to find some real substance or go home.

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 29 2016, @05:53PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday August 29 2016, @05:53PM (#394849) Journal

      Christian society doesn't put up with bullshit like rapist muslim men
       
      Yeah, if the keyword is Muslim. Rapist Christian Men get moved to a different Parish.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @01:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @01:38PM (#394658)

    > You combine over thirty different kinds of asshole into one person.

    Are we discussing "The Donald" now?