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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @06:49AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @06:49AM (#394501)

    Agreed, but this is the transition moment. You see, liberal philosophy and its offspring (modernism, post-modernism) were made for revolutionary purposes. It is meant to sow discontent, upset norms, undermine certain established institutions and create a somewhat chaotic social environment. Once complete power is assumed, the leaders of the liberal movement (mostly operating in the shadows) who rode in on the back of liberalism will enforce their own conservatism. That's what we are about to witness.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @07:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @07:05AM (#394506)

    > Once complete power is assumed, the leaders of the liberal movement (mostly operating in the shadows) who rode in on the back of liberalism will enforce their own conservatism.

    You have unwittingly described the arc of the republican party. They were the driving force behind the anti-slavery movement. But then they won the civil war and their people assumed power in washington. At which point the lucrative effects of being connected to power began to turn them away from caring about racism and towards caring about (a) their own wealth and (b) maintaining power. But that corruption began to visibly surface during the civil rights era and culminated in the metastasis of Trumpism through the body of the party.

    I doubt "liberalism" will go through the same process because it knows no specific party. As the democratic party has been co-opted by wealth, it has also strayed from liberalism, they just haven't traveled as far down that path as the republican party has. But the principles remain, just reinvented by another generation as evidenced by Bernie Sanders, BLM, Occupy, etc.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @07:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @07:49AM (#394525)

      Both sides are of the same coin, there was nothing unwitting in (my) original post :)

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 29 2016, @02:40PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 29 2016, @02:40PM (#394718) Journal

      All that you have said is, history repeats itself. And, that statement only affirms what GP said to start with.