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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 29 2016, @12:47PM
I don't think there would be a problem if conservatives upped their intellectual game in general. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck have eviscerated conservative thought and replaced it with doggerel because it makes them money. Now we have two generations of dittoheads running around who couldn't construct an argument if their lives depended on it. So there's nobody left in the public eye who can counter and chase out the simpering fear monkeys who are the hobgoblins of the Left.
You guys here on Soylent are a different breed, thank goodness. Some throwback to William F Buckley, perhaps. You give as good as you get.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 29 2016, @02:38PM
Now we have two generations of dittoheads running around who couldn't construct an argument if their lives depended on it.
Agreed. But it doesn't matter.
Consider philosophy of rhetoric vs dialectic. If you want the right wing perspective on it there's an interesting essay or essay series by Vox Day thats reasonably well written. But the TLDR summary is there's at least two philosophical ways to convince people and they're utterly totally incompatible, as you've noticed.
So Rush abandoning rhetoric would result in:
1) Their best rhetorician (well, kinda) being out of the rhetoric game which hurts their rhetoric game.
2) There is no reason the guy who's best at dialectic is any good at rhetoric other than some fuzzy "SAT verbal scores" level of argument.
3) The audience who likes rhetoric is probably going to say "F this" when handed a plate of dialectic. Ditto (Oh LOL Rush) the reverse, as sounds like you want dialectic and you're not amused at getting a plate of rhetoric.
So I wouldn't hold breath waiting...
If you want right wing dialectic google a dude named Moldbug, as one example.
The reason why you don't notice the separation as much with the lefties, is they're the establishment which means they're huge (like 299 cable TV channels vs 1 channel). So, I donno, your Marixst Studies professor in college was likely pretty good at dialectic or maybe some internet troll. And some politician might be good at rhetoric. But being the huge establishment you don't notice the left is separated along the same lines. Some MSNBC news reader isn't interchangeable with Karl Marx but the left being the huge establishment they don't need to interchange...
Whereas if all you think the right has is Rush 1) you're wrong LOL in a post mass media world there's no unified mass media propaganda anymore 2) you're not going to see a diversity of argument styles if you only see one or two dudes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @12:31AM
You linked to a Moldbug essay once, and I read the first several chapters. Perhaps I should finish it before asking this, but does he ever get around to addressing why progressivism is bad beyond some vague fear that will go too far?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @02:54PM
Don't think that is really the problem anymore as the progressives have replaced even the semblance of argument with invective and these bizarre ruminations as to the psychology of their detractors (the yesteryear architects of the Age of Enlightenment are now agents of the right).
The right has their own problems, and only get the stick when pandering their own brand idiocy (note the conservative repugnance towards the rhetoric of Trump).
Nope, what you are look at is honest-to-goodness moderates that after looking askance at the rise of the Religious Right are now doing the same with the Regressive Left.
The sad fact of the matter is that intellectualism is dying, which Buckley and Chris Hedge are flag-bearers.
And even Hedges is critical of the Progressives, but taking his arguments into account also means taking into account the long history of the Liberal Church (which apparently these new-fangled arbiters of truth are completely ignorant of) and understand where even the religious have common-cause with the most cherished notions on the left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @04:34PM
God! How I wish we could have another William F Buckley in this country! That would be such a welcome change from Rush/Beck/Hannity/Coulter et al.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 29 2016, @10:11PM
And perhaps we could improve this particular situation by not excluding conservative viewpoints from the college campus? If for example, we similar excluded an ethnic group or gender from college campuses, should we then be surprised when the group forms a more or less anti-intellectual viewpoint from the "us versus them" effect?