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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, @02:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @02:12PM (#394686)

    If conservative here means US politics of the evangelical Christian Right then it's a totally valid observation.

    It doesn't, though. "Conservative" today means everybody not on the wacko fringe of Communists who support al-Qaeda, those lunatics who control the government, the education system, the mainstream media, and most of the alternative online media so you're not allowed to hear about it. Porn and free love is now "conservative". Protecting gays from Islam is now a "conservative" idea. Science and reason are "conservative" -- asking for evidence is something that only right-wing racist nazis do! Atheism is "conservative" and must be reformed to be subservient to Islam. Rebelling against "The System, Man!" is hella "conservative."

    The right-wing evangelical fringe was spot on in blaming the people responsible for this change: The Frankfurt School, The Muslim Brotherhood, George Soros, and Communist college professors. They all allied together and are eating American society from inside. You don't think it's possible that such a conspiracy could survive contact with adults and now your code isn't good enough for Github unless you submit to whatever new party line the Communist Party made up last month, the Democratic Party is running on the idea of outlawing opposition media, and the United Nations is seriously considering international law to make it illegal to say that Anita Sarkeesian has clearly never played some of the games she pretends to criticize. When right-wingers say that something is a Communist plot, listen! You probably don't know how to identify one.