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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: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday August 30 2016, @05:11AM
Someone pointed out that the regressive left, behaving as a religion, is just filling the void left by the decline of Christian culture -- that as humans we're gonna have SOME sort of "guiding principle" and if it's not one, it'll be another.
This remark made me rethink the value of Christianity to Western civilization, and I say that as a nonbeliever.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday August 30 2016, @11:55AM
is just filling the void left by the decline of Christian culture
There's been an ongoing discussion for some years, more so recently, on the "ascending the tower" podcast where a simplification and distillation of modern alt-right thought could be summarized to the American revolution was a continuation of the English civil war between the Puritans and, well, the sane people, and progressiveism, under any name, is a degenerate evolved form of that Puritanism. So its not really a decline in terms of influence or followers but more a degeneration (or evolution) of specifically Puritan beliefs.
Obviously that's a huge simplification, like trying to explain the French Revolution or WW1/2 in one line, you can get some insight but obviously there's a lot going on...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday August 30 2016, @03:41PM
Yeah, that's a reasonable way to look at it. There will always be a subset of people who think if only they could dictate terms for everyone, the world would be perfect. Western civilization has been perhaps unique in generally keeping such types out of power.
I'm reminded that the reason America wound up with the Puritans is because they kept imposing their beliefs on their neighbors and as a result were kicked out of the most tolerant countries of their era.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.