You make a lot of good points, but I don't think academia has ever been THE bastion of free thinking. It has produced free thinkers, and at times it may have be

You make a lot of good points, but I don't think academia has ever been THE bastion of free thinking. It has produced free thinkers, and at times it may have been at variance with the prevalent thought in society at large, but my reading of the history of academia all the way back to the late middle ages is that it very much enforces its own political correctness (which does change over time).