4 ms·

"Enforced group-think is going to be the death of these universities." How?

jollybean 5y ago
By expunging, shaming, expelling, disinviting, cancelling, eschewing, not offering positions, denying grants, avoiding publication, demoting those that don't meet the requirements of a radical orthodoxy. Noam Chomsky of all people (!), and a bunch of other staunchly centre-left luminaries had to take out a full page ad in Harper's to make the point. [2] How far would an ugly trend have to exhibit itself in order for these fairly respectable and otherwise mild mannered people to not only 1) notice but 2) act and then 3) make a big show out of it in a worldwide signal? They tried to cancel Stephen Pinker [2] for postulating that the problem of Law Enforcement in the USA is a generally overbearing justice system, not necessarily specific to one race, although conceding that's a problem. For that utterly reasonable statement, they tried to remove his Chair and participation a bunch of groups. He was fine, but 'they came for him' and were he to have been less prominent, 'they' would have won. It's intellectual cowardice and social bullying by angry people. My belief is that it's not even ideological at the end of the day, rather, it's the petty expression of power by those who've never had it before and who were transgressed themselves at some earlier point in their lives. [1] https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/506314-jk-rowling-noam-chomsky-sign-letter-warning-of-restriction-of https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/506314-jk-... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard....
- breckenedge 5y ago
  Here's the actual letter rather than a blog about it: https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/ https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/. Very brief, only three paragraphs.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  The late (devout Christian!) William Stuntz wrote an entire book (in front of me right now) about the overbearing justice system and and never got cancelled for it.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    Pinker's mistake wasn't about 'the justice system' - it was disagreeing with BLM populist orthodoxy. It's revolutionary 'Reign of Terror' stuff around ostracizing the impure (i.e. Trumpers destroying Romneys, Rubios), not academic disagreement.
arminiusreturns 5y ago
Mostly because it is a rejection of first principles thinking, which is a key tool in the toolbelt of critical thinking, supposedly part of any university's mandate.
- metalliqaz 5y ago
  this doesn't explain how the universities will "die" all the other games in town are doing the same thing, and if a new one popped up to replace it, who would they get to run it?

By expunging, shaming, expelling, disinviting, cancelling, eschewing, not offering positions, denying grants, avoiding publication, demoting those that don't meet the requirements of a radical orthodoxy. Noam Chomsky of all people (!), and a bunch of other staunchly centre-left luminaries had to take out a full page ad in Harper's to make the point. [2] How far would an ugly trend have to exhibit itself in order for these fairly respectable and otherwise mild mannered people to not only 1) notice but 2) act and then 3) make a big show out of it in a worldwide signal? They tried to cancel Stephen Pinker [2] for postulating that the problem of Law Enforcement in the USA is a generally overbearing justice system, not necessarily specific to one race, although conceding that's a problem. For that utterly reasonable statement, they tried to remove his Chair and participation a bunch of groups. He was fine, but 'they came for him' and were he to have been less prominent, 'they' would have won. It's intellectual cowardice and social bullying by angry people. My belief is that it's not even ideological at the end of the day, rather, it's the petty expression of power by those who've never had it before and who were transgressed themselves at some earlier point in their lives. [1] https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/506314-jk-rowling-noam-chomsky-sign-letter-warning-of-restriction-of https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/506314-jk-... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard....

breckenedge 5y ago
Here's the actual letter rather than a blog about it: https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/ https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/. Very brief, only three paragraphs.
selimthegrim 5y ago
The late (devout Christian!) William Stuntz wrote an entire book (in front of me right now) about the overbearing justice system and and never got cancelled for it.
- jollybean 5y ago
  Pinker's mistake wasn't about 'the justice system' - it was disagreeing with BLM populist orthodoxy. It's revolutionary 'Reign of Terror' stuff around ostracizing the impure (i.e. Trumpers destroying Romneys, Rubios), not academic disagreement.

arminiusreturns 5y ago

Mostly because it is a rejection of first principles thinking, which is a key tool in the toolbelt of critical thinking, supposedly part of any university's mandate.

metalliqaz 5y ago
this doesn't explain how the universities will "die" all the other games in town are doing the same thing, and if a new one popped up to replace it, who would they get to run it?