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I would like to call this man’s bluff: he was not fired or censured by the university. He found it uncomfy and left. His crusade to publish 20 fake papers to pr

I would like to call this man’s bluff: he was not fired or censured by the university. He found it uncomfy and left. His crusade to publish 20 fake papers to prove a point about what journals will accept shows a pre-existing contempt. His prominent media tour, and subsequent complaints about lack of coverage by ‘liberal media’ continues that provocateur ethos. Let him make his points, but I refuse to believe in the stereotype that ideological homogeneity is some kind of crisis in academia. I’ll pay attention when they start purging the Keynesian economics professors and disallowing Christians from matriculation without denouncing their faith. I’ll fight back when those professors who disagree with Inclusion culture are fired for their beliefs. Until then this feels much like the rest of the conservative persecution tropes and I’m just not biting.

phkahler 5y ago
You've twisted it all up: >> I would like to call this man’s bluff: he was not fired or censured by the university. He found it uncomfy and left. His crusade to publish 20 fake papers to prove a point about what journals will accept shows a pre-existing contempt. That's right, he never claimed he was fired - he quit. He does find it uncomfy and absolutely seems to have contempt for what "education" has become. That's not a bluff - you're trying to call him out on something, but there's nothing to call out. You're claim of what's really going on is pretty much what he said.
jtbayly 5y ago
I know a tenured, well-published economics professor struggling to keep his job for not towing the party line at a major state university.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Which party line is that, exactly? (Economics is rather noted for hostility to heterodoxy, though more typically enforced by right-establishment rather than left-opposition.)
  - anoxor 5y ago
    98% of professors who register a party register democrat. Which party do you think given that data?
    - ahahahahah 5y ago
      What a bullshit madeup statistic: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification-of-college-professors-by-field_tbl1_40823273 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification... And, as the parent implied, it's shifted significantly for economics professors.
      - edbob 5y ago
        The statistic is on the high side of the range, but it is accurate. > When exploring the makeup of Ivy League institutions and universities in New England, results, such as the case with Brown University, were as high as 60:1 in favor of registered Democrats among professors. As chuckee linked a bit down the page: [0] https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberaltoconservative_faculty_ratio_in_academia_will_blow_your_mind.html https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberalto...
        ahahahahah 5y ago
        So the most liberal single university (out of a group picked one of the most liberal regions in the country) matches a statistic that was claimed to be across all universities in the country. I don't know that that's strong evidence that the "statistic [...] is accurate". Even the source you linked indicates that the statistic is far from accurate (and again has the same pattern where for economics professors it's even less).
        edbob 5y ago
        It's not the best use of statistics that I've ever seen by a long shot, but I just wanted to point out that your claim that it was "bullshit madeup" was inaccurate flamebait. He didn't say which subset of universities he saw that statistic for. The group of "most liberal universities in the country" includes what, all of the most wealthy and important ones? It's certainly a reasonable subset to consider. The 98% figure is pretty close here (for the group as a whole, not just one like you claim). You need stronger evidence to attack someone like that, and you don't have it, partially because we don't even know what exactly the scope of the claim was. You could certainly criticize the vagueness of the statement without being toxic.
chuckee 5y ago
> Let him make his points, but I refuse to believe in the stereotype that ideological homogeneity is some kind of crisis in academia. I’ll pay attention when they start purging the Keynesian economics professors and disallowing Christians from matriculation without denouncing their faith. Liberal faculty outnumber conservatives on average 10 to 1, and are openly hostile to them [1]. UC-Berkeley has an official requirement for job candidates to have specific plans on how to increase diversity [2], and won't hire anyone that won't champion diversity. But neither of that is purging Keynesians or making Christians denounce their faith, so you're safe in continuing to not pay attention. [1] https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberaltoconservative_faculty_ratio_in_academia_will_blow_your_mind.html https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberalto... [2] "eight different departments affiliated with the life sciences used a diversity rubric to weed out applicants for positions. This was the first step: In one example, of a pool of 894 candidates was narrowed down to 214 based solely on how convincing their plans to spread diversity were." - https://reason.com/2020/02/03/university-of-california-diversity-initiative-berkeley/ https://reason.com/2020/02/03/university-of-california-diver...
- reilly3000 5y ago
  Okay you’ve piqued my attention.
- itronitron 5y ago
  what is the adage... that once something becomes a performance metric (or something like that) it is no longer useful?
motohagiography 5y ago
I like that I disagree with this. The thing about conservatives is they have an inbuilt notion of individual dignity that often precludes letting it get to the point where they are fired, or more plausibly, set up for some title IX slander campaign and a purge. (Sometimes I think Quillette doesn't publish anything else) The whole progressive ontology is centered on the continuity of a narrative and avoiding personal accountability, so nobody would actually fire him, they would contrive circumstances where they "had no choice," and that like them, he is merely subject to the inevitable forces of history and progress. I can't defend all reactionaries, but there is no doubt that the logic of the idea behind inclusion is predicated on the very victim identity that an education is supposed to liberate students from. It's not intended to improve the lives of people in our respective nations, it's designed to subvert and dissolve our civilization and subordinate it to directed chaos, the same way it did to Cambodia, China, and Russia, among others. These countries did not have rules for denouncing faith before graduation, instead, people were "free" to visit churches that were watched by secret police, and they would be added to a list so that the bureaucracy could get back at them invisibly. Keynesians won't be purged because they are used to justify MMT, and so they are necessary to sustain the current narrative. They can be replaced with party members in the next purge anyway. The mistake I think he made was believing the system he came out of still had any integrity or was rules based. The universities have been converted into a single party system of rule without accountability, and they have diminishingly little to do with education at all. This is what he didn't get, and what everyone tacitly acknowledges, and it appears he thought they still sent memos about when the rules were nullified.
- userbinator 5y ago
  it's designed to subvert and dissolve our civilization and subordinate it to directed chaos I don't know if calling it a foreign-initiated conspiracy theory is going too far, but I'm sure China and friends are laughing at the slow wokeness-driven self-destruction of the West. It's sad to see for sure.

phkahler 5y ago

You've twisted it all up: >> I would like to call this man’s bluff: he was not fired or censured by the university. He found it uncomfy and left. His crusade to publish 20 fake papers to prove a point about what journals will accept shows a pre-existing contempt. That's right, he never claimed he was fired - he quit. He does find it uncomfy and absolutely seems to have contempt for what "education" has become. That's not a bluff - you're trying to call him out on something, but there's nothing to call out. You're claim of what's really going on is pretty much what he said.

jtbayly 5y ago

I know a tenured, well-published economics professor struggling to keep his job for not towing the party line at a major state university.

dredmorbius 5y ago
Which party line is that, exactly? (Economics is rather noted for hostility to heterodoxy, though more typically enforced by right-establishment rather than left-opposition.)
- anoxor 5y ago
  98% of professors who register a party register democrat. Which party do you think given that data?
  - ahahahahah 5y ago
    What a bullshit madeup statistic: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification-of-college-professors-by-field_tbl1_40823273 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification... And, as the parent implied, it's shifted significantly for economics professors.
    - edbob 5y ago
      The statistic is on the high side of the range, but it is accurate. > When exploring the makeup of Ivy League institutions and universities in New England, results, such as the case with Brown University, were as high as 60:1 in favor of registered Democrats among professors. As chuckee linked a bit down the page: [0] https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberaltoconservative_faculty_ratio_in_academia_will_blow_your_mind.html https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberalto...
      - ahahahahah 5y ago
        So the most liberal single university (out of a group picked one of the most liberal regions in the country) matches a statistic that was claimed to be across all universities in the country. I don't know that that's strong evidence that the "statistic [...] is accurate". Even the source you linked indicates that the statistic is far from accurate (and again has the same pattern where for economics professors it's even less).
        edbob 5y ago
        It's not the best use of statistics that I've ever seen by a long shot, but I just wanted to point out that your claim that it was "bullshit madeup" was inaccurate flamebait. He didn't say which subset of universities he saw that statistic for. The group of "most liberal universities in the country" includes what, all of the most wealthy and important ones? It's certainly a reasonable subset to consider. The 98% figure is pretty close here (for the group as a whole, not just one like you claim). You need stronger evidence to attack someone like that, and you don't have it, partially because we don't even know what exactly the scope of the claim was. You could certainly criticize the vagueness of the statement without being toxic.

chuckee 5y ago

> Let him make his points, but I refuse to believe in the stereotype that ideological homogeneity is some kind of crisis in academia. I’ll pay attention when they start purging the Keynesian economics professors and disallowing Christians from matriculation without denouncing their faith. Liberal faculty outnumber conservatives on average 10 to 1, and are openly hostile to them [1]. UC-Berkeley has an official requirement for job candidates to have specific plans on how to increase diversity [2], and won't hire anyone that won't champion diversity. But neither of that is purging Keynesians or making Christians denounce their faith, so you're safe in continuing to not pay attention. [1] https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberaltoconservative_faculty_ratio_in_academia_will_blow_your_mind.html https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/02/study_liberalto... [2] "eight different departments affiliated with the life sciences used a diversity rubric to weed out applicants for positions. This was the first step: In one example, of a pool of 894 candidates was narrowed down to 214 based solely on how convincing their plans to spread diversity were." - https://reason.com/2020/02/03/university-of-california-diversity-initiative-berkeley/ https://reason.com/2020/02/03/university-of-california-diver...

reilly3000 5y ago
Okay you’ve piqued my attention.
itronitron 5y ago
what is the adage... that once something becomes a performance metric (or something like that) it is no longer useful?

motohagiography 5y ago

I like that I disagree with this. The thing about conservatives is they have an inbuilt notion of individual dignity that often precludes letting it get to the point where they are fired, or more plausibly, set up for some title IX slander campaign and a purge. (Sometimes I think Quillette doesn't publish anything else) The whole progressive ontology is centered on the continuity of a narrative and avoiding personal accountability, so nobody would actually fire him, they would contrive circumstances where they "had no choice," and that like them, he is merely subject to the inevitable forces of history and progress. I can't defend all reactionaries, but there is no doubt that the logic of the idea behind inclusion is predicated on the very victim identity that an education is supposed to liberate students from. It's not intended to improve the lives of people in our respective nations, it's designed to subvert and dissolve our civilization and subordinate it to directed chaos, the same way it did to Cambodia, China, and Russia, among others. These countries did not have rules for denouncing faith before graduation, instead, people were "free" to visit churches that were watched by secret police, and they would be added to a list so that the bureaucracy could get back at them invisibly. Keynesians won't be purged because they are used to justify MMT, and so they are necessary to sustain the current narrative. They can be replaced with party members in the next purge anyway. The mistake I think he made was believing the system he came out of still had any integrity or was rules based. The universities have been converted into a single party system of rule without accountability, and they have diminishingly little to do with education at all. This is what he didn't get, and what everyone tacitly acknowledges, and it appears he thought they still sent memos about when the rules were nullified.

userbinator 5y ago
it's designed to subvert and dissolve our civilization and subordinate it to directed chaos I don't know if calling it a foreign-initiated conspiracy theory is going too far, but I'm sure China and friends are laughing at the slow wokeness-driven self-destruction of the West. It's sad to see for sure.