3 ms·

whats the end-game? I dont see it...

UncleMeat 5y ago
As far as I can tell, the endgame is the following: 1. Goad professors into retaliating. 2. File lawsuits alleging said retaliation. 3. Win the lawsuits. 4a. Add ammunition to the culture war where conservatives feel under threat by "elites" and reject higher education. 4b. Force universities to exercise greater administrative control over what material is taught and funded, eliminating topics that are vaguely controversial to conservatives.
- jareklupinski 5y ago
  ...please continue? unless the end-game is "make money", i don't see what the goal of 3 is it seems like 4a and 4b might be tactics than a goal
  - UncleMeat 5y ago
    I'm not a mind reader. I can only explain what I see. But I do see conservatives being mad that certain kinds of topics are taught in universities (climate science, colonialism, gender studies, etc) and would like that to change. I see these steps as an approach to building a justification for state officials to discourage or eliminate these topics from public universities under the guise of enabling free thought among the student body. Step 3 is important because then they get to say that an impartial judge agrees that they are being treated unfairly. Without this, the broader bureaucratic institutions won't be as likely to take their whining seriously. This aligns with other behavior like the 1776 Project or Governor DeSantis floating ideological surveys of college faculty, which clearly exists to influence curricula to match what conservatives deem more valuable.
    - tptacek 5y ago
      Just to dip in here and say that while I totally believe this, the playbook you're talking about is different than the one I'm talking about. I don't know that Boghossian is part of some organized right-wing effort to counter-program campuses (I kind of doubt it). Rather, I think he's in a low-paid, low-status academic job, and there are greener pastures in being a pedigreed culture critic with a "forced out of academia for telling like it is" calling card. Like I said, there are other examples of people very successfully executing that playbook. That's all supposition, though. Ultimately, my complaint about Boghossian is that he's not an honest interlocutor. Why should I trust him about anything? I believe, based on what I've read, that he's colored the truth on other matters of less import than this.
      - UncleMeat 5y ago
        I don't think that Boghossian is a leader in this space, but I do think that this is related. The reason why there is a market for "professor turned pundit after being kicked out by the over-woke universities" is because there is a demand for a narrative of universities (especially the humanities) being intellectually bankrupted in favor of left wing ideology. Boghossian sells that narrative to people who want to believe it.

As far as I can tell, the endgame is the following: 1. Goad professors into retaliating. 2. File lawsuits alleging said retaliation. 3. Win the lawsuits. 4a. Add ammunition to the culture war where conservatives feel under threat by "elites" and reject higher education. 4b. Force universities to exercise greater administrative control over what material is taught and funded, eliminating topics that are vaguely controversial to conservatives.

jareklupinski 5y ago
...please continue? unless the end-game is "make money", i don't see what the goal of 3 is it seems like 4a and 4b might be tactics than a goal
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  I'm not a mind reader. I can only explain what I see. But I do see conservatives being mad that certain kinds of topics are taught in universities (climate science, colonialism, gender studies, etc) and would like that to change. I see these steps as an approach to building a justification for state officials to discourage or eliminate these topics from public universities under the guise of enabling free thought among the student body. Step 3 is important because then they get to say that an impartial judge agrees that they are being treated unfairly. Without this, the broader bureaucratic institutions won't be as likely to take their whining seriously. This aligns with other behavior like the 1776 Project or Governor DeSantis floating ideological surveys of college faculty, which clearly exists to influence curricula to match what conservatives deem more valuable.
  - tptacek 5y ago
    Just to dip in here and say that while I totally believe this, the playbook you're talking about is different than the one I'm talking about. I don't know that Boghossian is part of some organized right-wing effort to counter-program campuses (I kind of doubt it). Rather, I think he's in a low-paid, low-status academic job, and there are greener pastures in being a pedigreed culture critic with a "forced out of academia for telling like it is" calling card. Like I said, there are other examples of people very successfully executing that playbook. That's all supposition, though. Ultimately, my complaint about Boghossian is that he's not an honest interlocutor. Why should I trust him about anything? I believe, based on what I've read, that he's colored the truth on other matters of less import than this.
    - UncleMeat 5y ago
      I don't think that Boghossian is a leader in this space, but I do think that this is related. The reason why there is a market for "professor turned pundit after being kicked out by the over-woke universities" is because there is a demand for a narrative of universities (especially the humanities) being intellectually bankrupted in favor of left wing ideology. Boghossian sells that narrative to people who want to believe it.