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> There was a liberal monoculture in American universities ~2000-2023. The fact that there are a large number of liberals at universities does not make it a mo

> There was a liberal monoculture in American universities ~2000-2023. The fact that there are a large number of liberals at universities does not make it a monoculture. There is no conspiracy to keep non-liberals out. Your anecdote shows nothing.

ethbr1 1y ago
The affiliations of employees and students (if liberal) isn't what creates a monoculture -- it's the double standard and resulting self-censorship. Too few liberals in academia were willing to say "I disagree with what you say, but support your right to say it" when it was inconvenient. Which isn't in any way to justify the excessive clusterfuck of a reprise by populist conservatives these days. Two wrongs do not make a right, and what's being done today is much worse than the liberal bent of early 21st century US universities.
hnburnsy 1y ago
A Quantitative Study of DEI Statements in American University Job Listings >Job applicants should not be required as a condition of employment to profess their loyalty to partisan statements or beliefs. Yet universities that solicit statements of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion from job applicants do precisely that. ... >We have discovered that 86 out of the 98 American universities we investigated required diversity statements for at least some job positions. https://www.nas.org/reports/ideological-insistence/full-report https://www.nas.org/reports/ideological-insistence/full-repo...
- hackyhacky 1y ago
  A commitment to nondiscrimination is not "partisan", or at least it wasn't until the president made it so. University professors are also required to accommodate students under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If the president finds that wheelchairs are a communist plot, does that make the ADA partisan?
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    Hiring wasn't requiring candidates to make ADA statements, because it was the law. And the command performances of DEI (the implementation) did get a little Kool Aid-y, even if diversity, equity, inclusion (the principles) are individually laudable. But that's most things once they go through the HR washer.
    - hackyhacky 1y ago
      Nondiscrimination is also the law . See Title 6, Title 9 of course the Civil Rights Act
      - colpabar 1y ago
        Do you see how you're doing the "even if that is happening, which it isn't, it's actually a good thing" thing?
        hackyhacky 1y ago
        No, I don't. What is "that" in your telling? Obeying the law?
        ethbr1 1y ago
        Performative statements of allegiance. There are redresses for breaking the law -- the courts.
        hackyhacky 1y ago
        > Performative statements of allegiance. I think you don't know what that word means. The comment I'm addressing claimed that DEI statements are partisan. They weren't, until an ideologue decides to make them so. Performative, maybe. In many jobs, I have to prove that I can be legally hired: is that performative as well?
int_19h 1y ago
A monoculture does not require some kind of conspiracy or even concerted efforts to maintain it. Simple dominance by numbers is sufficient, and that is very much observably the case based on numerous polls of political leanings. FWIW I'm not even saying that it's necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. As far as I'm concerned, a lot of it is due to conservatives increasingly drifting away from major positions that can be sustained through facts and reason (although the same effect also exists on the other side of the aisle, I'd say it's less pronounced overall). But that doesn't matter. OP's point is, if science falls squarely on one side of political spectrum, for any reason, the consequences shouldn't be surprising.

ethbr1 1y ago

The affiliations of employees and students (if liberal) isn't what creates a monoculture -- it's the double standard and resulting self-censorship. Too few liberals in academia were willing to say "I disagree with what you say, but support your right to say it" when it was inconvenient. Which isn't in any way to justify the excessive clusterfuck of a reprise by populist conservatives these days. Two wrongs do not make a right, and what's being done today is much worse than the liberal bent of early 21st century US universities.

hnburnsy 1y ago

A Quantitative Study of DEI Statements in American University Job Listings >Job applicants should not be required as a condition of employment to profess their loyalty to partisan statements or beliefs. Yet universities that solicit statements of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion from job applicants do precisely that. ... >We have discovered that 86 out of the 98 American universities we investigated required diversity statements for at least some job positions. https://www.nas.org/reports/ideological-insistence/full-report https://www.nas.org/reports/ideological-insistence/full-repo...

hackyhacky 1y ago
A commitment to nondiscrimination is not "partisan", or at least it wasn't until the president made it so. University professors are also required to accommodate students under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If the president finds that wheelchairs are a communist plot, does that make the ADA partisan?
- ethbr1 1y ago
  Hiring wasn't requiring candidates to make ADA statements, because it was the law. And the command performances of DEI (the implementation) did get a little Kool Aid-y, even if diversity, equity, inclusion (the principles) are individually laudable. But that's most things once they go through the HR washer.
  - hackyhacky 1y ago
    Nondiscrimination is also the law . See Title 6, Title 9 of course the Civil Rights Act
    - colpabar 1y ago
      Do you see how you're doing the "even if that is happening, which it isn't, it's actually a good thing" thing?
      - hackyhacky 1y ago
        No, I don't. What is "that" in your telling? Obeying the law?
        ethbr1 1y ago
        Performative statements of allegiance. There are redresses for breaking the law -- the courts.
        hackyhacky 1y ago
        > Performative statements of allegiance. I think you don't know what that word means. The comment I'm addressing claimed that DEI statements are partisan. They weren't, until an ideologue decides to make them so. Performative, maybe. In many jobs, I have to prove that I can be legally hired: is that performative as well?

int_19h 1y ago

A monoculture does not require some kind of conspiracy or even concerted efforts to maintain it. Simple dominance by numbers is sufficient, and that is very much observably the case based on numerous polls of political leanings. FWIW I'm not even saying that it's necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. As far as I'm concerned, a lot of it is due to conservatives increasingly drifting away from major positions that can be sustained through facts and reason (although the same effect also exists on the other side of the aisle, I'd say it's less pronounced overall). But that doesn't matter. OP's point is, if science falls squarely on one side of political spectrum, for any reason, the consequences shouldn't be surprising.