patrick.net

Not really, says conservative professor, who denounces ideological tyranny as a faux-left, pro-capitalist hybrid of middle-class manners and identity politics.

The reader who sent it is an academic with an enviable position at a prestigious university. Yet he asked in a follow-up email for me not to post the text of what he sent, because he’s afraid it would be too easy to identify him. He did give me permission to paraphrase his argument, which I do below. Keep in mind that this is a prominent academic’s point of view, paraphrased by me. I’ll call him “Professor Jones.”

Jones says the intellectual decline and politicization of American universities is not exaggerated. It has at times forced him to consider abandoning academia, even though he has a plum position compared to many his age. It is also true that it is harder for people on the right — especially social and religious conservatives — to get by than for anyone on the left.

Though Prof. Jones identifies as a conservative, he objects to the idea typically propagated by conservatives: that “leftism” is destroying universities. It’s not that; it’s something else. It’s not a “left” that the 1960s radicals would recognize, he says. In fact, despite the weirdness around “Sex Weeks” at universities, and gender ideology, campuses are actually becoming far more restrained places. In some places, you can’t even teach some of the important left-wing thinkers and artists of the recent past without running the risk that you’ll be reported to the administration for sexually harassing sensitive students, simply for bringing these people up in class and expecting students to engage with their work.

Yes, says Prof. Jones, this is the triumph of a strand of leftism, but not leftism in the historically significant manifestations of left-wing thought, the kind that has made such an important mark on Western civilization.

More: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/conservative-professor-campus-ruin-not-the-left-fault/

NOTE: There is a great comment from another retired professor from a small Midwestern university who talks about the accrediting agencies, such as the North Central Association.

#University #Left #Right #FalseNarratives