As a professor who favors free speech on campus, I can sympathize with the "nuanced" answers given by U. presidents yesterday, about whether calls to attack or wipe out Israel violate campus speech policies. What offends me is that since 2015, universities have been so quick to punish "microaggressions," including statements intended to be kind, if even one person from a favored group took offense. The presidents are now saying: "Jews are not a favored group, so offending or threatening Jews is not so bad. For Jews, it all depends on context." We might call this double standard "institutional anti-semitism." University presidents: If you're not going to punish students for calling for the elimination of Israel and Israelis, it's OK with me, but ONLY if you also immediately dismantle the speech policing apparatus and norms you created in 2015-2016. Please read The Coddling of the American Mind. @glukianoff and I laid out exactly where the oppressor/victim frame came from (ch. 3), how it spread out of a few departments to gain power over administrators and campus culture (chapters 4 and 5), and how it drove the creation of the bureaucratic structures and processes that now have us all teaching and learning on eggshells (ch. 10). In chapter 13 we offer advice to leaders on how to to return universities to their academic mission and regain public trust.
As a professor who favors free speech on campus, I can sympathize with the "nuanced" answers given by U. presidents yesterday, about whether calls to attack or wipe out Israel violate campus speech policies. What offends me is that since 2015, universities have been so quick to punish "microaggressions," including statements intended to be kind, if even one person from a favored group took offense. The presidents are now saying: "Jews are not a favored group, so offending or threatening Jews is not so bad. For Jews, it all depends on context." We might call this double standard "institutional anti-semitism." University presidents: If you're not going to punish students for calling for the elimination of Israel and Israelis, it's OK with me, but ONLY if you also immediately dismantle the speech policing apparatus and norms you created in 2015-2016. Please read The Coddling of the American Mind. @glukianoff and I laid out exactly where the oppressor/victim frame came from (ch. 3), how it spread out of a few departments to gain power over administrators and campus culture (chapters 4 and 5), and how it drove the creation of the bureaucratic structures and processes that now have us all teaching and learning on eggshells (ch. 10). In chapter 13 we offer advice to leaders on how to to return universities to their academic mission and regain public trust.
I offer more analysis of how universities betrayed their "telos" (central purpose) of truth in this lecture I gave at Duke in 2016. I predicted that "the conflict between truth and social justice is likely to become unmanageable." At @HdxAcademy heterodoxacademy.org/blog/one-telos…
I’m a free speech extremist. I think their coddling lead to this. Because it’s not rational. Idk why anyone is surprised tbh. They’ve been supporting genocidal ideologies for years with decolonization and such. But they also have a duty to keep students safe. It’s edging on mob mentality behavior which is scary. I’m shocked people are surprised by this. Guess they haven’t been on a university campus recently
@JonHaidt Except that these people are changing their speech codes to fit their mood. * A conservative visits campus, lets create a safe space. * People calling for the genocide of the Jews, muh free speech.
@JonHaidt @bariweiss Indeed, sir. But common sense among credentialed, schoolies is not trending. The American teaching profession is now an ethical sewer. GLWT
@JonHaidt The wokest of the woke can't recognize extremism when it is screaming in their face
@JonHaidt I don’t appreciate any of their “nuanced” answers. Higher education is supposed to be just that. Not a breeding ground for communism. Why all these intellectual “elites” don’t just leave for communist countries is beyond me. Go. Go live your dream. It would be a nightmare
@JonHaidt They weren't asked about Israel. They were specifically asked about calling for genocide of the Jewish people. If they had been asked if that was ok for Blacks or anyone else, the answer would have been clear. It should have been clear for Jews.
@JonHaidt Woke Leftists: 1) Silence is violence! 2) Misgendering is genocide! 3) Explicitly calling for the literal genocide of Jews is very nuanced and cannot be condemned in general.
@JonHaidt Universities SHOULD punish students for calling for the elimination of Israel and Israelis. That’s not “OK”