Only ONE kind of education allowed

What goes on in university academics trickles down to college students who take their education into future lives and jobs.  And some of those students become teachers who feel a righteous entitlement and maybe even moral imperative to pass on the DEI ideology they have internalized.  Is it too late to stop this train wreck?  Intimidation can be subtle, but we all know how powerful the social pressure to conform is.  How much of this groupthink is going on in our local schools?  

Jonathan Turley, himself a law professor at Georgetown University, tells of the fear and intimidation experienced by anyone who questions the prevailing ideology on college campuses nationwide. 

From Jonathan Turley’s blog:

Berkeley Physicist Resigns After Colleagues Block UChicago Professor from Speaking at Science Event

We recently discussed the cancelling of Dorian Abbot, an associate professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, who was prevented from speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The reason was not the merits of his scientific work but his opposition to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Now, a climate physicist at Berkeley has resigned in protest of his colleagues also blocking Abbot from speaking. Professor  David Romps said in a Twitter thread that he resigned as director of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center rather than participate in such censorship of a fellow academic. With many academics fearful of the backlash over supporting free speech or academic freedom, Romps’ resignation was an increasingly rare profile in courage.

In August, [Dorian] Abbot co-authored a column in Newsweek headlined “The Diversity Problem on Campus.” He and his co-author Ivan Marinovic, an associate professor of accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business, wrote “DEI violates the ethical and legal principle of equal treatment. It entails treating people as members of a group rather than as individuals, repeating the mistake that made possible the atrocities of the 20th century.”

There was a time when such a public declaration would have received widespread, if not universal support from any faculty. There was a time when free speech and academic freedom were the touchstones of higher education. This is not that time.

Academics today work in an atmosphere of intolerance for any opposing or dissenting views on subjects ranging from DEI to police abuse to social justice campaigns. Those who speak out are often targeted by cancel campaigns. The threat is that dissenter will lose everything that academics need to be active intellectuals.